The American Legacy Foundation concentrates on tobacco prevention and cessation because smoking is the largest preventable cause of death in America.  Every year in the U.S., more people die from smoking than from car accidents, using illegal drugs, murder, and AIDS combined.  Tobacco is the only legal product that, when used properly, kills.  But in spite of that fact, cigarettes – considered neither food nor drug by our government – remain largely unregulated. Tobacco companies are not required by law to list the ingredients they add to cigarettes – or to let the public know that if you add up what each manufacturer does, there are 599 additives in all.  They are not required to say why they add things like ammonia to cigarettes.  They are not required to tell us that “light” cigarettes are as dangerous – or more deadly - as regular ones.

The foundation was established in 1999 as a result of the Master Settlement Agreement between 46 states and five U.S. territories and the tobacco industry. A national, independent public health foundation located in Washington, D.C., Legacy develops programs that address the health effects of tobacco use through grants, technical training and assistance, youth activism, strategic partnerships, counter-marketing and grass roots marketing campaigns, public relations, research, and community outreach to populations disproportionately affected by the toll of tobacco.