Letter to Dough McMillon, President and Chief Executive Officer, Walmart - Remove Tobacco Products from Stores

Letter

Doug McMillon
President and Chief Executive Officer
Walmart
702 SW 8th Street
Bentonville, AR 72716-8611

Dear Mr. McMillon,

We write to urge Walmart, as the number one retailer of cigarettes in the country, to stop selling tobacco products in all of its stores. As you know, earlier this month CVS Caremark announced that it will cease the sale of tobacco products in all 7,600 of its stores. Since then, we've urged other chain drug stores to follow CVS Caremark's bold and admirable lead. We recognize the legality of selling and profiting from tobacco products; however, Walmart's position as the nation's largest retailer of any kind puts your company in a unique position to contribute to the health and well-being of all Americans.

We understand that -- as your predecessor Lee Scott put it -- "there are still a tremendous number of [Walmart] customers who smoke." However, we are also well aware that three quarters of adult smokers want to quit. In fact, 85 percent of smokers say they have tried to quit at least once. By eliminating tobacco sales in your stores and further promoting cessation products, you can do an extraordinary service for the 100,000,000 customers that shop in your U.S. stores every week and send a critical message to all Americans -- and especially children -- about the dangers of tobacco use.

CVS Caremark's historic announcement came on the heels of the 50th anniversary of the first Surgeon General's report on smoking and health, and new revelations in the latest Surgeon General's report that smoking is even more hazardous and takes an even greater toll on the nation's health than previously known. Smoking kills 480,000 Americans annually, sickens millions more, and costs the nation more than $289 billion every year. The impact of tobacco on our nation's children is impossible to ignore -- 90 percent of adult smokers began at or before age 18, and 5.6 million kids alive today will die prematurely from smoking-caused disease unless current trends are reversed. These findings highlight the critical need for all sectors of our community to play a role in ending the unnecessary disease and death that results from tobacco use.

Continued efforts within the private sector will complement federal efforts to save lives and reduce health care costs. Government-led efforts such as tobacco taxes, implementation of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, smoking cessation therapies provided with no out-of-pocket expenses under the Affordable Care Act, and public awareness campaigns like CDC's "Tips from a Former Smoker" and FDA's new "The Real Cost" campaign are valuable tools in our public health arsenal. However, we believe private industry has an important role to play in tobacco control and prevention efforts.

In recognition of the 8.6 million Americans who currently suffer from smoking-caused illnesses, we hope you will join this national effort to end the scourge of tobacco use. We look forward to working with you in a joint effort to promote the health of all Americans.