The Cigarette Century

by Allan Brandt

  114 E. K. Ong and S. A. Glantz, “Constructing ‘Sound Science’ and ‘Good Epidemiology’: Tobacco, Lawyers, and Public Relations Firms,” American Journal of Public Health 91, no. 11 (2001): 1749-1757.

  115 Ellen Merlo, “Our Preemption Strategy,” October 24, 1994, Bates No. 2040236685, http://tobaccodocuments.org/landman/157850.html.

  116 Kathleen Sylvester, “The Tobacco Industry Will Walk a Mile to Stop an Anti-Smoking Law,” Governing, May 1989, 37.

  117 Michael Siegel et al., “Preemption in Tobacco Control: Review of an Emerging Public Health Problem,” JAMA 278, no. 10 (1997): 858.

  118 Ibid.

  119 Sylvester, 34-40.

  120 Daniel M. Weintraub, “Controversial Tobacco Bill Passes Test,” Los Angeles Times, June 14, 1990.

  121 Siegel et al., 858-63. See also M. L. Nixon, L. Mahmoud, and S. A. Glantz, “Tobacco Industry Litigation to Deter Local Public Health Ordinances: The Industry Usually Loses in Court,” Tobacco Control 13, no. 1 (2004): 65-73.

  122 Hall.

  123 Paul K. Edwards, The Southern Urban Negro as a Consumer (1932; College Park, MD: Mc-Grath Publishing, 1969); Sarah S. Lochlann Jain, “‘Come up to the Kool Taste’: African American Upward Mobility and the Semiotics of Smoking Menthols.” Public Culture 15, no. 2 (2003): 295-322; Philip Morris, “A Pilot Look at the Attitudes of Negro Smokers Toward Menthol Cigarettes,” September 1968, Bates No. 1002483819/3830, http://tobaccodocuments.org/landman/178106.html; and Robert E. Weems, Jr., Desegregating the Dollar (New York: New York University Press, 1998).

  124 Gehrmann Holland, “A Study of Ethnic Markets,” September 1969, Bates Nos. 501989230-469, http://tobaccodocuments.org/landman/501989230-9469.html; A. P. Gaspar, “Re: Black Market Analysis,” December 2, 1977, Bates Nos. 500384796-7, http://beta.tobaccodocuments.org/landman/187904.html.

  125 “Sales of Philip Morris Cigarettes Drop 48%,” The White Sentinel, October 1956, 2.

  126 “Discussion Paper: Total Minority Marketing Plan,” September 7, 1984, Bates No. 531000141/0144, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/dmf41f00.

  127 “An Uproar over Billboards in Poor Areas,” New York Times, May 1, 1989.

  128 Ibid.; and Ben Wildavsky, “Tilting at Billboards” New Republic, August 20, 1990, 19-20.

  129 Gaspar.

  130 E. D. Balbach, R. J. Gasior, and E. M. Barbeau, “R.J. Reynolds’ Targeting of African Americans: 1988-2000,” American Journal of Public Health 93, no. 5 (2003): 822-827.

  131 “Dr. Sullivan’s Unfiltered Anger,” New York Times, January 21, 1990. See also Marlene Cimons, “New Cigarette Condemned by Health Secretary Marketing: Louis Sullivan Says the Promotion Campaign for a New R.J. Reynolds Brand Targeted to Blacks Is ‘Slick and Sinister’ and Promotes a ‘Culture of Cancer,’” Los Angeles Times, January 19, 1990; Rick Christie, “RJR Unit Blasted for New Cigarette Aimed at Blacks,” Wall Street Journal, January 19, 1990; and Philip J. Hilts, “Health Chief Assails Reynolds Co. for Ads That Target Blacks,” New York Times, January 19, 1990.

  132 Lockhart Pettus, “Uptown Cigarette Damage Assessment Study: A Proposal to Conduct a Nationwide Research Study Among Black Cigarette Smokers to Assess RJR’s Image and Its Viability of Introducing a Menthol Cigarette Targeted to Blacks,” January 31, 1990, Bates No. 2505557826/7859, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/rii19c00.

