The Cigarette Papers

In May 1994, a box containing 4,000 pages of internal tobacco industry documents arrived at the office of Professor Stanton Glantz at the University of California, San Francisco. The anonymous source of these "cigarette papers" was identified in the return address only as "Mr. Butts" - presumably a reference to the Doonesbury cartoon character. These documents provide a shocking inside account of the activities of one tobacco company over more than thirty years. Cigarette Papers shows that the tobacco industry's conduct has been more cynical and devious than even its harshest critics have suspected. For more than three decades, the industry has internally acknowledged that smoking is addictive and that use of tobacco products causes disease and death. Despite this acknowledgment, based on the industry's own internal and contract research, the industry has engaged in a variety of tactics to deny its own findings and to convince the public that there is still doubt about the harmful effects of tobacco or that the effects have been exaggerated. These campaigns of disinformation have been designed to maintain company profits, to block government regulation, and to defeat lawsuits filed by individuals with tobacco-caused illnesses. The Cigarette Papers quotes extensively from the documents themselves while analyzing what they reveal. The book gives us a sense of what the tobacco industry says when it thinks no one is listening. Written by experts with the scientific and legal knowledge to understand the meaning of the documents and explain their importance, Cigarette Papers will forever alter our perspective of tobacco industry tactics. It will have an enormous impact on public health debates about tobacco and will greatly influence legislation regarding its use.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations Foreword by C. Everett Koop Preface I. Looking through a Keyhole at the Tobacco Industry Introduction B&W's and BAT's Corporate Structure History of the B&W Documents Limitations of the Evidence Conclusion References 2. Smoking and Disease: The Tobacco Industry's Earliest Responses Introduction Filter Cigarettes and the "Tar Derby" Early Advertising Claims B&W's Internal Research Program The Council for Tobacco Research Industry Reaction to the 1964 Surgeon General's Report Reactions by BAT and B&W Conclusion References 3· Addiction and Cigarettes as Nicotine Delivery Devices Introduction Southampton Research Conference, 1962 Battelle's Nicotine Research Program BAT's Internal Research on Nicotine Views of Nicotine in 1984 The Search for Nicotine Analogues The Industry's Public Statements on Nicotine Conclusion References 4· The Search for a "Safe" Cigarette Introduction "ZEPHYR" and Its Causes, 1957 Southampton Research Conference, I962 Industry-Wide Research in the UK, 1965 Report on Southampton Research, 1967 Montreal Research Conference, I967 Hilton Head Research Conference, I968 Kronberg Research Conference, 1969 Biological Testing Committee Discussions, 1970 Health versus Public Relations, I970-1982 BAT's Research Projects, 196os-198os US "Smoking and Health" Projects Tobacco Substitutes Abandoning the Search Conclusion References 5· Public Relations in the "Safe" Cigarette Era Introduction Getting Out the "Facts" Selling Doubt Resisting Government Regulation: Advertising Campaigns Keeping Track of Science and Scientists Conclusion References 6. Agricultural Chemicals and Cigarette Additives Introduction Agricultural Chemicals Additives Disclosure of Additives Conclusion References 7· Legal Concerns Facing the Industry Introduction Protecting Documents from Discovery and Admission as Evidence Specific Strategies to Avoid Discovery Rising Fear of Government Regulation Products Liability Concerns B&W Participation in BAT Research Antitrust Concerns Conclusion References 8. Lawyer Management of Scientific Research Introduction Projects Run by Lawyers: An Overview CTR Special Projects Law Firm Accounts University Special Projects Involvement of Lawyers in Research Design Smokeless Tobacco Council The Kentucky Tobacco and Health Research Institute Use of Research from Special Projects Conclusion References 9· Stonewalling: Politics and Public Relations Introduction Influence of Attorneys over Public Relations Swaying Public Opinion Advertising Using Modern Marketing Techniques to Sell Cigarettes Conclusion References 10. Environmental Tobacco Smoke and the Nonsmokers' Rights Movement Introduction Early Recognition of the Passive Smoking Issue Research and Product Development Response to the ETS Issue Public Attacks and Private Acceptance of ETS Research State and Local Efforts to Regulate Public Smoking Conclusion References Contents II. Where Do We Go from Here? References Statements by Brown and Williamson List of Available Documents About the Authors Document Index Name Index Subject Index

About the Author :
Stanton A. Glantz, Ph.D., Lisa A. Bero, Ph.D., Peter Hanauer, LL.B., and Deborah E. Barnes, B.A., are affiliated with the Institute for Health Policy Studies, the Department of Medicine, and the Division of Clinical Pharmacy at the University of California, San Francisco. John Slade, M.D., is with the Department of Medicine at St. Peter's Medical Center and the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Review :
"A compendium and interpretation of several thousand pages of internal Brown and Williamson documents, congressional reports, and private papers. . . . "The Cigarette Papers should appeal to a wide audience, including physicians, public health workers, scientists, lawyers, policy makers, and the general public."--Mary Ann Pentz, "New England Journal of Medicine