Tobacco company R. J. Reynolds provided 99.8 percent of the funding for a campaign to amend Ohio's constitution and insert a weak antismoking law, the Dayton Daily News reported Oct. 30.

The newspaper reported that Reynolds provided $5.418 million of the $5.429 million budget for the campaign for Issue 4, which is competing for voters' attention with Issue 5, a tougher public-smoking measure endorsed by the state's leading healthcare organizations.

"R.J. Reynolds has never been concerned about public health or reducing cancer rates," said Tracy Sabetta, spokeswoman for Issue 5. "R.J. Reynolds is only concerned with protecting their bottom line. Ohio voters should not allow R.J. Reynolds to spend millions of dollars buying a page in our state's constitution."

The Issue 5 campaign has a $1.8 million budget, $1.56 million of which came form the American Cancer Society. 

Editor's note
Visit www.SmokeFreeOhio.org to learn more and get involved in the Issue 5 campaign.