  133 “An Uproar over Billboards in Poor Areas.”

  134 V. B. Yerger, and R. E. Malone, “African American Leadership Groups: Smoking with the Enemy,” Tobacco Control 11, no. 4 (2002): 336-345.

  135 Bob Herbert, “Tobacco Dollars,” New York Times, November 28, 1993.

  136 Subsequent research would continue to explore the possibility of genetic differences. See Sandra Blakeslee, “Black Smokers’ Higher Risk of Cancer May Be Genetic,” New York Times, April 13, 1994; C. A. Haiman, et al., “Ethnic and Racial Differences in the Smoking-Related Risk of Lung Cancer,” New England Journal of Medicine 354, no. 4 (2006): 333-342; and N. Risch, “Dissecting Racial and Ethnic Differences,” New England Journal of Medicine 354, no. 4 (2006): 408-411.

  137 Stanton A. Glantz, “Achieving a Smokefree Society,” Circulation 76, no. 4 (1987): 749. See also “Top Secret Operation Rainmaker,” March 20, 1990, Bates No. 2048302227/2230, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/wos65e00; and R. Ferguson and M. Waugh, “Social-Political Context of Cigarette Sales in the U.S.,” May 25, 1987, Bates No. 2050864094, http://tobaccodocuments.org/landman/138246.html.

  138 D. Durden, “Memorandum Prepared by RJR Employee Transmitted to RJR Employee, RJR Managerial Employees, and RJR In-House Legal Counsel for the Purpose of Providing Confidential Information in Order to Assist in the Rendering of Legal Advice Concerning Smoking and Health Issue,” December 22, 1978, Bates Nos. 500869538-62, http://tobaccodocuments.org/bliley_rjr/500869538-9562.html.

  139 Ibid.

  140 Robert A. Kagan and Jerome H. Skolnick, “Banning Smoking: Compliance Without Enforcement,” in Smoking Policy: Law, Politics, and Culture, ed. Robert L. Rabin and Stephen D. Sugarman (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 69-94; Timothy F. Kirn, “More ‘No Smoking’ Signs Seen in Hospitals,” JAMA 259, no. 19 (1988): 2814; and Stephen N. Kales, “Smoking Restrictions at Boston-Area Hospitals, 1990-1992,” Chest 104, no. 5 (1993): 1589-1591. See also Simon Chapman, “Great Expectorations! The Decline of Public Spitting: Lessons for Passive Smoking?” British Medical Journal 311, no. 7021 (December 1995): 1685-1686.

  141 Glantz, “Achieving a Smokefree Society.”

  Chapter 10

  1 “Why One Smokes,” 1969, Bates No. 1003287836/7848, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/pds74e00.

  2 Claude E. Teague, R.J. Reynolds, “Research Planning Memorandum on the Nature of the Tobacco Business and the Crucial Role of Nicotine Therein,” April 14, 1972, Bates Nos. TINY0003015-24.

  3 Tracy Schroth, “At Last, Edell Sees Light at End of Tobacco Tunnel,” New Jersey Law Journal (1992): 1; Daniel Leduc, “Back Fire: Lawyer Marc Edell Took on the Tobacco Industry and Won—for a While,” Philadelphia Inquirer, March 14, 1993; and Morton Mintz, “Winning Lawyer Hasn’t Quit Fight Against Tobacco Firms,” Washington Post, June 19, 1988.

  4 Richard Kluger, Interview with Marc Z. Edell, May 17, 1989, Bates No. 83724497/4510, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/xbo34c00; Marc Edell, “Cigarette Litigation: The Second Wave,” Tort and Insurance Law 22, no. 1 (1986): 90-103; and Schroth.

  5 Richard A. Wegman, “Cigarettes and Health: A Legal Analysis,” Cornell Law Quarterly 51, no. 4 (1966): 697.

  6 Testimony of Clarence Cook Little, Green v. American Tobacco, November 25, 1964, 1136-1204; Testimony of Clarence Cook Little, Lartigue v. R.J. Reynolds, October 5, 1960, 2713-2775; Testimony of Clarence Cook Little, Lartigue v. R.J. Reynolds, October 6, 1960, 2777-2912.

