Authors: Richard Kluger
II Panzer’s May 1972 memo to Kornegay was plaintiff’s exhibit 1105 in
Cipollone
, Ramm’s November 1970 memo to the CTR was exhibit 511, and Spears’s June 1974 memo to Judge was exhibit 939 of RJR’s “mouse house” was detailed in the September 26, 1992, Greensboro (N.C.)
News & Record
by Justin Catanoso and Taft Wireback. Kloepfer’s intramural memo of September 7, 1971, to Kornegay saying that AMA’s executive director Howard felt that the link with the tobacco industry was a great liability but politically expedient was plaintiff’s exhibit 1327 in
Cipollone
. Alexander Spears, whose testimony at the trial unpersuasively tried to contradict his June 1974 memo faulting the industry’s overall research program as evasive of the main health problem
(Cipollone
exhibit 939), was serving as president and chief operating officer of Lorillard as this book was being completed. Zahn’s memo on how he torpedoed Homburger’s press conference was
Cipollone
exhibit 1205A.
V Whiteside’s exchange with the FDA is dealt with in his
Selling Death
, pp. 123–35.
VI Wynder’s dismissal of ETS as a health risk because the toxic dosage was too small is quoted in the TPs April 1978 “Special Report: Smoking and the Public.”
Chapter 12 : Let There Be Light
On PM’s 1970s performance, discussed in latter parts of chapter, see, for example,
Forbes for
November 1, 1971, March 1, 1974, and May 15, 1976; the cover story in
BW for
January 27, 1973, and “Philip Morris: The Hot Hand in Cigarettes” in
BW for
December 6, 1976;
Financial World
for March 15, 19J6, and March 15, 1977, celebrating Cullman as the top corporate executive for the preceding two years; and the December 17, 1975,
NYT
heralding the debut of Merit.
Chapter 13 : Breeding a One-Fanged Rattler
I Dobson’s concession is on p. 279 of Corina’s
Trust in Tobacco
. Wakeham’s defense of the tranquilizing power of cigarettes was in the December 30, 1971, Richmond
News Leader
.
II On William Dunn’s writings, his intramural memo on the St. Martin conference of 1972 portraying cigarettes as essentially a nicotine-delivery system was plaintiff’s exhibit 5171 in
Cipollone
. His comment on compensation, whereby smokers may increase the number of lower-yielding cigarettes they smoke to maintain stable intake, is on p. 26 of his November 20, 1987, deposition in
Cipollone
. See as well his introduction and other contributions to
Smoking Behavior
, a 1973 volume he edited drawing on the participants in the St. Martin conference, including Stanley Schachter’s essay on “Nesbitt’s Paradox,” a plausible speculation about how cigarettes may serve as both stimulant and sedative (see section
iii
of this chapter).
VI For the prevailing sentiment about “less hazardous” cigarettes, including the views of Gori and Wynder, see the proceedings of the second World Conference on Tobacco and
Health in London in 1971 as reported in the June 1972
JNCI
. Gori’s remarks that an “incremental improvement could be made now” in cigarette smoke to reduce dramatically the health risks of smoking moderately were reported in the April 19, 1974,
Cancer Newsletter
. Contrast Gori’s article in the December 17, 1976,
Science
with the one in the December 1976
Environmental Research
by Hammond, Garfinkel,
et al.
VII Auerbach’s clinical findings about smoking and heart disease and his conjecture that the carbon monoxide and nicotine in cigarette smoke work together to promote atherosclerosis ran in the December 1976
Chest
. Bourne’s defense of his conduct is quoted on p. 213 of Taylor’s
The Smoke Ring
. For Califano’s account of these events, see pp. 182–97 of his
Governing America
.
IX Zerner’s “Graphic Propositions” appeared in the November 1986
Tobacco Products Litigation Reporter
. Wakeham’s remarks at the February 17, 1971, seminar on how well smokers were informed about the risks they were taking are in
Cipollone
plaintiff’s exhibit 330. For its consulting firm’s advice to Brown & Williamson on appealing to youth, see pp. 179–81 of Taylor’s
The Smoke Ring
.
Chapter 14 : The Heights of Arrogance
I On Gori’s overstated claim for “safer” cigarettes and the resulting shutdown of the NCI program, see in particular the Washington
Post
for January 13 and August 10, 11, 14 and 15 (op-ed-page article by Daniel Greenberg), 1978; the August 28, 1978,
BW;
and the September 1, 1978,
Science
.
II On the fight over the Barclay, see “The $150 Million Cigarette” in the November 17, 1980,
Fortune; BW for
July 12, 1981; the January 1983
Consumer Reports;
and
F.T.C. v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp
. (580 F. Supp. 981, 984 D.D.C. 1983).
III James Mold told the sad story of Liggett’s palladium cigarette when he was deposed for
Cipollone
at the Durham County (North Carolina) courthouse on January 11, 1988; the videotape of his testimony was played at the trial on February 11, 1988. Mold retold it before the House subcommittee on hazardous materials on June 8, 1988; Liggett’s Kinsley Dey gave the company’s version on that date. For a detailed account, see the Greensboro (N.C.)
News & Record
for September 27, 1992. The
NYT and
most other papers essentially ignored this story when it was disclosed during the
Cipollone
proceedings yet gave lavish space to Brown & Williamson’s less intensive effort to make a “safer” cigarette in this same time frame, probably because the
Times
felt it had an exclusive in the latter instance.
V The
Tobacco Observer’s
derogatory characterization of the antismoking activists is cited in Troyer and Markle’s
Cigarettes
on p. 104.
VI Taylor gives his version of the “Death in the West” saga on pp. 53–64 of his
The Smoke Ring
. Justice Ackner of Britain’s High Court of Justice, Queen’s Bench Division, issued his muzzle order in
Philip Morris v. Thames Television Ltd
. on June 1, 1977.
VIII Heimann’s claim of good citizenship by the tobacco industry and defense of the CTR appeared in the December 22, 1977,
Tobacco Journal
. The discussion of how the tobacco industry lawyers and scientists worked together on “special projects” is drawn largely from Judge Sarokin’s pretrial motion ruling of February 6, 1991, in
Haines v. Liggett Group
in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey—the opinion that got him removed from the tobacco cases. One may argue with a number of his procedural rulings in the tobacco cases,
but Sarokin’s consistent actions in ventilating for public inspection documents revelatory of the companies’ hypocritical, if not fraudulent, behavior were uniquely valuable for the writing of this book. Seltzer’s comment about the collective grants he had received from the tobacco industry appeared in the February 11, 1993,
WSJ
. The article he co-authored, “Characteristics Predictive of Coronary Heart Disease in Ex-Smokers Before They Stopped Smoking: Comparison with Persistent Smokers and Nonsmokers,” ran in the
Journal of Chronic Diseases
, vol. 32 (1979): pp. 175–90. Kannel’s assessment of Seltzer was made in an April 23, 1993, letter to the author. Seltzer declined to be interviewed for this book.
IX Weissman’s remarks to the effect that he believed science was on the industry’s side appeared in the July 17, 1984,
Tobacco & Candy Journal
. Seligman’s recommendations were found in Sarokin’s ruling in
Haines
(cited above in notes on section
VIII
of this chapter).
Chapter 15 : The Calling of Philip Morris
II The breakthrough Repace-Lowrey article appeared in
Science
, vol. 208, no. 464 (1980). Their quantitative analysis of nonsmokers’ lung cancer risk from ETS ran in
Environment International
, vol. 11 (1985): pp. 3–22. The editorial favorably noting their work was in the
American Review of Respiratory Diseases
, vol. 133 (1986): pp. 1–3.
III Hirayama’s article, “Non-Smoking Wives of Heavy Smokers Have a Higher Risk of Lung Cancer: A Study from Japan,” was in the January 17, 1981,
British Medical Journal
. The White-Froeb study, “Small-Airways Dysfunction in Nonsmokers Chronically Exposed to Tobacco Smoke,” was in the March 27, 1980,
NEJM
. Jane Brody’s article on the National Research Council’s report on ETS appeared in the November 15, 1986, NIT. Finch’s “Creative Statistics” was a chapter in
Health, Lifestyle and Environment: Countering the Panic
, a 1991 publication of the Manhattan Institute. The passage quoted from Koop’s introduction to the 1986 Surgeon General’s report is on p. x of the front matter.
VI Long’s candid comments about the trade-loading practice were in “The $600 Million Cigarette Scam” in the December 4, 1989,
Fortune
.
