HISTORY
OF
TOBACCO
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IN THE BEGINNING . . . Huron
Indian myth has it that in ancient times, when the land was
barren and the people were starving, the Great Spirit sent
forth a woman to save humanity. As she traveled over the
world, everywhere her right hand touched the soil, there grew
potatoes. And everywhere her left hand touched the soil, there
grew corn. And when the world was rich and fertile, she sat
down and rested. When she arose, there grew tobacco . . .
TOBACCO TIMELINE Copyright 1993-2001
Gene Borio SOURCES: Thanks to tobacco researcher Larry Breed
(LB) for his contributions. He recently found a little tome
called "This Smoking World" (1927), and shared some of its
events (TSW). I am also beginning to incorporate events
referenced in Richard Kluger's monumental Ashes to Ashes (RK),
The American Tobacco Story (ATS), Corti's "A History of
Smoking (1931), Elizabeth Whelan's A Smoking Gun, and Susan
Wagner's Cigarette Country (1971). Another important source is
Bill Drake's wonderful The European Experience With Native
American Tobacco (BD). Many will be interested in the 1989
Surgeon General report segment, "ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE OF THE
HEALTH CONSEQUENCES OF SMOKING" (PDF, 93 pp).
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Prelude
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Prehistory: Although small amounts of
nicotine may be found in some Old World plants, including
belladonna and Nicotiana africana, and nicotine metabolites
have been found in human remains and pipes in the Near East
and Africa, there is no indication of habitual tobacco use in
the Ancient world, on any continent save the Americas.
The
sacred origin of tobacco and the first pipe (Schoolcraft)
c. 6000 BCE: Experts believe the
tobacco plant, as we know it today, begins growing in the
Americas.
c.1 BCE: Experts believe American
inhabitants have begun finding ways to use tobacco, including
smoking (in a number of variations), chewing and in probably
hallucinogenic enemas (by the Peruvian Aguaruna
aboriginals).
c. 1 CE: Tobacco was "nearly
everywhere" in the Americas. (American Heritage Book of
Indians, p.41).
600-1000 CE: UAXACTUN, GUATEMALA.
First pictorial record of smoking: A pottery vessel found here
dates from before the 11th century. On it a Maya is depicted
smoking a roll of tobacco leaves tied with a string. The Mayan
term for smoking was sik'ar
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Introduction: The Chiapas Gift, or The
Indians'
Revenge?
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1492-10-12: Columbus Discovers
Tobacco; "Certain Dried Leaves" Are Received as Gifts, and
Thrown Away. On this bright morning Columbus and his men set
foot on the New World for the first time, landing on the beach
of San Salvador Island or Samana Cay in the Bahamas, or Gran
Turk Island. The indigenous Arawaks, possibly thinking the
strange visitors divine, offer gifts. Columbus wrote in his
journal, the natives brought fruit, wooden spears, and certain
dried leaves which gave off a distinct fragrance. As each item
seemed much-prized by the natives; Columbus accepted the gifts
and ordered them brought back to the ship. The fruit was
eaten; the pungent "dried leaves" were thrown away.
1492-10-15: Columbus Mentions Tobacco.
"We found a man in a canoe going from Santa Maria to
Fernandia. He had with him some dried leaves which are in high
value among them, for a quantity of it was brought to me at
San Salvador" -- Christopher Columbus' Journal
1492-11: Jerez and Torres Discover
Smoking; Jerez Becomes First European Smoker Rodrigo de Jerez
and Luis de Torres, in Cuba searching for the Khan of Cathay
(China), are credited with first observing smoking. They
reported that the natives wrapped dried tobacco leaves in palm
or maize "in the manner of a musket formed of paper." After
lighting one end, they commenced "drinking" the smoke through
the other. Jerez became a confirmed smoker, and is thought to
be the first outside of the Americas. He brought the habit
back to his hometown, but the smoke billowing from his mouth
and nose so frightened his neighbors he was imprisoned by the
holy inquisitors for 7 years. By the time he was released,
smoking was a Spanish craze.
1497: Robert Pane, who accompanied
Christopher Columbus on his second voyage in 1493, writes the
first report of native tobacco use to appear in Europe.
1498- Columbus visits Trinidad and
Tobago, naming the latter after the native tobacco pipe.
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Sixteenth Century--Sailors Spread the
Seeds "All along the sea routes ... wherever they had trading
posts, the Portuguese began the limited planting of tobacco.
Before the end of the sixteenth century they had developed
these small farms to a point where they could be assured of
enough tobacco to meet their personal needs, for gifts, and
for barter. By the beginning of the seventeenth century these
farms had, in many places, become plantations, often under
native control." -- Jerome Edmund Brooks, The mighty leaf;
tobacco through the centuries. Boston, Little, Brown
(1952)
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JAPAN: Dutch and Portuguese trading
vessels calling at ports in Nagasaki and Kagoshima introduce
tobacco. It is spread through the country over the ensuing
decades, often by Buddhist monks, who use tobacco seeds to pay
for lodging along the routes of their
pilgrimages.
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1518: MEXICO: JUAN DE GRIJALVA lands
in Yucatan, observes cigarette smoking by natives (ATS)
1519: MEXICO: CORTEZ conquers AZTEC
capitol, finds Mexican natives smoking perfumed reed
cigarettes.(ATS)
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1530: MEXICO: BERNARDINO DE SAHAGUN,
missionary in Mexico, distinguishes between sweet commercial
tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) and coarse Nicotiana rustica.(ATS)
1531: SANTO DOMINGO: European
cultivation of tobacco begins
1534: CUBA, SANTO DOMINGO: "Tall
tobacco"--sweet, broadleaved Nicotiana tabacum--is
transplanted from Central American mainland to Cuba and Santo
Domingo.(ATS)
1535: CANADA: Jacques Cartier
encounters natives on the island of Montreal who use tobacco.
"In Hochelaga, at the head of the river in Canada, grows a
certain herb which is stocked in large quantities by the
natives during the summer season, and on which they set great
value. Men alone use it, and after drying it in the sun they
carry it around their neck wrapped up in the skin of a small
animal, like a sac, with a hollow piece of stone or wood. When
the spirit moves them, they pulverize this herb and place it
at one end, lighting it with a fire brand, and draw on the
other end so long that they fill their bodies with smoke until
it comes out of their mouth and nostrils as from a chimney.
They claim it keeps them warm and in good health. They never
travel without this herb." --- Smoke and Mirrors, p. 30
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1548: BRAZIL: Portuguese cultivate
tobacco for commercial export.
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1554: ANTWERP: 'Cruydeboeck' presents
first illustration of tobacco. (LB)
1555:Franciscan Friar Andr Thevet of
Angouleme reports on Brazil's Tupinamba Indians' use of Petun.
1556: FRANCE: Tobacco is introduced.
Revolutionary monk Thevet claims he was the first to
transplant Nicotiana tabacum from Brazil; many dispute this.
In his writings he describes tobacco as a creature comfort.
(ATS)
1558: SPAIN: Tobacco is introduced by
Francisco Fernandes, a physician who had been sent by Philip
II. of Spain to investigate the products of Mexico. (Ency.
Brit.)
1558: PORTUGAL: Tobacco is introduced.
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1560: PORTUGAL, FRANCE: Jean Nicot de
Villemain, France's ambassador to Portugal, writes of
tobacco's medicinal properties, describing it as a panacea.
Nicot sends rustica plants to French court.
1561: FRANCE: Nicot sends snuff to
Catherine de Medici, Queen of France, to treat her son Francis
II's migraine headaches. She later decrees tobacco be termed
Herba Regina (There is confusion in sources: some claim it
cured Catherine's own headaches (by making her sneeze))
1564 or 1565: ENGLAND: Tobacco is
introduced into England by Sir John Hawkins and/or his crew.
Tobacco is used cheifly by sailors, including those employed
by Sir Francis Drake, until the 1580s. (Chroniclers of the day
took little note of the customs of sailors. Crews under the
command of less famous captains than Hawkins would be given
even less notice. But Spanish and Portuguese sailors spread
the practice around the world--probably first to fellow
sailors at port cities. There is no reason to suppose Hawkins'
crew particularly advanced in comparison to those on other
English ships. In sum, there could well have been a small
underground of seafaring tobacco users in England for decades
before officialdom took notice. Hawkins and his crew are
usually given the credit, but in reality, take this with a
grain of sea-salt.)
1568: FRANCE: Andre Thevet writes the
first description of tobacco use. In Brazil, he wrote, the
people smoke it and it cleans the "superfluous humours of the
brain". Thevet smoked it himself. (LB)
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1570: Claimed first botanical book on
tobacco written by Pena and Lobel of London.(TSW)
1571: GERMANY: MEDICINE: Dr. Michael
Bernhard Valentini's Polychresta Exotica (Exotic Remedies)
describes numerous different types of clysters, or enemas. The
tobacco smoke clyster was said to be good for the treatment of
colic, nephritis, hysteria, hernia, and dysentery.
1571: SPAIN: MEDICINE: Monardes, a
doctor in Seville, reports on the latest craze among Spanish
doctors--the wonders of the tobacco plant, which herbalists
are growing all over Spain. Monardes lists 36 maladies tobacco
cures.
1571:BOOKS: Jos de Acosta, a Spanish
Jesuit missionary is sent to Peru; records some of the
earliest and most vivid descriptions of Native South American
life and tobacco use. ( De natura novi orbis libri duo
(Salamanca, 1588-1589)
1573: ENGLAND: Sir Francis Drake
returns from the Americas with 'Nicotina tobacum'. (LB)
1575: MEXICO: LEGISLATION: Roman
Catholic Church passes a law against smoking in any place of
worship in the Spanish Colonies
1577: ENGLAND: MEDICINE: Frampton
translates Monardes into English. European doctors look for
new cures--tobacco is recommended for toothache, falling
fingernails, worms, halitosis, lockjaw & cancer.
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1580: CUBA: European cultivation of
tobacco begins
1580: TURKEY: Tobacco arrives (AHS)
1580: POLAND: Tobacco arrives (AHS)
1584-03: ENGLAND: Queen Elizabeth
grants Mr. Walter Raleigh a charter for establishing a
settlement in America.
1585: ENGLAND: Sir Francis Drake
introduces smoking to Sir Walter Raleigh (BD)
1586: Ralph Lane, first governor of
Virginia, teaches Sir Walter Raleigh to smoke the long-stemmed
clay pipe Lane is credited with inventing (BD).(TSW)
1586: GERMANY: 'De plantis epitome
utilissima' offers one of first cautions to use of tobacco,
calling it a "violent herb". (LB)
1586: ENGLAND: Tobacco Arrives in
English Society. In July 1586, some of the Virginia colonists
returned to England and disembarked at Plymouth smoking
tobacco from pipes, which caused a sensation. William Camden
(1551-1623) a contemporary witness, reports that "These men
who were thus brought back were the first that I know of that
brought into England that Indian plant which they call Tabacca
and Nicotia, or Tobacco" Tobacco in the Elizabethan age was
known as "sotweed." (BD)
1587: ANTWERP: First published work
totally on tobacco, 'De herbe panacea', with numerous recipies
and claims of cures. (LB)
1588: Hariot writes about tobacco in
Virginia in A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of
Virginia
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1590: BOOKS: Jos de Acosta 's Historia
natural y moral de las Indias (Seville, 1590) describes the
native use of tobacco in detail.
1590: LITERATURE: Spenser's Fairie
Queen: earliest poetical allusion to tobacco in English
literature. (Book III, Canto VI, 32).
1590: BOOKS: Richard Hakluyt, who
accompanied Sir Walter Raleigh on his Roanoke expedition,
publishes his comprehensive anthology: The Principall
Navigations. Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation,
Made by Sea or Overland to the Most Remote and Farthest
Distant Quarters of the Earth at Any Time within the Compasse
of these 1500 Years.
1592-98: KOREA: Hideyoshi Invasion
from Japan. Japan, which has maintained contact with
Portuguese merchants, introduce the practice of smoking to
Korea.
1595: ENGLAND: BOOKS: Tabacco, the
first book in the English language devoted to the subject of
tobacco, is published
1595 (approx.): Matoaka is born to
Chief Powhatan. She is given the nickname
Pocahontas--"Frisky," "Playful One" or "Mischief"
1596: LITERATURE: Ben Jonson's Every
Man in His Humor is acted on the 25th of November, 1596, and
printed in 1601. In Act III, Scene 2, Bobadilla (pro) and Cob
(con) argue about tobacco. (BD)
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Seventeenth Century--"The Great Age of
the Pipe" When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers
therefore are the founders of human civilization. -- Daniel
Webster (1782-1852). Tobacco comes into use as "Country Money"
or "Country Pay" in the colonies. Tobacco continues to be used
as a monetary standard--literally a "cash crop"-- throughout
the 17th and 18th Centuries, lasting twice as long as the gold
standard.
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"So prominent is the place that
tobacco occupies in the early records of the middle Southern
States, that its cultivation and commercial associations may
be said to form the basis of their history. It was the direct
source of their wealth, and became for a while the
representative of gold and silver; the standard value of other
merchantable products; and this tradition was further
preserved by the stamping of a tobacco-leaf upon the old
continental money used in the Revolution." --19th century
historian (DB)
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1600: BRAZIL: AGRICULTURE: European
cultivation of tobacco begins
1600: ENGLAND: Sir Walter Raleigh
persuades Queen Elizabeth to try smoking
1601: TURKEY: Smoking is introduced,
and rapidly takes hold while clerics denounce it. "Puffing in
each other's faces, they made the streets and markets stink,"
writes historian Ibrahim Pecevi.
1601 (approx): Samuel Rowlands writes,
But this same poyson, steeped India weede In head, hart,
lunges, do the soote and cobwebs breede With that he gasp'd,
and breath'd out such a smoke That all the standers by were
like to choke.
1602: ENGLAND: Publication of Worke of
Chimney Sweepers by anonymous author identified as
'Philaretes' states that illness of chimney sweepers is caused
by soot and that tobacco may have similar effects. (LB)
1602: ENGLAND: Roger Markecke writes A
Defense of Tobacco, in response to Chimneysweeps (LB)
1603: ENGLAND: Physicians, upset that
tobacco is being used by people without a physician's
prescription; complain to King James I.(TSW)
1604: ENGLAND: King James I writes "A
Counterblaste to Tobacco"
1604: ENGLAND: TAXES: King James I
increases import tax on tobacco 4,000% [from 2 pence/lb to 6
shillings 10 pence/lb. His majesty seems, however, to have
advanced very substantial reasons for this virtual prohibition
of tobacco; for if any circumstance can justify what are
termed "strong measures" on the part of a government,
certainly the wanton luxury and debauchery of its people must
be amongst the best apologies for a stretch of power, which
might, in other respects, have been deeed arbitrary, and
unbecoming a British monarch.-- Tatham, "An Historical and
Practical Essay on the Culture and Commerce of Tobacco" (1800)
1605: ENGLAND: Debate between King
James I and Dr. Cheynell.(TSW)
1606: SPAIN: King Philip Ill decrees
that tobacco may only be grown in specific
locations--including Cuba, Santo Domingo, Venezuela and Puerto
Rico. Sale of tobacco to foreigners is punishable by death.
1606+: ADVERTISING: ENGLAND: America
and advertising begin to grow together. One of the first
products heavily marketed is America itself. Richard
Hofstadter called the Virginia Company's recruitment effort
for its new colony, "one of the first concerted and sustained
advertising campaigns in the history of the modern world." The
out-of-place, out-of-work "gentlemen" in an overpopulated
England were sold quite a bill of goods about the bountiful
land and riches to be had in the New World. Daniel J. Boorstin
has mused whether "there was a kind of natural selection here
of those people who were willing to believe in advertising."
1607: JAMESTOWN saga begins
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1610: ENGLAND: Sir Francis Bacon
writes that tobacco use is increasing and that it is a custom
hard to quit. (LB)
1610: ENGLAND: Edmond Gardiner
publishes William Barclay's The Trial of Tobacco and provides
a text of recipies and medicinal preparations. BArclay defends
tobacco as a medicine but condemns casual use(LB)
1612: CHINA: Imperial edict forbidding
the planting and use tobacco.(TSW)
1612: JAMESTOWN: John Rolfe raises
Virginia's first commercial crop of "tall tobacco."
1613-89: RUSSIA: Tobacco prohibition
under the early Romanoffs (AHS)
1614-04: JAMESTOWN: John Rolfe and
Rebecca (nee Pocahontas) are married
1614: ENGLAND: First sale of native
Virginia tobacco in England; Virginia colony enters world
tobacco market, under English protection
1614: ENGLAND: "[T]here be 7000 shops,
in and about London, that doth vent Tobacco" -- The Honestie
of this Age, Prooving by good circumstance that the world was
never honest till now, by Barnabee Rych Gentleman (BD)
1614: ENGLAND: King James I makes the
import of tobacco a Royal monopoly, available for a yearly fee
of 14,000.
1614: LITERATURE: Nepenthes, or the
Vertues of Tabacco, by William Barclay; Edinburgh, 1614. Touts
tobacco's medicinal qualities, and recommends exclusively
tobacco of American origin (BD)
1614: SPAIN: King Philip III
establishes Seville as tobacco center of the world. Attempting
to prevent a tobacco glut, Philip requires all tobacco grown
in the Spanish New World to be shipped to a central location,
Seville, Spain. Seville becomes the world center for the
production of cigars. European cigarette use begins here, as
beggars patch together tobacco from used cigars, and roll them
in paper(papeletes). Spanish and Portuguese sailors spread the
practice to Russia and the Levant.
1616: Tobacco Nation Discovered. The
French discover an Iroquoian branch of American Indians in
present-day Ontario, Canada, and term them the Tobacco Nation,
or Tionontati, because of their large tobacco fields. After
attack by the Iroquois, the remnants of the Tobacco Nation,
along with many Huron refugees, settled SW of Lake Superior.
They were soon assimilated into one tribe, known as the
Wyandot. In 1990 there were about 2,500 Wyandot left in the
US.
1616-06-03: JAMESTOWN: John Rolfe and
Pocahontas arrive in London
1617: Dr. William Vaughn writes:
Tobacco that outlandish weede It spends the braine and spoiles
the seede It dulls the spirite, it dims the sight It robs a
woman of her right
1617: MONGOLIA: Emperor places dealth
penalty on using tobacco.(TSW)
1618-48: THE THIRTY YEARS WAR spurs an
expansion of smoking. (AHS)
1618-48: ENGLAND: SIR WALTER RALEIGH,
popularizer of tobacco in England, is beheaded for treason.
Upon Ralegh's tobacco box, found in his cell afterwards, is
the inscription, "Comes meus fuit illo miserrimo tempo." ("It
was my comfort in those miserable times.")
1619: ENGLAND: An unhappy King James I
incorporates British pipe makers; London clay pipe makers were
formed into a charter body with a coat of arm of a Moor
holding a pipe and roll of tobacco. (TSW)
1619: JAMESTOWN: First Africans
brought into Virginia. John Rolfe writes in his diary, "About
the last of August came in a dutch man of warre that sold us
twenty negars." They were needed for the booming tobacco crop,
but had been baptized, so--as Christians--they could not be
enslaved for life, but only indentured, just like many of the
English colonists, for 5-7 years
1619: ECONOMY: Tobacco is being used
as currency. It will continue to be so used for 200 years in
Virginia, for 150 years in Maryland, adjusting to the vagaries
of shifting values and varying qualities. (see 1727, "Tobacco
Notes")
1619: JAMESTOWN: First shipment of
women--meant to become wives for the settlers--arrives. A
prospective husband must pay for his chosen mate's passage
with 120 lbs. of tobacco.
1619-07-30: JAMESTOWN: The first
representative legislative assembly in America is held. The
Virginia Colony's General Assembly meets in the choir of the
Jamestown church from July 30-August 4. This assembly
contained the embryo of representative self-government. The
first law passed is a law concerning the economics of the
tobacco trade: tobacco shall not be sold for under 3 shillings
per pound.
1619-12-04: BERKELEY, VA: The very
first American Thanksgiving celebrates a good tobacco crop.
The holiday was abandoned after the Indian Massacre of 1622.
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1620s: KOREA: Within only a few
decades, tobacco has become a national pastime.
1620: ENGLAND: 40,000 lbs of tobacco
are imported from Virginia. (LB)
1620: ENGLAND: King James proclaims
rules of tobacco growing and import: limits tobacco sales to
100 weight of tobacco per man; restricts imports to Virginia
colony, and establishes stamps or seals. Quanity has risen and
quality has declined so drastically that growers could get no
more than 3 shillings/lb. James suggested colonists
concentrate more on corn, livestock and potash.
1620: BUSINESS: Trade agreement
between the Crown & Virginia Company bans commercial
tobacco growing in England, in return for a 1 shilling/lb.
duty on Virginia tobacco.
1620 (about): JAPAN: Prohibition in
Japan (AHS)
1621: Sixty future wives arrive in
Virginia and sell for 150 pounds of tobacco each. Price up
since 1619.(TSW)
1621: ENGLAND: Tobias Venner publishes
"A briefe and accurate treatise, comcerning....tobacco"
claiming medicinal properties, but condeming use for pleasure.