  7 See, for example, the testimony of Sheldon Sommers in Cipollone and in Rogers v. R.J. Reynolds (1985), and of James Glenn in Cipollone and Minnesota v. Philip Morris (1998).

  8 Richard A. Wegman, “Cigarettes and Health: A Legal Analysis,” Cornell Law Quarterly 51, no. 4 (1966): 704.

  9 Ibid., 699-705; Donald W. Garner, “Cigarette Dependency and Civil Liability: A Modest Proposal,” Southern California Law Review 53, no. 5 (1980): 1423-1465; and Robert L. Rabin, “A Sociolegal History of Tobacco Tort Litigation,” Stanford Law Review 44, no. 4 (1992): 853-878.

  10 Wegman, 699.

  11 Ibid., 700.

  12 Gary T. Schwartz, “Tobacco Liability in the Courts,” in Smoking Policy: Law, Politics and Culture, ed. Robert L. Rabin and Stephen D. Sugarman (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 154. See also James R. Hackney, Jr., “The Intellectual Origins of American Strict Products Liability: A Case Study in American Pragmatic Instrumentalism,” American Journal of Legal History 39, no. 4 (1994): 443-509.

  13 Quoted in G. Edward White, Tort Law in America: An Intellectual History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 109.

  14 White, 109.

  15 Quoted in Daniel Givelber, “Cigarette
Law,” Indiana Law Journal 73, no. 3 (1998): 873.

  16 Wegman, 707.

  17 On the expansion of torts, see White. On the exemption of tobacco, see Daniel Givelber, “Cigarette Law,” Indiana Law Journal 73, no. 3 (1998): 867-902.

  18 D. R. Hardy, Shook, Hardy & Bacon, “When to Warn—Why—and How,” April 20, 1970, Bates No. 502083249, http://tobaccodocuments.org/rjr/502083233-3260_D1.html.

  19 U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Report to Congress Pursuant to the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act, 1966 (Washington, DC: Federal Trade Commission, 1967), 4; and D. R. Hardy, Shook, Hardy, and Bacon, “When to Warn—Why—and How,” Bates Nos. 502083233-60.

  20 Wegman, 723.

  21 Donald W. Garner, “Cigarette Dependency and Civil Liability: A Modest Proposal,” Southern California Law Review 53, no. 5 (1980): 1423-1465.

  22 Marc Edell, “Cigarette Litigation: The Second Wave,” Tort and Insurance Law 22, no. 1 (1986): 90.

  23 Lisa A. Bero et al. “Lawyer Control of the Tobacco Industry’s External Research Program: The Brown and Williamson Documents.” JAMA 274, no. 3 (1995): 241-247.

  24 Edell (1986): 92.

  25 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office on Smoking and Health, The Health Consequences of Smoking for Women: A Report of the Surgeon General (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1980), 18-20 [Health Consequences of Smoking for Women].

  26 “Deposition of Rose DeFrancesco Cipollone in Cipollone v. Liggett,” 1984: 271.5, http://tobaccodocuments.org/datta/CIPOLLONER012684.html.

  27 Recent research on women and nicotine addition suggests that women have poorer outcomes in cessation attempts than do men. Kenneth A. Perkins, “Smoking Cessation in Women,” CNS Drugs 15, no. 5 (2001): 391-411.

  28 Quoted in Lorillard, “Case Before U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey: A Smoker vs. Tobacco Manufacturers, A ‘Talking’ Paper,” 1986, Bates No. 92346718/6730, 92346721, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/grp20e00.

  29 Health Consequences of Smoking for Women, 20.

  30 Hal Weinstein, Leo Burnett Company, “How an Agency Builds a Brand—the Virginia Slims Story,” October 28, 1969, Bates No. 2045080272/0291, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/soc65e00; and B. A. Toll and P. M. Ling, “The Virginia Slims Identity Crisis: An Inside Look at Tobacco Industry Marketing to Women,” Tobacco Control 14, no. 3 (2005): 172-180.

