In addition, governments filing health care cost recovery suits like those filed by state attorneys general leading up to the Master Settlement Agreement. Philip Morris the only US tobacco company with a large overseas presence reports that the number of suits filed against it by non-US entities has nearly tripled over the last two years, totaling nearly 100. Shareholder Campaigns Tobacco-related resolutions are coming to votes for the twelfth consecutive year in 2001. Thirteen resolutions have been filed, compared with 18 filed last year and 28 filed in 1999. Tobacco proposals have been on a downward trend since the 1996 proxy season, when 49 proposals were filed.
Shareholder resolutions fall into a few broad categories.
Calvert s Policy Calvert avoids investing in any company that manufactures or distributes tobacco and tobacco-related products. Calvert s fund choices explicitly exclude tobacco companies. We believe that the direct and indirect costs of tobacco use are indefensible. Calvert compiles this data based on information available from Bloomberg News TM , Bloomberg Financial Markets TM and general company information. Although the data are gathered from reliable sources, accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed.