Friday, November 18,1983/The Battalion/Page 9
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wer,
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ter,
rogram agreed upon
o handle GM ‘lemons’
Center [|
United Press International
WASHINGTON — The Ped
al Trade Commission aban-
oned a court battle against
eneral Motors Thursday, and
tiled for a nationwide arbitra-
|on program to deal with the
Uusands of consumer com-
Jaints against GM. Most of the
mplaints concern faulty en-
nes and transmissions.
As a condition of the settle-
icnt, the FTC will drop its 1981
wsuit against the auto-maker,
stead, special panels will be
tablished to mediate customer
Iripes on a case-by-case basis
d to award money to owners
“lemons.”
The FTC’s decision to give up
ie case came over the objec-
Jons of 30 state attorney gener
is and the Center for Auto Safe-
1, founded by consumer advo-
te Ralph Nader.
The FTC estimated more
an 10 percent of the 21 million
fsproduced by GM since 1974
lill be involved in settlements.
causef|^ n av erage of $500 is expected
true,1 J® be granted to each consumer
I who was represented by the suit,
U S US( |FTC officials said. GM’s total
im
egdf;
bill, which will be divided up be
tween 210,000 GM car owners,
will be in excess of $95 million.
Consumers will be at an un
fair disadvantage when the
panels begin hearing the cases,
the opponents of the settlement
said.
“It will be like sending a team
of Chinese, who have never seen
or studied or played the game of
football, into a contest with the
Dallas Cowboys,” FTC Commis
sioner Michael Pertschuk, who
cast a dissenting vote, quoted
one disgruntled lawyer as
writing.
FTC Commissioner Patricia
Bailey said the settlement is not
perfect, but it represents an im
mediate, fair way to compensate
the GM owners represented by
the commission’s suit.
Letters received by the FTC
since the commission asked the
public to write in comments on
the proposed agreement have
opposed the program by over a
5-1 margin. Public opinion was
solicited after the agreement
was proposed in April.
But GM Vice President James
Vorhes said the agreement was a
ified
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THE MAN WHO
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much better deal than pro
longed litigation could have ever
achieved for owners of the GM
vehicles involved.
The agreement covers pre
sent and former owners of GM
products equipped with THM-
200 transmissions, premature
camshaft wear on 305- and 350-
cubic-inch gasoline engines and
350-CID diesel engines with
problems dealing with fuel-
injection.
It was believed to be the first
time the FTC has turned to case-
by-case arbitration instead of
direct relief for alleged defects.
The arbitration panels’ deci
sions will be binding on GM but
not on individual consumers
who can take their individual
complaints to court.
GM said it will send letters of
notification to the thousands of
people who have filed com
plaints about engines and trans
missions. GM officials said they
will advertise the program and
will create a national toll-free
telephone number for consum
ers to call.
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Surgeon
General C. Everett Koop
warned 170,000 American
cigarette smokers in a harsh
statement Thursday they will
die this year from heart disease
caused by their habit.
Eventually, heart disease
caused by cigarette smoking
could kill 10 percent of the cur
rent population, or about 24
million people, Koop said.
“What we are saying in this
report, I think, is being said in
stronger terms than we have
ever said it before, and that is
that cigarette smoking is really a
significant cause of coronary
heart disease in the United
States,” Koop said.
The release of the 378-page
report coincided with the
seventh annual Great American
Smokeout, during which mil
lions of smokers tried to quit
smoking for at least one day.
“The report that we’re sub
mitting should provide a very
strong incentive for everyone to
respond to that today — and to
the request not to smoke,” said
Edward Brandt, assistant secret
ary of health and human ser
vices.
Koop said research has link
ed cigarette smoking to about
170,000 heart disease deaths
each year, or nearly one-third
the total number of annual
deaths due to heart disease.
Besides the link between
cigarette smoking and heart dis
ease — a category that includes
heart attacks and other forms of
heart failure — the report also
said smoking is a cause of strokes
and hardening of the arteries.
The Tobacco Institute dis
puted the report’s findings,
saying the evidence is inconclu
sive.
“Whether cigarette smoking
is causally related to heart dis
ease is not scientifically estab
lished,” the institute said.
Koop’s report was issued 19
years after the first surgeon gen
eral’s report linking smoking
and cancer, and four years after
a report citing ties between
smoking and heart disease.
The report singled out
cigarette smoking, noting that
research shows pipe and cigar
smokers “do not appear to ex
perience substantially greater
risks than non-smokers.”
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