Experts in the field of tobacco legislation and public health will gather at the SIU School of Law Monday to provide different viewpoints on the proposed $368-billion tobacco settlement, which is under fire by the public health community.

After 30 years of private litigation and public indignation, the tobacco companies have agreed to a cease fire, said Donald Garner, a professor at the SIU School of Law and expert on tobacco legislation. But it remains to be seen if Congress will endorse the settlement worked out behind closed doors in Washington.

Under the new settlement, Attorney General Medicaid lawsuits and large, class action suits will be paid off by the tobacco companies in exchange for immunity from further class actions and punitive damages on prior conduct.

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Speakers for the 1997 Dr. Arthur Grayson Memorial Symposium include Minnesota Attorney General Hubert Skip Humphrey III; Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan; Ron Davis, former head of the Centers for Disease Control Office on Smoking and Health; John Slade of John Hopkins University, who led the fight for FDA regulation of tobacco; Robert A. Levy, a constitutional scholar at the Cato Institute and Garner, who will serve as moderator for the event.

Garner made national headlines in 1977 when he proposed that states should seek compensation from tobacco companies for smoking-related health-care costs. Florida put Garner’s ideas into practice with the 1994 Medicaid Third Party Recovery Act.

In August, Garner received a $97,324 grant from the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, allowing him to write friend of the court briefs in federal appellate court cases involving tobacco and alcohol regulations.

At Monday’s symposium, the panel will discuss new tobacco legislation. In a release from the Office of the Press Secretary, President Bill Clinton said he hopes to cover five key elements with the new national tobacco legislation:Reducing youth smoking by increasing the price of cigarettes;

Giving the FDA full authority to regulate tobacco products;

Holding the tobacco companies accountable for any efforts to market products, while insisting on changes in the way it does business;

Meet other health goals including the reduction of secondhand smoke, the expansion of smoking prevention and cessation programs, strengthening of international efforts to control tobacco and the provision of funds for medical research;

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Protect tobacco farmers and their communities from any loss of income.

The symposium honors the late Arthur Grayson, who was a general surgeon in Los Angeles until his death in 1990. Leo Garwin and his late wife, Ruth Garwin, established the lecture with a gift from the Garwin Family Foundation.

The organizers of the event want to acknowledge the generous support of the Garwin Foundation, Garner said, and we believe that this conference will add considerably to the public debate of this interesting question of public policy.

Factoid:The symposium will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday in the Law School Auditorium.

The event is free and open to the public.

A public reception will be at 5:30 p.m. Sunday in the Law School formal lounge in the Lesar Law Building with Paul Simon, director of the SIUC Public Policy Institute and former U.S. Senator.