Looking Through a Keyhole at the Tobacco Industry

These documents provide the first look at the inner workings of the tobacco industry during the crucial period in which the scientific case that smoking is addictive and kills smokers solidified.

Abstract

These documents provide our first look at the inner workings of the tobacco industry during the crucial period in which the scientific case that smoking is addictive and kills smokers solidified. The documents show a sophisticated legal and public relations strategy to avoid liability for the diseases induced by tobacco use. The documents show that lawyers steered scientists away from particular research avenues, which is inconsistent with the company's purported disbelief in the causation and addiction claims; if the company had been genuinely unconvinced by the causation and addiction hypotheses, then it should have had no concern that new research would provide ammunition for the enemy. Quite the contrary, the documents show that B&W and BAT recognized more than 30 years ago that nicotine is addictive and that tobacco smoke is "biologically active" (eg, carcinogenic).