VIII On PM’s struggles in the soda and beer businesses in the early ’Eighties, see
BW
for February 15, 1982, and June 11, 1983;
Fortune
for May 1982;
Forbes
for June 6, 1983, and January 16, 1984; and the
WSJ
for June 30, 1982.
Chapter 16 : Of Dragonslayers and Pond Scum
III Chapter 2 of Pertschuk’s
Giant Killers
is an engaging retelling of the struggle to pass the 1984 cigarette labeling law.
VIII For an extended discussion of the
Marsee
case, see chapter 5 of White’s
Merchants of Death
, a strong antismoking treatise; and “The Artful Dodgers” by Morton Mintz in the October 1986
Washington Monthly
.
X For background on the AMA’s position on lobbying, see Frank D. Campion’s
The AMA and Health Policy Since 1940
(Chicago Review Press, 1984).
XI On the “Mister Fit” study, see the September 24, 1982,
JAMA
for a report by the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial Research Group. On PM’s and other companies’ payments for product exposures in movies, see the NIT for July 13, 1989; the American Council on Science and Health’s
News & Views
for January 1984; STAT’s
Tobacco Youth
Reporter
for Autumn 1988; Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights’
Update
for Spring 1990; and
Tobacco on Trial
for April 30, 1992. On Victor DeNoble’s research into the addictive nature of nicotine while a PM scientist, see Congressman Waxman’s March 31, 1994, statement and accompanying documents he issued as chairman of the House subcommittee on health; the April 29, 1994,
NYT;
and the April 29 and May 16, 1994,
WSJ
. On PM’s Project Hamlet, company documents dating back to 1981 identify the challenge of the undertaking as: “How to decrease the transfer of heat generated by the smouldering cigarette to a substrate.” Typical of the interoffice memos on the subject are those from B. L. Goodman to R. K. Greene dealing with “Methodology for Project Hamlet; Mock-up Rate Procedure” (January 18, 1984) and “Project Hamlet; The Effect of Wrapper Perforation” (September 30, 1986). Public-health investigators were sent copies of the PM “Hamlet” file by company insiders. See also “Cigarette Ignition Behavior of Commercial Upholstery Cover Fabrics” by G. H. Damant
et al
. in the March 1982
Journal of Consumer Product Flammability
, pp. 31–34.
Chapter 17 : Chow Lines
IV The best source on the RJR takeover of Nabisco, Ross Johnson, and the leveraged buyout is, of course,
Barbarians at the Gate
, a spirited and informed piece of storytelling, although questions remain about the authors’ re-creation of quoted conversations between principal figures in these events—which make up a significant proportion of the contents—since they neither were present nor had access to transcripts of the exchanges. On the Nabisco deal, see also the June 3, 1985,
WSJ
and the June 17, 1985,
BW
. On RJR’s experimental “smokeless” Spa brand and the Premier, dealt with in more detail in section
vi
, see the
NYT for
September 14, 15, 18, and 27 (editorial), 1987, August 30, September 8 and 10 (editorial), and October 9, 1988, and March 1, 1989; the
WSJ
for September 18, 1987, March 2, April 12, August 16 and 30, September 8, October 21, and December 5 and 12, 1988; and in particular March 10, 1989;
Time
for September 28, 1987;
BW
for October 10, 1988, and
U.S. News & World Report
for September 28, 1987, and October 3, 1988.
V On PM’s takeover of General Foods, see
Fortune
for January 10, 1983;
Forbes
for May 20, 1985; the
WSJ
for September 25, 1985; the
NYT for
September 30 and October 1, 1985;
BW for
October 14, 1985; and
Time
for October 7, 1985.
VII On the RJR buyout by KKR, see in particular
BW
for May 23, 1988;
Fortune
for July 18, 1988; the
NYT for
October 30 and December 2 and 5, 1988;
Time
for December 5, 1988;
Newsweek
for December 12, 1988; and
Manhattan, Inc
. for December 1988.
Barbarians at the Gate
is the definitive account, so the episode is merely sketched here.
VIII On the PM takeover of Kraft, see in particular the
NYT
for October 18, 23, 24, 26, 27, and 31 and November 3 and 14 (editorial), 1988; the
WSJ
for October 20, 1988, and February 21, 1989; and
BW
for October 31 and November 7, 1988.