  31 Richard Kluger, Ashes to Ashes (New York: Knopf, 1996), 647. On targeting women in tobacco ads, see Jean Kilbourne, Deadly Persuasion: Why Women and Girls Must Fight the Addictive Power of Advertising (New York: Free Press, 1999).

  32 Quoted in Lorillard, “Case Before U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.”

  33 Philip Morris, “The Low-Tar Cigarette with a Recessed Tip” [print advertisement], 1972.

  34 Quoted in Lorillard, “Case Before U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.”

  35 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Risks Associated with Smoking Cigarettes with Low Machine-Measured Yields of Tar and Nicotine, ed. Donald R. Shopland ([Bethesda, MD], U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2001); N. L. Benowitz et al., “Smokers of Low-Yield Cigarettes Do Not Consume Less Nicotine,” New England Journal of Medicine 309, no. 3 (1983): 139-142; Murray E. Jarvik, “Working Meeting: Research Needs on Low Yield Cigarettes,” June 1980, Bates No. TIMN0112484/2486, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/wdj92f00; H. Wakeham, “Trends of Tar and Nicotine Deliveries over the Last Five Years,” March 24, 1961, Bates No. 1000861953, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/hnt74e00; and R. W. Pollay and T. Dewhirst, “The Dark Side of Marketing Seemingly ‘Light’ Cigarettes: Successful Images and Failed Fact,” Tobacco Control 11 (Suppl 1): i18-i31.

  36 “Deposition of Rose DeFrancesco Cipollone in Cipollone v. Liggett,” 1984: 276.

  37 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Reducing the Health Consequences of Smoking: 25 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General (Rockville, MD: Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, 1989).

  38 Joseph Kelner and Robert S. Kelner, “The Tobacco Industry and ‘Cipollone,’” New York Law Journal, August 25, 1992, 3.

  39 Morton Mintz, “Cigarette Trial Breaks New Ground; Firms Compelled to Open Their Files,” Washington Post, March 27, 1988.

  40 Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc., et al., 789 F.2d 181 (1986).

  41 Mintz, “Cigarette Trial Breaks New Ground; Firms Compelled to Open Their Files.”

  42 Morton Mintz, “Tobacco Firms’ Attorneys Reconnoiter After Setbacks,” Washington Post, May 1, 1988.

  43 Morton Mintz, “Cigarette Suppressed, Court Told; Researcher Says Liggett Held Back Safer Product,” Washington Post, February 12, 1988. “The European tobacco industry has agreed that smoking is harmful and is hard at work to develop ‘less hazardous’ products. Development and marketing of such cigarettes by European firms will put great pressure on Philip Morris International to do likewise. . . . Once International markets a ‘less hazardous’ cigarette, her American counterpart will be able to do no less.” H. Wakeham, “Presentation to Philip Morris Board/Revised Draft,” October 15, 1973, Bates No. 2022886158/6160, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/gic78e00.

  44 Morton Mintz, “Documents on Tobacco Are Opened,” Washington Post, July 19, 1985.

  45 Morton Mintz, “Supreme Court Allows Release of Evidence in Cigarette Suit,” Washington Post, December 8, 1987.

  46 R. A. Daynard and Laurie Morin, “The Cipollone Documents: Following the Paper Trail to Tobacco Industry Liability,” Trial (1988): 50.

  47 Donald Janson, “A ‘Bulldog’ Battles Tobacco Industry,” New York Times, June 12, 1988,

  48 H. B. Parmele, Lorillard, [letter to A. Riefner], 1946, Bates No. 94701389/1390, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ase44a00.

  49 Trial Testimony of Jeffrey E. Harris, MD, PhD, Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc., et al., 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16709: 12595 (1988).

  50 Arthur D. Little, “L & M—A Perspective Review,” March 15, 1961, Bates No. 2021382496/2498; Cipollone, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ffn23e00.

  51 “Notes on Conference,” May 1955, Bates No. 91799298/9319, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/kxx98c00.

