200 demonstrate at shareholders meeting

By Minauti Davè, Daily Record

EAST HANOVER -- Ashley Hu is worried that cigarette makers are targeting her little brother.

"My grandfather died of lung cancer and he smoked for 40 years," said the 17-year-old Hu, of San Francisco.

"My father is also a smoker. I also have a younger brother and I feel like he's being targeted."

Hu was among the roughly 200 anti-tobacco protesters on River Road on Thursday in front of the headquarters of Kraft Foods, where Altria was holding its annual meeting.

Kraft is a spin-off of Altria, which makes Marlboro, Virginia Slims, Parliament and other cigarette brands, but the company retains an 84.5 percent stake in the food company. The annual meeting was held here for the first time.

The protesters included youth groups against smoking, nurses against smoking and the American Cancer Society. They started picketing at around 7 a.m. at two company entrances where shareholders were entering the building. They took a two-hour break but returned at 11 a.m. to catch shareholders on their way out of the building.

Altria had given the protesters permission to picket on its property and tried to accommodate them the best it could, said Mike Pfeil, the company's spokesman.

"I think it's an opportunity for us to listen to others who have perspective and to discuss areas of mutual agreement and try to make progress on some of the issues," Pfeil said.

"Philip Morris USA is the only tobacco company that is actively supporting Congress and giving the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority to broadly regulate the tobacco industry," Pfeil added.

He said the company has made "tremendous strides" to communicate the health effects of its products through its Web site, cigarette packages and television advertisements.

However, Hu said, Philip Morris and other tobacco companies have increased their presence globally. Hu immigrated to the United States from Shanghai, China about seven years ago. She said tobacco companies have been advertising cigarettes through magazines and billboards all over China.

"What really makes me mad is in (Altria's) 2003 annual report, they said their No. 1 target is China," Hu said.

Tobacco companies target developing nations such as China because they are under-resourced and have government regulations that are easily bypassed, Hu said.

Among the protesters were two teenagers from the Youth to Youth anti-tobacco group based in Dover, N.H. who wore red and white cigarette boxes with a warning on the side of the box: "Surgeon General: This product kills over one in three users and causes many serious illnesses."

"Tobacco and drugs are getting really bad, and as a group we have to stand up and say we don't want it and we won't take it," said 14-year-old Drew Willis, who was wearing a cigarette box costume.

East Hanover residents within earshot disagreed sharply on how effective the protesters were.

"It's cute, I like it," said Lisa DeFrance, whose two young daughters reveled in the break from the routine. "I think it's great that they are out there being involved and having an influence on other kids not to smoke."

A block and a half away, Marie Corvelli's patience had worn thin by noon as she worried that the ongoing chants and horn-honking by sympathizers driving by would wake up her baby. "An hour would have been fine, but this has been going on for four hours now," she said.

Neither was she sympathetic to their message.

"What's the point of all this?" she said. "It's OK to protest, but do something good, too. Think of all the good products that come from Kraft."

Across the street, Lucy Quatrella had not heard anything but noticed the unusual number of parked cars, making it difficult to negotiate her driveway. A non-smoker, Quatrella said, "This is America. If you want to smoke, you should be able to smoke."

Many of the protesters were from Reality Check, a group based in New York. Shawn Carney, 18, of Phelps, N.Y., said his organization is not anti-smoking but is anti-tobacco companies.

"Our message is to stop big tobacco companies' manipulation against teens," Carney said.

The Reality Check demonstrators included people from foreign countries who oppose tobacco companies' advertising to youths in their countries.

"In the Ukraine, there is no ban on (tobacco) advertising," said 16-year-old Darya Semyonova, who flew in to take part in the protest in hopes that she can use the experience for protests in Ukraine. "Cigarettes are distributed mostly to teenagers," she added.

About a dozen staff members and volunteers for the American Cancer Society also came out to protest.

"Today's demonstration is really a wake-up call to tobacco industries that organizations like the American Cancer Society are going to fight them tooth and nail," said spokesman Lernard Freeman.

Even if a person doesn't smoke, Freeman said taxpayers should consider the amount of money they must pay for state-funded health care to treat people with smoking-related diseases.

Another group that attended the protest was the NIGHTINGALES: Nurses in Groups Highlighting Tobacco Industry, Nastiness, Greed and Lies to End Suffering.

Nurse Heather Horgan of San Francisco said that just last weekend she witnessed a person die of lung disease and cared for two more people who are dying of lung cancer.

"We're here bearing witnesses to the suffering that tobacco causes to our patients," Horgan said.