(LB)
1624: REGULATION: POPE URBAN VIII
threatens excommunication for snuff users; sneezing is thought
too close to sexual ecstasy
1624: ENGLAND establishes a royal
tobacco monopoly.
1624: NEW YORK CITY is born. The town
of New Amsterdam was established on lower Manhattan At this
time, the western area of what is now Greenwich Village, NY,
is known to Native Americans as (var.) Sapponckanican--
"tobacco fields," or "land where the tobacco grows."
1628: REGULATION: SHAH SEFI punishes
two merchants for selling tobacco by pouring hot lead down
their throats. (TSW)
1629: FRANCE: RICHELIEU puts a Customs
duty on the import of tobacco.
1629: Niewu Amsterdam's Gov. Wouter
Van Twiller appropriates a farm belonging to the Dutch West
India Company in the Bossen Bouwery ("Farm in the woods") area
of Manhattan, in what is now Greenwich Village, and begins
growing tobacco. The Minetta Spring provides water.
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1630: SWEDEN learns to smoke.(AHS)
1631: AGRICULTURE: European-style
cultivation of tobacco begins in Maryland
1632: REGULATION: MASSACHUSETTS
forbids public smoking
1633: AGRICULTURE: CONNECTICUT is
settled; first tobacco crop raised in Windsor.
1633: REGULATION: TURKEY: Sultan Murad
IV orders tobacco users executed as infidels. As many as 18 a
day were executed. Some historians consider the ban an
anti-plague measure, some a fire-prevention measure.
1634: REGULATION: RUSSIA: Czar Alexis
creates penalties for smoking: 1st offense is whipping, a slit
nose, and trasportation to Siberia. 2nd offense is
execution.(TSW) (BD)
1634: REGULATION: EUROPE: Greek Church
claims that it was tobacco smoke that intoxicated Noah and so
bans tobacco use.(TSW)
1635: AGRICULTURE: FRANCE: The first
tobacco farms are begun in Clairac.
1635: REGULATION: FRANCE: King allows
sale of tobaccco only following prescription by
physician.(TSW)
1636: BUSINESS: SPAIN: Tabacalera, the
oldest tobacco company in the world, is created.
1637: REGULATION: FRANCE: King Louis
XIII enjoys snuff and repeals restricions on its use.(TSW)
1638: REGULATION: CHINA: Use or
distribution of tobacco is made a crime punishable by
decapitation. Snuff, introduced by the Jesuits in the mid-17th
century, soon became quite popular, from the court on down,
and remained so during much of the Qing dynasty (mid-17th
century - 1912.)
1639: REGULATION: NEW YORK CITY:
Governor Kieft bans smoking in New Amsterdam
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1640: The western area of what is now
Greenwich Village, NY, is known to Native Americans as (var.)
Sapponckanican-- "tobacco fields," or "land where the tobacco
grows." In 1629, Niewu Amsterdam's Gov. Wouter Van Twiller
appropriated a farm belonging to the Dutch West India Company
in the Bossen Bouwery ("Farm in the woods") area of Manhattan
island, and began growing tobacco. The first Dutch references
to the Indians' name for the area appear around 1640.
1642: POPE URBAN VIII'S Bull against
smoking in the churches in Seville. (AHS)
1647: REGULATION: TURKEY: Tobacco ban
is lifted. Pecevi writes that tobaco has now joined coffee,
wine and opium as one of the four "cushions on the sofa of
pleasure."
1647: REGULATION: Colony of
Connecticut bans public smoking: citizens may smoke only once
a day, "and then not in company with any other."
1648: Smoking generally prohibited.
Writers now hostile to it. (AHS)
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1650: REGULATION: Colony of
Connecticut General Court orders -- no smoking by person under
age of 21, no smoking except with physicians order.(TSW)
1650: Spread of smoking in Austria.
(AHS)
1650: REGULATION: Pope Innocent X's
Bull against smoking in St Peter's, Rome.(AHS)
1657: REGULATION: Prohibition in
Switzerland.(AHS)
1659: ITALY: VENICE establishes the
first tobacco appalto. . . . a contract whereby the exclusive
right to import, manufacture, and trade in tobacco was farmed
out [by the state] to a private person for a certain
consideration (AHS)
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1660: ITALY: Pope ALEXANDER VII farms
out tobacco monopolies
1660: ENGLAND: THE RESTORATION OF THE
MONARCHY The court of Charles II returns to London from exile
in Paris, bringing the French court's snuffing practice with
them; snuff becomes an aristocratic form of tobacco use.
During Charles' reign (1660-1685), the growing of tobacco in
England, except for small lots in physic gardens, is forbidden
so as to preserve the taxes coming in from Virginian imports..
1660: The Navigation Act mandates that
7 enumerated items--one of which was tobacco--may only be
shipped to England or its colonies.
1661: VIRGINIA Assembly begins
institutionalizing slavery, making it de jure.
1665-66: HEALTH: EUROPE: THE GREAT
PLAGUE Smoking tobacco is thought to have a protective effect.
Smoking is made compulsory at Eton to ward off infection.
1665: HEALTH: ENGLAND: Samuel Pepys
describes a Royal Society experiment in which a cat quickly
dies when fed "a drop of distilled oil of tobacco."
1666: AGRICULTURE: Maryland faces
oversupply; bans production of tobacco for one year.
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1670: AUSTRIA: COUNT KHEVENHILLER's
appalto is established.
1674: RUSSIA: Smoking Can Carry the
Death Penalty.
1674: FRANCE: LOUIS XIV establishes a
tobacco monopoly.
1675: REGULATION: SWITZERLAND: The
Berne town council establishes a special Chambres de Tabac to
deal with smokers, who face the same dire penalties as
adulterers.
1676: RUSSIA: the smoking ban is
lifted.
1676: TAXES: Heavy taxes levied in
tobacco by Virginia Governor BERKELEY lead to BACON'S
REBELLION, a foretaste of American Revolution. (ATS)
1679: Abraham a Santa Clara and the
plague in Vienna.
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1682: VIRGINIA: The Tobacco Riots
1683: Massachusetts passes the
nation's first no-smoking law. It forbids the smoking of
tobacco outdoors, because of the fire danger. Soon after,
Philadelphia lawmakers approve a ban on "smoking seegars on
the street." Fines are used to buy fire-fighting equipment.
1689-1725: RUSSIA: PETER THE GREAT
advocates smoking, repeals bans.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1693: ENGLAND: Smoking banned in
Commons chamber: "no member do presume to take tobacco in the
gallery of the House or at a committee table"
1698: RUSSIA: PETER THE GREAT
establishes a trade monopoly with the English, against Church
wishes.
1699: LOUIS XIV and his physician,
FAGON, oppose smoking.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Eighteenth Century--Snuff holds
sway
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ENGLAND: George III's wife known as
"Snuffy Charlotte"
FRANCE: Napoleon said to have used 7
lb. of snuff per month
HEALTH: Lung cancer, an extremely rare
disease, is first described.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1701: HEALTH: MEDICINE: Nicholas
Andryde Boisregard warns that young people taking too much
tobacco have trembling, unsteady hands, staggering feet and
suffer a withering of "their noble parts."
I701-40: PRUSSIA: Tobacco councils of
Frederick I and Frederick William I. (AHS)
1705: VIRGINIA Assembly passes a law
legalizing lifelong slavery. . . . all servants imported and
brought into this country, by sea or land, who were not
christians in their native country . . . shall be . . .
slaves, and as such be here bought and sold notwithstanding a
conversion to christianity afterwards."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1713: LEGISLATION: Inspection
regulations passed to keep up standards of Virginia leaf
exports (not effective until 1730). (ATS)
1719: LEGISLATION: FRANCE: Smoking is
prohibited. Exceptions: the Franche-Comt, Flanders and Alsace.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1724: REGULATION: Pope Benedict XIII
learns to smoke and repeals papal bulls against clerical
smoking.(TSW)
1727: ECONOMY: "Tobacco notes" Become
Legal Tender in Virginia. Tobacco Notes attesting to quality
and quantity of one's tobacco kept in public warehouses are
authorized as legal tender in Virginia. Used as units of
monetary exchange throughout 18th Century. The notes are more
convenient than the acutal leaf, which had been in use as
money for over a century.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1730: LEGISLATION: Virginia Inspection
Acts come into effect, standardizing and regulating tobacco
sales and exports to prevent the export of "trash
tobacco"--shipments diluted with leaves and household
sweepings, which were debasing the value of Virginia tobacco.
Inspection warehouses were empowered to verify weight and kind
and kind of tobacco.
1730: VIRGINIA: BUSINESS: First
American tobacco factories begun in Virginia--small snuff
mills
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1747: LEGISLATION: Maryland passes its
own Maryland Inspection Act to control quality of exports.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1750: RHODE ISLAND BUSINESS: Gilbert
Stuart builds snuff mill in Rhode Island, ships his products
in dried animal bladders
1753: SWEDEN: Swedish Botanist Carolus
Linnaeus names the plant genus, nicotiana. and describes two
species, nicotiana rustica. and nicotiana tabacum."
1755-10: Virginia's tobacco crop fails
because of extended drought conditions.
1758: LEGISLATION: Virginia Assembly
passes wildly unpopular "Two Penny Act," forbidding payment in
percentage of tobacco crop to some public officials, such as
the Anglican clergy. The crop was small at this period, making
tobacco a seller's market. The law mandating a regular salary
for these officials severely cut the clergy's real income.
1759: GEORGE WASHINGTON, having gained
17,000 acres of farmland and 286 slaves from his new wife,
MARTHA DANDRIDGE CUSTIS (these added to his own 30 slaves),
harvests his first tobacco crop. The British market is
unimpressed with its quality, and by 1761, Washington is
deeply in debt.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1760: BUSINESS: Pierre Lorillard
establishes a "manufactory" in New York City for processing
pipe tobacco, cigars, and snuff. P. Lorillard is the oldest
tobacco company in the US.
1761: HEALTH: ENGLAND: Physician John
Hill publishes "Cautions against the Immoderate Use of Snuff"
-- perhaps the first clinical study of tobacco effects. Hill
warns snuff users they are vulnerable to cancers of the nose.
1761: HEALTH: ENGLAND: Dr. Percival
Pott notes incidence of cancer of the scrotum among
chimneysweeps, theorizing a connection between cancer and
exposure to soot.
1762: General Israel Putnam introduces
cigar-smoking to the US. After a British campaign in Cuba,
"Old Put" returns with three donkey-loads of Havana cigars;
introduces the customers of his Connecticut brewery and tavern
to cigar smoking (BD)
1763: Patrick Henry argues a tobacco
case, the "Parson's Cause."The clergy had been paid in tobacco
until a late 1750s Virginia law which decreed they should be
paid in currency at the fixed rate of 2 cent/lb. When tobacco
began selling for 6 cents/lb, the clergy protested, and the
law was vetoed by the Crown. The old Virginia law was still
sometimes adhered to, however, and some clergy sued their
parishes. Henry defended one such parish (Hanover County) in
court. He berated England's interference in domestic matters,
and convinced the jury to give the plaintiff/clergyman only
one penny in damages.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1770: Demuth Tobacco shop, the oldest
tobacco shop in the nation is established by Christopher
Demuth at 114 E. King St., Lancaster, PA.
1771-12-17: REGULATION: FRANCE: French
official is condemned to be hanged for admitting foreign
tobacco into the country.
1776: AMERICAN REVOLUTION Along
"Tobacco Coast" (the Chesapeake), the Revolutionary War was
variously known as "The Tobacco War." Growers had found
themselves perpetually in debt to British merchants; by 1776,
growers owed the mercantile houses millions of pounds. British
tobacco taxes are a further grievance. Tobacco helps finance
the Revolution by serving as collateral for the loan Benjamin
Franklin won from France--the security was 5 million pounds of
Virginia tobacco. George Washington once appealed to his
countrymen for aid to the army: "If you can't send money, send
tobacco." During the war, it was tobacco exports that the
fledgling government used to build up credits abroad. And,
when the war was over, Americans turned to tobacco taxes to
help repay the revolutionary war debt.
1779: Pope Benedict XII opens a
tobacco factory
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1780-1781: VIRGINIA: "TOBACCO WAR"
waged by Lord Cornwallis to destroy basis of America's credit
abroad (ATS)
1781: Thomas Jefferson suggests
tobacco cultivation in the "western country on the
Mississippi." (ATS)
1788: BUSINESS: Spanish NEW ORLEANS
opened for export of tobacco by Americans in Mississippi
valley. (ATS)
1789-1799: FRENCH REVOLUTION French
masses begin to take to the cigarito, as the form of tobacco
use least like the aristocratic snuff. The hated tobacco
monopoly is abolished (to be resurrected by Napoleon)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1791: HEALTH: ENGLAND: London
physician John Hill reports cases in which use of snuff caused
nasal cancers.
1794: TAXES: The U.S Congress passes
the first federal excise tax on tobacco products. The tax of 8
cents applies only to snuff, not the more plebian chewing or
smoking tobacco. The tax is 60% of snuff's usual selling
price. James Madison opposed the tax, saying it deprive poorer
people of innocent gratification
1795: HEALTH: Sammuel Thomas von
Soemmering of Maine reports on cancers of the lip in pipe
smokers
1798. HEALTH: Famed physician Benjamin
Rush writes on the medical dangers of tobacco and claims that
smoking or chewing tobacco leads to drunkenness.
1798. The United States Marine
Hospital Service is established. The service will become the
Public Health Service in 1912 and had been made part of the
Department of Health, Education and Welfare in 1953.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Nineteenth Century--The Age of the
Cigar
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1800s: FRANCE: "Lorettes" --
prostitutes near the Notre Dame de Lorettes church--are the
first women to smoke publicly.
1800: CANADA: Tobacco begins being
commercially grown in Southern Ontario.
1804-06: LEWIS AND CLARK explore
Northwest, using gifts of tobacco as "life insurance."
1805-7: CERIOLI isolates nicotine, the
"essential oil" or "essence of tobacco"
1805-12-25: LEWIS AND CLARK: First
Christmas in the Northwest. The Lewis & Clark party,
having built a winter encampment at Fort Clatsop (OR),
celebrates Christmas. Clark writes: "at day light this morning
we we[re] awoke by the discharge of the fire arm of all our
party & a Selute, Shoute and a Song which the whole party
joined in under our windows, after which they retired to their
rooms were Chearfull all the morning-- after brackfast we
divided our Tobacco which amounted to 12 carrots one half of
which we gave to the men of the party who used tobacco, and to
those who doe not use it we make a present of a handkerchief."
1806-03-07: LEWIS AND CLARK. Patrick
Gass, holed up with the expedition in Fort Clatsup, OR,
writes, "Among our other difficulties, we now experience the
want of tobacco. We use crabtree bark as a substitute."
1809: SCIENCE: FRANCE: Louis Nicolas
Vanquelin isolates nicotine from tobacco smoke.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1810: CONNECTICUT: Cuban cigar-roller
brought to Suffield to train local workers. (ATS)
1811: POETRY: A Farewell to Tobacco
Charels Lamb
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1820: American traders open the Santa
Fe trail, find ladies of that city smoking "seegaritos." (ATS)
1822:Hermbstdt isolates nicotine and
calls the causa efficiens of nicotianas Nicotianin."
1826: ENGLAND is importing 26 pounds
of cigars a year. The cigar becomes so popular that within
four years, England will be importing 250,000 pounds of cigars
a year.
1827: ENGLAND: First friction match
invented. Chemist John Walker calls his invention "Congreves,"
after the rocket maker. Later they became known as "lucifers",
then "matches."
1828: GERMANY: Heidelberg students
Ludwig Reimann and Wilhelm Heinrich Posselt are credited with
first isolating nicotine in a pure form; write exhaustive
dissertations on the pharmacology of nicotine, concluding it
is a "dangerous poison."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1830s: First organized anti-tobacco
movement in US begins as adjunct to the temperance movement.
Tobacco use is considered to dry out the mouth, "creating a
morbid or diseased thirst" which only liquor could quench..
1830: PRUSSIA: Prussian Government
enacts a law that cigars , in public, be smoked in a sort of
wire-mesh contraption designed to prevent sparks setting fire
to ladies' "crinolines" and hoop skirts. (BD)
1832: TURKEY: Invention of the
paper-rolled cigarette? While Southwest Indians, Aztecs and
Mayans had used hollow reeds, cane or maize to fashion
cylindrical tobacco-holders, and Sevillians had rolled
cigar-scraps in thrown-away paper (papeletes), an Egyptian
artilleryman [in the Turk/Egyptian war] is credited with the
invention of the cigarette as we know it. In the siege of
Acre, the Egyptian's cannon crew had improved their rate of
fire by rolling the gunpowder in paper tubes. For this, he and
his crew were rewarded with a pound of tobacco. Their sole
pipe was broken, however, so they took to rolling the pipe
tobacco in the paper. The invention spread among both Egyptian
and Turkish soldiers. And thus . . . (Good-Bye to All That,
1970)
1832: AGRICULTURE: TUCK patents curing
method for Virginia leaf.
1832: BOOKS: Domestinc Manners of the
Americans by Frances Trollope
1833-02-27 RELIGION: In Kirtland, OH,
Mormon founder Joseph Smith announces to church leaders that
God opposes strong drinks, hot drinks and tobacco. This
proclamation becomes known as the "Word of Wisdom," but
considered as counsel or advice, rather than a commandment.
1832: BOOKS: American Notes by Charles
Dickens
1836: USA: Samuel Green of the New
England Almanack and Farmers Friend writes that tobacco is an
insectide, a poison, a fillthy habit, and can kill a man. (LB)
1839: AGRICULTURE: NORTH CAROLINA:
SLADE "yallercure" presages flue-cured Bright tobacco.
Charcoal used in flue-curing for the first time in North
Carolina. Not only cheaper, its intense heat turns the
thinner, low-nicotine Piedmont leaf a brilliant golden color.
This results in the classic American "Bright leaf" variety,
which is so mild it virtually invites a smoker to inhale
it.(RK), (ATS) (Legend has it that one night, an 18-year-old
slave named Peter was assigned to keep watch over a barn of
tobacco on the Slade Farm, tending the fire, feeding it just
enough wood to push a steady, smoky heat through the barn. He
fell asleep, and only woke up after a rainstorm had cooled the
barn--and drenched his wood. Desperate, he got some charcoal
from the blacksmith shop and used it to superheat the barn.
This process accidentally turned the tobacco golden, and
imbued it with a mild, buttery taste. Thus was the bright-leaf
tobacco industry was born.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1840: BUSINESS: Miflin Marsh begins
Marsh Wheeling Cigars in his Wheeling, WV, home.
1842: CHINA: OPIUM WAR. Treaty of
Nanjing forces China to accept opium from British traders
1843: FRANCE: SEITA monopoly begins
manufacture of cigarettes.
1843: MEDICINE: The correct molecular
formula of nicotine is established
1845: JOHN QUINCY ADAMS writes to the
Rev. Samuel H. Cox: "In my early youth I was addicted to the
use of tobacco in two of its mysteries, smoking and chewing. I
was warned by a medical friend of the pernicious operation of
this habit upon the stomach and the nerves.''
1845: BOOKS: Prosper Merimee's novel,
Carmen, about a cigarette girl in an Andalusian factory, is
published
1846-1848: MEXICAN WAR US soldiers
bring back from the Southwest a taste for the darker, richer
tobacco favored in Latin countries--cigarros and
cigareillos--leading to an explosive increase in the use of
the cigar. (The South remains firmly attached to chewing
tobacco.)
1847: ENGLAND: Philip Morris opens
shop; sells hand-rolled Turkish cigarettes.
1848: GERMANY: REGULATION: Abolition
of the last restrictions in Berlin (AHS)
1848: ITALY: "Tobacco War" erupts as
Italians protest AUSTRIAN control of the tobacco monopoly.
1849: BUSINESS: J.E. Liggett and
Brother is established in St. Louis, Mo., by John Edmund
Liggett
1849: CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH: One
commentator writes of this period: "I have seen purer liquors,
better seegars, finer tobacco, truer guns and pistols, larger
dirks and bowie knives, and prettier cortezans, here in San
Francisco than in any place I have ever visited, and it is my
unbiased opinion that California can and does furnish the best
bad things that are obtainable in America."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1852:Washington Duke, a young tobacco
farmer, builds a modest, two-story home near Durham, NC, for
himself and his new bride. The house, and the log structure
which served as a "tobacco factory" after the Civil War may
still be seen at the Duke Homestead Museum.
1852: Matches are introduced, making
smoking more convenient.
1853-1856: EUROPE: CRIMEAN WAR British
soldiers learn how cheap and convenient the cigarettes
("Papirossi") used by their Turkish allies are, and bring the
practise back to England. The story goes that the English
captured a Russian train loaded with provisions--including
cigarettes...
1854: ENGLAND: BUSINESS: London
tobacconist Philip Morris begins making his own cigarettes.
Old Bond Street soon becomes the center of the retail tobacco
trade.
1854: FRIEDRICH TIEDEMANN writes the
first exhaustive treatment on tobacco.
1855: J.E. Lundstrom invents the
safety match, which requires a special striking surface.
1855: "Annual Report of the New York
Anti-Tobacco Society for 1855" calls tobacco a "fashionable
poison," warns against addiction and claims half of all deaths
of smokers between 35 and 50 were caused by smoking.
1856-1857: ENGLAND: A running debate
among readers about the health effects of tobacco runs in the
British medical journal, Lancet. The argument runs as much
along moral as medical lines, with little substantiation.(RK)
1856-1857: ENGLAND: The country's
first cigarette factory is opened by Crimean vet Robert Gloag,
manufacturing "Sweet Threes" (GTAT)
1856: PEOPLE: James Buchanan "Buck"
Duke is born to Washington "Wash" Duke, an independent farmer
who hated the plantation class, opposed slavery, and raised
food and a little tobacco.
1858: Treaty of Tianjin allows
cigarettes to be imported into China duty free
1858: First Chinese Immigrant arrives
in New York City, Sells Cigars. Ah Ken moves into a house on
Mott St., opens a cigar store on Park Row. ( Low Life, Sante,
1991)
1859: Reverend George Trask publishes
tract "Thoughts and stories for American Lads: Uncle Toby's
anti-tobacco advice to his nephew Billy Bruce". He writes,
"Physicians tell us that twenty thousand or more in our own
land are killed by [tobacco] every year (LB)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1860: The Census for Virginia and
North Carolina list 348 tobacco factories, virtually all
producing chewing tobacco. Only 6 list smoking tobacco as a
side-product (which is manufactured from scraps left over from
plug production).
1860: BUSINESS: Manufactured
cigarettes appear. A popular early brand is Blackwell Tobacco
Company's Bull Durham, which rose to become the most famous
brand in world, and gave rise to the term "bull pen" for a
baseball dugout.
1860: BUSINESS: MARKETING: Lorillard
wraps $100 bills at random in packages of cigarette tobacco
named "Century," in order to celebrate the hundredth
anniversary of the firm (BD)
1861-1865: USA: THE CIVIL WAR: Tobacco
is given with rations by both North and South; many
Northerners are introduced to tobacco this way. During
Sherman's march, Union soldiers, now attracted to the mild,
sweet "bright" tobacco of the South, raided
warehouses--including Washington Duke's--for some chew on the
way home. Some bright made it all the way back. Bright tobacco
becomes the rage in the North.
1862: THE CIVIL WAR: First federal USA
tax on tobacco; instituted to help pay for the Civil War,
yields about three million dollars.(TSW)
1863: SUMATRA: Nienhuys creates
Indonesian tobacco industry Dutch businessman Jacobus Nienhuys
travels to Sumatra seeking to buy tobacco, but finds poor
growing and production facilities; his efforts to rectify the
situation are credited with establishing the indonesian
tobacco industry.
1863: US Mandates Cigar Boxes.
Congress passes a law calling for manufacturers to create
cigar boxes on which IRS agents can paste Civil War excise tax
stamps. The beginning of "cigar box art."
1864: CIVIL WAR: The first federal
cigarette excise tax is imposed to help pay for the Civil War.
1864: AGRICULTURE: WHITE BURLEY first
cultivated in Ohio Valley; highly absorbent,
chlorophyll-deficient new leaf proves ideal for sweetened
chewing tobacco.
1864: BUSINESS: 1st American cigarette
factory opens and produces almost 20 million cigarettes.
1865-70: NEW YORK CITY: Demand for
exotic Turkish cigarettes grows in New York City; skilled
European rollers imported by New York tobacco shops. (ATS)
1868: UK: Parliament passes the
Railway Bill of 1868, which mandates smoke-free cars to
prevent injury to non-smokers.
1868/69?: BUSINESS: Allen &
Gintner's Sweet Caporals brand is introduced.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1871: BUSINESS: R.A. Patterson founds
the "Lucky Strike" company, named for the 1849 California Gold
Rush.
1873: BUSINESS: Philip Morris dies.
(Yes, that Philip Morris) His wife, Margaret, and brother,
Leopold, take over.
1873: Myers Brothers and Co. markets
"Love" tobacco with theme of North-South Civil War
reconcilliation.
1874: BUSINESS: Washington Duke, with
his sons Benjamin N. Duke and James Buchanan Duke, builds his
first tobacco factory
1874: BUSINESS: Samuel Gompers creates
the first Union label; persuades a consortium of California
cigar makers to apply a label that attest the cigar has been
untouched by Chinese labor.
1875: BUSINESS: Allen and Ginter offer
a reward of $75,000 for cigarette rolling machine. (LB)
1875: BUSINESS: R. J. Reynolds founds
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company to produce chewing tobacco, soon
producing brands like Brown's Mule, Golden Rain, Dixie's
Delight, Yellow Rose, Purity.
1875: BUSINESS: Richmond, VA: Allen
& Ginter cigarette brands ("Richmond Straight Cut No. 1,"
"Pet") begin using picture cards to stiffen the pack and give
the buyer a premium. Some themes: "Fifty Scenes of Perilous
Occupations," "Flags of All Nations," boxers, actresses,
famous battles, etc. The cards are a huge hit.(RK)
1875: ART: Georges Bizet's opera,
Carmen, based on Merimee's novel about a cigarette girl in an
Andalusian factory, opens.
1876: CENNTENNIAL CELEBRATION:
PHILADELPHIA: Allen & Ginter's cigarette displays are so
impressive that some writers thought the Philadelphia
exposition marked the birth of the cigarette as well as the
telephone. (CC)
1876: Benson & Hedges receives its
first royal warrant from Edward VII, Prince of Wales.
1878: BUSINESS: J.E. Liggett &
Brother incorporates as Liggett & Myers Company. By 1885
Liggett is world's largest plug tobacco manufacturer; doesn't
make cigarettes until the 1890's
1878: BUSINESS: Trading cards and
coupons begin being widely used in cigarette packs. Edward Bok
suggested to a manufacturer that the blank "cardboard
stiffeners" in the "cigarette sandwich', might have
biographies on one side and pictures on the other. The
American News Company-distributed Marquis of Lorne cigarettes
were the first to have the new picture cards in each pack
(GTAT)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1880: ENGLAND: BUSINESS: Leopold
Morris buys Margaret's share of the Philip Morris business,
and brings in a new partner.
1880s: USA: Women's Christian
Temperance Movement publishes a "Leaflet for Mothers'
Meetings" titled "Narcotics", by Lida B. Ingalls. Discusses
evils of tobacco, especially cigarettes. Cigarettes are "doing
more to-day to undermine the constitution of our young men and
boys than any other one evil" (p. 7). (LB)
1880s: Cigarette cards, previously
only used as stiffeners, begin displaying pictures.
1880s: ADVERTISING: Improvements in
transportation, manufacturing volume, and packaging lead to
the ability to sell the same branded product nationwide. What
can be sold nationwide can and must be advertised nationwide.
Advertising agencies sprout like wildflowers. The most
advertised product throughout most of the 19th century:
elixirs and patent medicines of the "cancer cure" variety.
1880s: ENGLAND: BUSINESS: Mssrs.
Richard Benson and William Hedges open a tobacconist shop near
Philip Morris in London.(RK)
1880s. BUSINESS: JB Duke's aggressive
saleman Edward Featherston Small hires a cigarette saleswoman,
Mrs. Leonard. In .St. Louis, when retailers ignored him, Small
advertised for a saleswoman. A petite, thin-lipped widow, a
Mrs. Leonard, applied for the job and was accepted. This
little stunt gave the Dukes thousands of dollars of free
publicity in the local newspapers. (CC)
1880: BUSINESS: Bonsack machine
granted first cigarette machine patent
1881: ENGLAND: BUSINESS: Philip Morris
goes public.
1881: BUSINESS James Buchanan ("Buck")
Duke enters the manufacturered cigarette business, moving 125
Russian Jewish immigrants to Durham, NC. First cigarette: Duke
of Durham brand. Duke's factory produces 9.8 million
cigarettes, 1.5 % of the total market.
1883: BUSINESS: Oscar Hammerstien
receives patent on cigar rolling machine.(TSW)
1883: US ends the 1862 Civil War
excise tax on cigars, helping to usher in a 40-year Golden Age
of cigar smoking.
1884: BUSINESS: Duke heads to New York
City to take his tobacco business national and form a cartel
that eventually becomes the American Tobacco Co. Duke buys 2
Bonsack machines., getting one of them to produce 120,000
cigarettes in 10 hours by the end of the year. In this year
Duke produces 744 million cigarettes, more than the national
total in 1883. Duke's airtight contracts with Bonsack allow
him to undersell all competitors.
1885: ENGLAND: BUSINESS: Leopold
Morris joins with Joseph Grunebaum to establish Philip Morris
& Company and Grunebaum, Ltd.
1886: BUSINESS: Patent received for
machine to manufacture plug tobacco. (LB)
1886: BUSINESS: Tampa, FL: Don Vicente
Martinez Ybor opens his first cigar factory. Others follow.
Within a few years, Ybor city will become the cigar capital of
the US.
1886: BUSINESS: JB Duke targets women
with "Cameo" brand.
1887: ENGLAND: BUSINESS: Leopold
Morris and Grunebaum dissolve their partnership. Company
becomes Philip Morris & Co., Ltd.
1887: PALESTINE: A traveler reports
that the Arabs of the Syrian Desert get giddy and headaches
from a few whiffs of tobacco. They smoke a local plant
'Hyoscyamus'. (LB)
1887: USA: Advice from the cigar and
tobacco price list of M. Breitweiser and Brothers of Buffalo,
Item #5 -- "If you think smoking injurious to your health,
stop smoking in the morning". (LB)
1887: USA: Two men held pipe smoking
contest that lasted one and a half hours. Victory was declared
when one man filled his pipe for the tenth time, his oppenent
did not. (LB)
1887: BUSINESS: His contracts with
Bonsack unknown to his competitors, Buck Duke slashes prices,
sparking a price war he knew he'd win.
1887: BUSINESS: Connorton's Tobacco
Brand Directory of the United States lists St. Louis as No. 1
in tobacco output.
1889: SCIENCE: Nicotine and nerve
cells reported on. Langley and Dickinson publish landmark
studies on the effects of nicotine on the ganglia; they
hypothesize that there are receptors and transmitters that
respond to stimulation by specific chemicals. (RK)
1889: USA: ADVERTISING: Buck Duke
spends an unheard-of $800,000 in billboard and newspaper
advertising.
1889-04-23: BUSINESS: The five leading
cigarette firms, including W. Duke Sons & Company, unite.
James Buchanan "Buck" Duke emerges as the president of the new
American Tobacco Company.
1889: Lung cancer is an extremely rare
disease: there are only 140 documented cases worldwide (
Kaminsky M. Ein primres Lungencarcinom mit verhornten
Plattenepithelien. Greifswald: Inaug. Diss, 1898.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c.1890s: USA: Women's Christian
Temperance Movement publishes "Narcotics", by E. B. Ingalls.
Pamphlet discusses evils of numerous drugs, tobacco, cocaine,
ginger, hashish, and headache medicines. Offers 16 suggestions
to workers. (LB)
c.1890s: INDONESIA: BUSINESS: "Kretek"
cigarettes invented. The story is that Noto Semito of Kudus
was desperate to cure his asthma. He rolled tobacco mixed with
crushed cloves in dried corn leaves--and cured his respiratory
ailments. He then Began manufacturing clove cigarettes under
the name BAL TIGA (Three Balls). He became a millionaire, but
competition was so fierce he eventurally died penniless in
1953.
1890: BUSINESS: Peak of chewing
tobacco consumption in U. S., three pounds per capita. (ATS)
1890: "Tobacco" appears in the US
Pharmacopoeia, an official government listing of drugs.
1890: REGULATION: 26 states and
territories have outlawed the sale of cigarettes to minors
(age of a "minor" in a particulary state could be anything
from 14-24.)
1890: REGULATION: PAKISTAN: The
Railways Act prohibits smoking in railway compartments without
the consent of fellow passengers. (Repealed in 1959 by
then-provicial governemtn of West Pakistan)
1890: BUSINESS: Dukes establish the
American Tobacco Company, which will soon monopolize the
entire US tobacco industry. ATC will be dissolved in
Anti-Trust action in 1911.
1890: LITERATURE: My Lady Nicotine, by
Sir James Barrie, London
1892: REGULATION: Reformers petition
Congress to prohibit the manufacture, importation and sale of
cigarettes. The Senate Committee on Epidemic Diseases, while
agreeing that cigarettes are a public health hazard, finds
that only the states have the authority to act. The committee
urges the petitioners to seek redress from state legislatures.
1892: BUSINESS: Book matches are
invented, but are a technological failure. Since the striking
surface was inside the book, all the matches caught fire
often. By 1912, the technology would be perfected.
1893: SCIENCE: Pure nicotine is first
synthesized by Pictet and Crepieux.
1893: REGULATION: The state of
Washington bans the sale and use of cigarettes. The law is
overturned on constitutional grounds as a restraint of free
trade.
1894: BUSINESS: By now, Philip Morris
passes from the troubled Morris family, to the control of
William Curtis Thompson and his family (RK).
1894: BUSINESS: Brown & Williamson
formed as a partnership in Winston-Salem, NC,, making mostly
plug, snuff and pipe tobacco. (RK).
1894: LITERATURE: Under Two Flags by
Ouida (Louise de la Ramee). Cigarette, the waif heroine "Rides
like an Arab, Smokes like a Zouave." Cigarette is describes as
"Enfant de L'armee, Femme de la Fume, Soldat de la France."
1895: ADVERTISING: First known motion
picture commercial is made, an ad for Admiral cigarettes
produced by Thomas A. Edison's company.
1896: REGULATION: Smoking banned in
the House; chewing still allowed
1898: SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR: Congress
raises taxes on cigarettes 200%
1898: LITIGATION: Tennessee Supreme
Court upholds a total ban on cigarettes, ruling they are "not
legitimate articles of commerce, because wholly noxious and
deleterious to health. Their use is always harmful."
1899: Lucy Payne Gaston, who claims
that young men who smoke develop a distinguishable "cigarette
face," founds the Chicago Anti-Cigarette League, which grows
by 1911 to the Anti-Cigarette League of America, and by 1919
to the Anti-Cigarette League of the World.
1899: TAXES: The Senate Finance
Committee, in secret session, rolls back the wartime excise
tax on cigarettes.(RK)
1899: BUSINESS: Benson & Hedges
open a tony shop on 5th Avenue in New York City, providing
elegant cigarettes for the carriage trade.
1899: BUSINESS: Liggett & Myers
taken into Duke's Tobacco Trust. Duke has finally won the Bull
Durham brand of chew. Bull Durham is the most famous trademark
in the world, giving rise to the term �bull pen� (from a Bull
Durham ad painted behind the Yankees� dugout), and �shooting
the bull� (most likely from chewing tobacco). The bull was
advertised all over the world, and even painted on the Great
Pyramid of Egypt.
1899: BUSINESS: KOREA: Korea Tobacco
and Ginseng (KTG) is founded as a state monopoly on ginseng.
The monopoly was expanded to include tobacco in 1921.
1899: BUSINESS: RJ Reynolds Tobacco
Company incorporates..
1899: BUSINESS: Pall Mall brand is
introduced by Butler & Butler Tobacco Co. in New York.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Twentieth Century--The Rise of the
Cigarette
1900-1950: Growing Pains
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1900: Brosch experiments with tobacco
carcinogenisis on guinea pigs
1900: REGULATION: Washington, Iowa,
Tennessee and North Dakota have outlawed the sale of
cigarettes.
1900: CONSUMPTION: 4.4 billion
cigarettes are sold this year. The anti-cigarette movement has
destroyed many smaller companies. Buck Duke is selling 9 out
of 10 cigarettes in the US.
1900: REGULATION: US Supreme Court
uphold's Tennessee's ban on cigarette sales. One Justice,
repeating a popular notion of the day, says, "there are many
[cigarettes] whose tobacco has been mixed with opium or some
other drug, and whose wrapper has been saturated in a solution
of arsenic.".
1900: BUSINESS: RJ Reynolds
reluctantly folds his company into Duke's Tobacco Trust
1901: REGULATION: Strong
anti-cigarette activity in 43 of the 45 states. "[O]nly
Wyoming and Louisiana had paid no attention to the cigarette
controversy, while the other forty-three states either already
had anti-cigarette laws on the books, were considering new or
tougher anti-cigarette laws, or were the scenes of heavy anti-
cigarette activity" (Dillow, 1981:10).
1901: ENGLAND: END OF AN AGE: QUEEN
VICTORIA DIES. Edward VII, the tobacco-hating queen's son and
successor, gathers friends together in a large drawing room at
Buckingham Palace. He enters the room with a lit cigar in his
hand and announces, "Gentlemen, you may smoke."
1901: ENGLAND: BUSINESS: By royal
warrant, Philip Morris & Co., Ltd., is appointed
tobacconist for King Edward VII.
1901: BUSINESS: Duke fuses his
Continental Tobacco and American Tobacco companies into
Consolidated Tobacco.
1901: BUSINESS: UK: Duke's
Consolidated buys the British Ogden tobacco firm, signalling a
raid on the British industry.
1901: CONSUMPTION: 3.5 billion
cigarettes and 6 billion cigars are sold. Four in five
American men smoke at least one cigar a day.
1901-12-10: BUSINESS: UK:
Incorporation of The Imperial Tobacco Co. of Great Britain and
Ireland Ltd; Imperial is born. 13 of the largest British
tobacco companies, including W.D. & H.O. Wills, unite to
combat Duke's take-over, and form the Bristol-based Imperial
Tobacco Co.
1902: BUSINESS: In an end to the war,
Imperial Tobacco (UK) and Buck Duke's American Tobacco Co.
(USA) agree to stay in their own countries, and unite to form
a joint venture, the British American Tobacco Company (BAT) to
sell both companies' brands abroad.
1902: Philip Morris sets up a
corporation on Broad St. in New York to sell its British
brands, including one named "Marlboro." Ownership is split
50-50 between the British parent and American partners.
1902: BUSINESS: ENGLAND: King Albert,
long a fan of Philip Morris, Ltd., appoints the Bond St.
boutique royal tobacconist.(RK)
1902: USA: Sears, Roebuck and Co
catalogue (page 441) sells "Sure Cure for the Tobacco Habit".
Slogan "Tobacco to the Dogs". The product "will destroy the
effects of nicotine". (LB)
1902: Spring: Topsy, the ill-tempered
Coney Island elephant, kills J. F. Blount, a keeper, who tried
to feed a lighted cigarette to her. She picked him up with her
trunk and dashed him to the ground, killing him instantly. On
January 5, 1903, 1500 watch Topsy's electrocution in Coney
Island.
1903: BRAZIL: Souza Cruz founded.
1903: LEGISLATION: Kansas Legislature
enacts the "slobbering" bill, prohibiting spitting tobacco on
floors, walls or carpets in churches, schools or public
buildings.
1903-08: The August Harpers Weekly
says, "A great many thoughtful and intelligent men who smoke
don't know if it does them good or harm. They notice bad
effects when they smoke too much. They know that having once
acquired the habit, it bothers them . . . to have their
allowance of tobacco cut off."
1904: BUSINESS: Connorton's Tobacco
Directory lists 2,124 "cigarettes, cigarros and cheroots."
(GTAT)
1904: BUSINESS: Cigarette coupons
first used as "come ons" for a new chain of tobacco stores.
1904: BUSINESS: Duke forms the
American Tobacco Co. by the merger of 2 subsidiaries,
Consolidated and American & Continental. The only form of
tobacco Duke does not control is cigars--the form with the
most prestige.
1904: MEDICINE: The first laboratory
synthesis of nicotine is reported
1904: New York: A judge sends a woman
is sent to jail for 30 days for smoking in front of her
children.
1904: New York CIty. A woman is
arrested for smoking a cigarette in an automobile. "You can't
do that on Fifth Avenue," the arresting officer says
1904: Kentucky tobacco farmers form a
violent "protective association" to protect themselves against
rapacious tactics of large manufacturers, mostly the Duke
combine. They destroy tobacco factories, crops, and even
murder other planters. Disbanded in 1915.
1905: POLITICS: Indiana legislature
bribery attempt is exposed, leading to passage of total
cigarette ban
1905: U.S. warships head to Nicaragua
on behalf of William Albers, a Amaerican accused of evading
tobacco taxes
1905: BUSINESS: ATC acquires R.A.
Patterson's Lucky Strike company.
1905: REGULATION: "Tobacco" does not
appear in the US Pharmacopoeia, an official government listing
of drugs. "The removal of tobacco from the Pharmacopoeia was
the price that had to be paid to get the support of tobacco
state legislators for the Food and Drug Act of 1906. The
elimination of the word tobacco automatically removed the leaf
from FDA supervision."--Smoking and Politics: Policymaking and
the Federal Bureaucracy Fritschler, A. Lee. 1969, p. 37
1906 BUSINESS: Brown and Williamson
Tobacco Company is formed
1906 BUSINESS: R.J. Reynolds
introduces Prince Albert pipe tobacco
1906-06-30: FEDERAL FOOD AND DRUGS ACT
of 1906 prohibits sale of adulterated foods and drugs, and
mandates honest statement of contents on labels. Food and Drug
Administration begins. Originally, nicotine is on the list of
drugs; after tobacco industry lobbying efforts, nicotine is
removed from the list. Definition of a drug includes medicines
and preparations listed in U.S. Pharmacoepia or National
Formulary. 1914 interpretation advised that tobacco be
included only when used to cure, mitigate, or prevent disease.
1907: Business owners are refusing to
hire smokers. On August 8, the New York Times writes:
"Business ... is doing what all the anti-cigarette specialists
could not do."
1907: BUSINESS: American Tobacco
purchases Butler & Butler, acquiring the Pall Mall brand.
1907: REGULATION: WASHINGTON passes a
law making it illegal to "manufacture, sell, exchange, barter,
dispose of or give away any cigarettes, cigarette paper or
cigarette wrappers."
1907: REGULATION: Teddy Roosevelt's
Justice Department files anti-trust charges against American
Tobacco.
1907: In 1907, the American Tobacco
Company signed a contract with the operator of a horse-drawn
stage line in New York to lease advertising space. One very
controversial ad appeared for "Bull" Durham, the nation's
leading tobacco brand. "Onlookers were shocked at the sight of
the bull's well-endowed maleness so graphically rendered, and
had the driver of the first stage that appeared on the street
arrested." The City of New York sued the coach company and its
client, the American Tobacco Company, to ban the ads. The case
went all the way to the Supreme Court in 1911, which upheld
New York's ban. Ironically, this case ruling took place the
day after the same court handed down a historic verdict
ordering the dissolution of the Buck Duke's $240
million-a-year American Tobacco Company monopoly, which the
court deemed in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
--Moyer, D. The Tobacco Reference Guide
https://new.globalink.org/tobacco/trg/Chapter4/Chap4Page52.html
1907-01-26: REGULATION: THE TILLMAN
ACT. Congress enacts law prohibiting campaign contributions by
corporations to candidates for national posts. However, no
restrictions were placed on the individuals who owned or
managed the corporations. Enforcement was imposssible. "Behind
the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible
government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no
responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible
government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt
business and corrupt politics is the first task of the
statesmanship of today."--Theodore Roosevelt
1908: CANADA: LEGISLATION: The Tobacco
Restraint Act passed. Bans sales of cigarettes to those under
16; never enforced.
1908: ENGLAND: Legislation to prohibit
the sales of tobacco to under 16s -- based on the belief that
smoking stunts childrens growth
1908: BUSINESS: RJ Reynolds release,
Prince Albert pipe tobacco, "the Joy Smoke.", catapulting
Reynolds to a national market. (RK)
1909: 15 states have passed
legislation banning the sale of cigarettes.
1909: SPORTS: Baseball great Honus
Wagner orders American Tobacco Company take his picture off
their "Sweet Caporal" cigarette packs, fearing they would lead
children to smoke. The shortage makes the Honus Wagner card
the most valuable of all time, worth close to $500,000.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1910: CONSUMPTION: Per capita
cigarette consumption: 94/year. Per capita cigar consumption:
77/year. (International Smoking Statistice) Because of the
heavy use of the inexpensive cigarette by immigrants, New York
still accounts for 25% of all cigarette sales. A New York
Times editorial praises the Non Smokers Protective League,
saying anything that could be done to allay "the general and
indiscriminate use of tobacco in public places, hotels,
restaurants, and railroad cars, will receive the approval of
everybody whose approval is worth having." (RK)
1910: TAXES: Federal tax revenues from
tobacco products are $58 million, 13% from cigarettes.
1910: BUSINESS: The famous T206 series
of tobacco baseball cards is issued by the makers of 16
different cigarette brands. The original set consists of 389
cards.
1911: BUSINESS: THE INDUSTRY IN 1911:
Duke's American Tobacco Co. controls 92% of the world's
tobacco business. Leading National Brand: Fatima, (first
popular brand to be sold in 20-unit packs; 15 cents) from
Liggett & Myers, a Turkish/domestic blend. Most popular in
Eastern urban areas. Other Turkish/domesitc competitors: Omar
(ATC); Zubelda (Lorillard); Even the straight domestic brands
were seasoned with a sprinkling of Turkish, like Sweet
Caporals (originally made for F.S. Kinney and later for
American Tobacco) Leading Brand in Southeast: Piedmont, an
all-Bright leaf brand. Leading Brand in New Orleans: Home Run,
(5 cents for 20) an all-Burley leaf brand.
1911: Tobacco -growing is allowed in
England for the first time in more than 250 years.
1911: American Tobacco Co. establishes
a Research Department.
1911-08-03: PUBLISHING: LIFE
MAGAZINE's cover features a diapered baby girl smoking one of
her mother's cigarettes. The caption: "My Lady Nicotine."
1911-05-29: "Trustbusters" break up
American Tobacco Co. US Supreme Court dissolves Duke's trust
as a monopoly and in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act
(1890). The major companies to emerge are: American Tobacco
Co., R.J. Reynolds, Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company
(Durham, NC), Lorillard and British-American Tobacco (BAT). RJ
Reynolds says, "Now watch me give Buck Duke hell." BAT is
listed on the London Stock Exchange. Liggett & Myers was
given about 28 per cent of the cigarette market: Piedmont
Fatima American Beauty Home Run Imperiales Coupon King Bee
Fatima (the only 15 Turkish blend and the cheap straight
domestic brands.
P. Lorillard received 15 per cent of
the nation's business: Helmar Egyptian Deities Turkish
Trophies Murad Mogul and all straight Turkish brands
American Tobacco retained 37 per cent
of the market: Pall Mall, its expensive all-Turkish brand,
named for a fashionable London street in the 18th century
where "pall-mall" (a precursor to croquet) was played. Sweet
Caporal Hassan Mecca
R. J. Reynolds received no cigarette
line but was awarded 20 per cent of the plug trade.
1911: Dr. Charles Pease states
position of the NonSmokers' Protective League of America:
1912: BUSINESS: Newly freed Liggett
& Myers introduces "Chesterfield" brand cigarettes, with
the slogan: They do satisfy
1912: BUSINESS: Book matches are
finally perfected by Diamond Co. Now the appeal, in
portability and ease of use, of cigarettes is even greater.
1912: BUSINESS: The IMPERIAL TOBACCO
COMPANY OF CANADA is incorporated with the assistance of
British-American Tobacco (which had been created by the
joining of Imperial Tobacco and American Tobacco) to produce
and market tobacco products across Canada
1912: BUSINESS: George Whelan puts his
United Cigar Stores company under a holding company, Tobacco
Products Corporation, and starts buying small tobacco
independents.
1912: USA: Reprint of report of the
perfection of a nicotine oil spray. This makes it easier to
apply the nicotine extract as an insecticde to plants. (LB)
1912: USA: The members of the
Non-Smokers' Protective League received editorial ridicule in
various newspapers. One newspaper states, "Smoking may be
offensive to some people, but ecourages peace and morality".
Pipes and cigars are easily defended, but cigarettes may be a
problem. (LB)
1912: HEALTH: First strong link made
between lung cancer and smoking. In a monograph, Dr. Isaac
Adler is the first to strongly suggest that lung cancer is
related to smoking.
1912: USA: Article on substitutes for
tobacco, such as ground coffee, coffee bean, hemp, leaves of
the tomato or potato or holly or camphor, or "the egg plant,
and the colt's foot". (LB)
1912: USA: Article titled "How some
men stop smoking"; in which they never stop for more than a
few hours. The question is raised, "How can we break ourselves
of it? -- not the tobacco, but the thought that we ought to
stop it?" (LB)
1912: MEDICINE: The first
lobectomy--removal of a lobe of the lung--for lung cancer is
accomplished in London by surgeon Hugh Morriston Davies. The
patient dies 8 days later because the lung cavity is not
drained, a procedure not followed in such cases until 1929.
1912: SINKING OF THE TITANIC Men in
tuxedos are observed smoking cigarettes as they await their
fate. (RK)
1912: REGULATION: TRADING WITH THE
ENEMY ACT. It is under this act that present-day Cuban cigar
smugglers would be prosecuted. It carries a maximum penalty of
$250,000 and 10 years in jail.
1912: The UNITED STATES MARINE
HOSPITAL SERVICE becomes the PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE.
1912: BUSINESS: ENGLAND: Walter Molins
and his son, Desmond form MOLINS MACHINE CO. LTD.,
specializing in the making of cigarette machinery.
1912: BUSINESS: PERCIVAL S. HILL
becomes president of The AMERICAN TOBACCO COMPANY
1913: AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR THE CONTROL
OF CANCER is formed to inform the public about the disease. It
will later become the AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY.(RK)
1913: BUSINESS: Birth of the "modern"
cigarette: RJ REYNOLDS introduces CAMEL
1913-14: ADVERTISING: PRINCE ALBERT
tobacco uses CHIEF JOSEPH of the Nez Perce Indians in its ads.
1914: HEALTH: Lung cancer death rate
is 0.6 per 100,000 (US Census Bureau); 371 cases reported in
the US. (RK).
1914: REGULATION: Smoking is banned in
the US Senate chamber because a senator recovering from a
stroke complained of irritated lungs; chewing is still
allowed.
1914: BUSINESS: Peak of the cigar
industry: there are 24,000 cigar factories in the US,
including hundreds in Brooklyn, NY.
1914: BUSINESS: BRAZIL: BAT acquires
Souza Cruz.
1914: OPINION: Thomas Edison writes to
Henry Ford that the health danger of cigarettes actually lies
in "the burning paper wrapper" which emits acrolein. Acrolein
has an irreversible "violent action on the nerve centers,
producing degeneration of the cells of the brain, which is
quite rapid among boys. . . I employ no person who smokes."
1914: BOOKS: "The Social History of
Smoking", by G. L. Apperson (London)
1915: BUSINESS: Liggett & Myers
reconstitutes Chesterfield in the Camel mode; shortens slogan
to: They Satisfy
1915: BUSINESS: Thorne Bros. sell
majority stake in Montgomery Ward to tobacco interests.
1915: BUSINESS: CHINA: Brightleaf
tobacco seeds and growing methods are first transported to
China ["The Tobacco Project"]
1915: POETRY: Tobacco is a dirty weed.
I like it. It satisfies no normal need. I like it. It makes
you thin, it makes you lean, It takes the hair right off your
bean. It's the worst darn stuff I've ever seen. I like it.
--Graham Lee Hemminger, Penn State Froth, Tobacco c. 1915:
OPINION: Release of poster with quote from biologist Davis
Starr Jordan, "The boy who smokes cigarettes need not be
anxious about his future, he has none" (LB)
1916: Henry Ford publishes
anti-cigarette pamphlet titled "The Case against the Little
White Slaver". (LB)
1916: BUSINESS: To compete with the
phenomenal success of RJR's Camel, American introduces Lucky
Strike, the name revived from an 1871 pipe tobacco brand that
referenced the Gold Rush days. On the package, the motto:
"It's Toasted!" (like all other cigarettes.) .