  52 Morton Mintz, “Pact Barring Cancer Study Disclosed,” Washington Post, May 21, 1988.

  53 Ibid.

  54 H. Wakeham, “Why Are We All Here?” February 17, 1971, Bates No. 85868088/8099, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/gyd70e00.

  55 F. Panzer and H. R. Kornegay, “The Roper Proposal,” May 1, 1972, Bates No. TIOK0000424/0427, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/rdv91f00.

  56 Alix M. Freedman and Laurie P. Cohen, “Smoke and Mirrors: How Cigarette Makers Keep Health Question ‘Open’ Year After Year,” Wall Street Journal, February 11, 1993. See also Lisa A. Bero et al., “Lawyer Control of the Tobacco Industry’s External Research Program: The Brown and Williamson Documents,” JAMA 274, no. 3 (1995): 241-247; Philip J. Hilts, Smokescreen: The Truth Behind the Tobacco Industry Cover-Up (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1996).

  57 R. B. Seligman, “Memorandum from Philip Morris Employee to Philip Morris Counsel and Philip Morris Employee Containing Information Requested by Philip Morris Counsel Regarding Joint Defense Research,” 1978, Bates Nos. 1003718428-32, http://tobaccodocuments.org/landman/1003718428-8432.html

  58 In 1992, in another of Edell’s tobacco cases, Haines v. Liggett, Judge Sarokin ruled that the tobacco industry may be “the king of concealment and disinformation.” He would be removed from the case in September 1992 when the federal court of appeals ruled that he had failed to maintain the appearance of impartiality. But the industry documents detailing the activities of the CTR, previously “privileged,” would emerge as a result of his ruling in the case. See “Judge Orders Files Opened on Cigarettes,” Washington Post, February 8, 1992; Charles Strum, “Ruling in Tobacco Case Tests Boundaries of Judicial Bias,” New York Times, September 20, 1992; “Outline of Presentation Issues,” October 30, 19
92, Bates Nos. 2048924986-5018, http://tobaccodocuments.org/bliley_pm/27616.html.

  59 Morton Mintz, “Cigarette Ads Said Full of ‘Health’ Cues,” Washington Post, March 10, 1988.

  60 Trial testimony of Jerome Herbert Jaffe, March 2, 1988 [P.M.] Cipollone v. Ligett, 3703.

  61 Ibid., 3705.

  62 Morton Mintz, “Expert Cites Dependencies of Smokers: Tobacco Is Addictive, Psychiatrist Testifies,” Washington Post, March 4, 1988.

  63 Trial testimony of Jerome Herbert Jaffe, March 2, 1988 [P.M.], 3720.

  64 “Trial testimony of Jerome Herbert Jaffe, March 3, 1988 [A.M.], Cipollone v. Liggett,” March 3, 1988, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/jmz75a00, p. 3777.

  65 Ibid., 3804.

  66 Harold H. Kassarjian and Joel B. Cohen, “Cognitive Dissonance and Consumer Behavior: Reactions to the Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health,” California Management Review (1965): 55-64; Trial Testimony of Joel B. Cohen, Ph.D., March 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 1988, Cipollone v. Liggett ; Howard Leventhal and Paul D. Cleary, “The Smoking Problem: A Review of the Research and Theory in Behavioral Risk Modification,” Psychological Bulletin 88, no. 2 (1980): 370-405. On risk perception and smoking, see especially Paul Slovic, ed., Smoking: Risk, Perception & Policy (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2001); W. Kip Viscusi, Smoking: Making the Risky Decision (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992); Thomas C. Schelling, Choice and Consequence (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984).

  67 Shook, Hardy & Bacon, “The Cipollone Case,” August 31, 1988, Bates No. 2022885364/5386, http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/gfh12a00.

  68 Allan M. Brandt, “From Nicotine to Nicotrol: Addiction, Cigarettes, and American Culture,” in Altering American Consciousness: The History of Alcohol and Drug Use in the United States, 1800-2000, eds. Sarah W. Tracy and Caroline Jean Acker (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2004), 383-402.

  69 C. Everett Koop, Koop: The Memoirs of America’s Family Doctor (New York: Random House, 1991).