Some of the best information we have about the harmful effects of tobacco and secondhand smoke and the tobacco industry's attempts to cover it up come from the tobacco companies' own documents. Here are some of the more interesting discoveries straight from the files and mouths of the tobacco executives themselves.
Secondhand Smoke
"Also, the economic arguments often used by the industry to scare off smoking ban activity were no longer working, if indeed they ever did. These arguments simply had no credibility with the public, which isn't suprising when you consider that our dire predictions in the past rarely came true." (David Laufer, Phillip Morris. Quoted in: Laufer, D., "Draft 7/8/94 Presentation #4," Phillip Morris web site http://www.pmdocs.com)
"Some women would prefer having smaller babies." (Joseph Cullman, then Chairman of the Board of Phillip Morris, Inc., on "Face the Nation on Jan 3, 1971. The interviewers asked Cullman if he was aware of a massive study which showed that babies of smoking mothers had a greater incidence of low birth weight than non-smoking mothers, that smoking mothers had an increased risk of stillbirth and infant death within 28 days of birth. Cullman said he was aware of the study and its results.)
"Future sales volumes (and profitability) of PM tobacco operations in Europe will largely depend on the social climate surrounding smoking in our main markets....PM...calculates that workplace bans (legislated or spontaneous) reduce consumption by an average of 5 cigarettes per day per smoker." (Philip Morris presentation materials, Philip Morris, 1993.)
"What do these health claims, the heightened public sentiment for smoking restrictions, increasing nonsmoker annoyance toward smokers mean for this industry? Lower sales, of course." (S. Chilcote, "I. Public Smoking: The Problem," The Tobacco Institute.)
"Financial impact of smoking bans will be tremendous-three to five fewer cigarettes per day per smoker will reduce annual manufacturer profits a billion dollars plus per year." (Quoted in: "A Smoker's Alliance: draft," Phillip Morris Internal document.)
Influencing Elected Officials
"...Representative Wayne Simoneau enabled us to take the first step in routing restrictive smoking bills in the Minnesota legislature away from the House Health Committee. If we were able to convince the Speaker of the House that some of these bills are more appropriately heard in the Government Operations Committee, Representative Simoneau should be a "friendly" chairman..." (This confidential e-mail memo from employees of the Tobacco Institute reveals an industry strategy for killing public healthbills in state Legislatures. Tobacco lobbyists press to have public healthbills sent to committees whose focus is not public health.)
" A legislator is never too busy to talk about things like political contributions, fundraising for a coming election and programs to benefit his district." (See below)
"I want to start out by stating without qualification that Phillip Morris USA cannot grow without a strong, well-organized and well thought-out legislative program. We need that legislative program to prevent excise tax increases, marketing restrictions and smoking bans from making our products unaffordable, unpromotable and unacceptable." ("Grasstops Governments Relations," presentation given by Tina Walls of Phillip Morris, from Phillip Morris Tobacco Company document site