1917: BUSINESS: There are now 3
standard brands of cigarettes on the US market: Lucky Strike,
Camel and Chesterfield. R.J. Reynolds suspects American
Tobacco of disseminating rumors of salt petre in tobacco, and
factor workers with leprosy and syphilis. Claims that agents
would enter streetcars, one from the front and one from the
rear, and hold a loud conversation about these...and then exit
to repeat again and again. R.J. Reynolds posts $500 reward
notices. (Pollay)
1917: BUSINESS: American Tobacco
unleashes an ad campaign for Lucky Strike aimed at women:
"Avoid that future shadow," warns one ad, comparing ladies'
jowls.
1917: BUSINESS: "All Automated Short
Filler Cigar Machine" is patented.
1917-18: US JOINS WORLD WAR I
Cigarette rations determined by market share, a great boost to
Camel, which had over a third of the domestic market.
Virtually an entire generation return from the war addicted to
cigarettes. Turkish leaf is unavailable; American tobacco
farmers get up to 70 cents/pound. Those opposed to sending
cigarettes to the doughboys are accused of being traitors.
According to General John J. Pershing: You ask me what we need
to win this war. I answer tobacco as much as bullets. Tobacco
is as indispensable as the daily ration; we must have
thousands of tons without delay.
1918: War Department buys the entire
output of Bull Durham tobacco. Bull Durham advertises, "When
our boys light up, the Huns will light out."
1918: Frederick J. Pack publishes
"Tobaco and Human Efficiency," the most comprehensive
compilation of anti-cigarette opinion to date. (RK)
1918: BUSINESS: CHINA:
American-Chinese Tobacco Co. (meiguo-zhongguo yancao gongsi)
formed for the "sole purpose of buying tobacco in the US and
selling it to China" ["The Tobacco Project"]
1919: HEALTH: Washington University
medical student Alton Ochsner is summoned to observe lung
cancer surgery--something, he is told, he may never see again.
He doesn't see another case for 17 years. Then he sees 8 in
six months--all smokers who had picked up the habit in WW I.
1919: Vice President Thomas Marshall
says, "What this country really needs is a good 5-cent cigar."
1918-07-29: PEOPLE: Richard Joshua
(R.J.) Reynolds, 68, dies of pancreatic cancer in
Winston-Salem, NC.
1919: The 18th Admendment ratified by
states. (LB)
1919: Evangelist Billy Sunday declares
"Prohibition is won; now for tobacco". The success of alcohol
prohibition suggusted to some the possibility of tobacco
prohibition (LB)
1919: Lucy Payne Gaston's tactics are
attracting lawsuits; she is asked to resign from
Anti-Cigarettel League of the World.
1919: BUSINESS: The Philip Morris
coronet logo is introduced.
1919: BUSINESS: George Whelan Tobacco
Products picks up tiny US Philip Morris Company, including
PM's brands Cambridge, Oxford Blues, English Ovals, Players,
and Marlboro. The new Philip Morris & Company, Ltd. Inc,
is incorporated in Richmond, VA.
1919: BUSINESS: Manufactured
cigarettes surpass smoking tobacco in poundage of tobacco
consumed. (RK)
1919: BUSINESS: ADVERTINSING:
Lorillard unsuccessfully targets women with its Helmar and
Murad brands. (RK)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1920: CONSUMPTION: Per capita
cigarette consumption: 419/year. Per capita cigar consumption:
80/year. (International Smoking Statistice)
1920: ATC's Richmond Research
Laboratory conducts a "continuing study of the components of
tobacco and tobacco smoke."
1920-06-11: Republican party leaders,
meeting in the "smoke-filled room" (Suite 408-10 of Chicago's
Blackstone Hotel) engineered the presidential nomination of
Warren G. Harding.
1920-10: OPINION: "" in Atlantic
Monthly says, "scientific truth" has found "that the claims of
those who inveigh aginst tobacco are wholy without foundation
has been proved time and again by famous chemists, physicians,
toxicologists, physiologists, and experts of every nation and
clime." (RK)
1921: BUSINESS: RJR spends $8 million
in advertising, mostly on Camel; inaugurates the "I'd Walk a
Mile for a Camel" slogan. (RK)
1921: BUSINESS: KOREA: Korea Tobacco
and Ginseng (KTG)'s monopoly is expanded to include tobacco.
1921: TAXES: State tobacco taxation
begins. Iowa becomes the first state to add its own cigarette
tax (2 cents a pack) onto federal excise levy (6 cents).(RK)
1922: REGULATION: 15 states have
banned the sale, manufacture, possession, advertising and/or
use of cigarettes.
1922: BUSINESS: RJR takes Industry
leadership. from American for first time.(RK)
1922: BUSINESS: Manufactured
cigarettes surpass plug in poundage of tobacco consumed to
become US's highest grossing tobacco product. (RK)
1922: PEOPLE: Lucy Payne Gaston runs
for President of the U.S. against "cigarette face" Warren G.
Harding, whom she asks to quit smoking. Within two years they
both will be dead, he of a stroke mid-term, she of throat
cancer. (There is no record of her ever having smoked.)
1923: BUSINESS: MARKET SHARE: Camel
has 45% of the US market.
1923: NEW JERSEY: A Secaucus teacher's
attempt to get her job back after being fired for cigarette
smoking reaches the state Supreme Court, but fails
1923: LITERATURE: "Confessions of
Zeno" by Italo Svevo
1923: MARKET SHARE: Camel has over 40%
of the US market.
1924: Lucy Payne Gaston dies of throat
cancer.
1924: CONSUMPTION: 73 billion
cigarettes sold in US
1924: Reader's Digest publishes "Does
Tobacco Injure the Human Body," the beginning of a RD campaign
to make people think before starting to smoke.
1924: BUSINESS: Philip Morris
introduces Marlboro, a women's cigarette that is "Mild as May"
1924: BUSINESS: Durham, NC: James B.
Duke creates Duke University.Duke gives an endowment to
Trinity College. Under provisions of the fund, Trinity becomes
Duke University
1925: James Buchanan Duke dies.
1925: HEALTH: Lung cancer death rate
is 1.7 per 100,000 (US Census Bureau)(RK).
1925: BUSINESS: Philip Morris'
Marlboro, "Mild as May," targets "decent, respectable" women.
"Has smoking any more to do with a woman's morals than has the
color of her hair?" A 1927 ad reads, "Women quickly develop
discerning taste. That is why Marlboros now ride in so many
limousines, attend so many bridge parties, and repose in so
many handbags."
1925: BUSINESS: Helen Hayes, Al Jolson
and Amelia Earhart endorse Luckies
1925: BUSINESS: Both Percival Hill and
Buck Duke die by end of the year; Duke was 69. George
Washington Hill becomes President of American Tobacco Co.
Becomes known for creating the slogans, "Reach for a Lucky"
and "With men who know tobacco best, it's Luckies two to one"
1925: SOCIETY: Women's college Bryn
Mawr lifts its ban on smoking.
1925: OPINION: "American Mercury"
magazine: "A dispassionate review of the [scientific] findings
compels the conclusion that the cigarette is tobacco in its
mildest form, and that tobacco, used moderately by people in
normal health, does not appreciably impair either the mental
efficiency or the physical condition." (RK)
1926: BUSINESS: ADVERTISING: P.
Lorillard introduces Old Gold cigarettes with expensive
campaigns. John Held Flappers, Petty girls, comic-strip style
illustrations and "Not a Cough in a Carload" helped the brand
capture 7% of the market by 1930.
1926: BUSINESS: ADVERTISING: Liggett
& Myers' Chesterfield targets women for second-hand smoke
in "Blow some my way" ad. There is a public outcry.
1926: BUSINESS: Lloyd (Spud) Hughes'
menthol Spud Brand and recipe sold to Axton-Fisher Tobacco
Co., which markets it nationally.
1927: LEGISLATION: Kansas is the last
state to drop its ban on cigarette sales.
1927: Eduard Haas, Austrian candy
executive invents Pez, rectangular candies sold in tins as an
aid for those who wanted to stop smoking and came only in
peppermint; the name was derived from the German word for
peppermint, Pfefferminz. In 1952, Haas marketed it in the US
as a stop-smoking device, but this failed--some say because
the dispenser looked like a cigarette lighter. He remarketed
it as a candy for children, and the rest is history.
1927: BUSINESS: John Hill founds the
agency that would eventually become Hill and Knowlton in
Cleveland, Ohio. Instead of working on his own, as was the
practice in those days, Hill hired other agents and trained
them to work in his "style" - thus becoming, in effect, the
founder of the modern-day PR Consultancy.
1927: BUSINESS: British American
Tobacco (BATCo) crosses the Atlantic to acquire USA's Brown
& Williamson. B&W introduces the 15-cent-pack Raleigh.
Raleigh soon reintroduces the concept of coupons for
merchandise.
1927: ADVERTISING: Luckies target
women A sensation is created when George Washington Hill aims
Lucky Strike advertising campaign at women for the first time,
using testimonials from female movie stars and singers. Soon
Lucky Strike has 38% of the American market. Smoking
initiation rates among adolescent females triple between
1925-1935.
1927: ADVERTISING: Lorillard: "Old
Gold cigarettes ... not a cough in a carload"
1928: HEALTH: Lombard & Doering
examine 217 Mass. cancer victims, comparing age, gender,
economic status, diet, smoking and drinking. Their New England
Journal of Medicine report finds overall cancer rates only
slightly less for nonsmokers, but finds 34 of 35 site-specific
(lung, lips, cheek, jaw) cancer sufferers are heavy
smokers.(RK).
1928-30: SAUDI ARABIA: Ikhwan
(Brethren) Rebellion. Wahhabi (Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab
(1703-87), founded the sect) leader Abdel Aziz Ibn Saud
succeeded in uniting many tribes and capturing Saudi cities.
He declared himself King in the 1920s. The fierce,
ultra-religious wahhabi police (mutawa) would invade peoples'
homes and beat the occupants if they smelled tobacco. The
Wahhabis' revolt, it is said, was partially aggravated by
tobacco issues. As part of a compromise that ended the
uprising, King Abdel Aziz agreed to ban tobacco imports (but
never did).
1929: HEALTH: Fritz Lickint of Dresden
publishes the first formal statistical evidence of a lung
cancer-tobacco link, based on a case series showing that lung
cancer sufferers were likely to be smokers. Lickint also
argued that tobacco use was the best way to explain the fact
that lung cancer struck men four or five times more often than
women (since women smoked much less). (Proctor)
1929: HEALTH: Statistician Frederick
Hoffman in the "American Review of Tuberculosis" finds "There
is no definite evidence that smoking habits are a direct
contributory cause toward malignant growths in the
lungs."(RK).
1929-Spring: ADVERTISING: ATC: Edward
Bernays mounts a "freedom march" of smoking debutantes/fashion
models who walk down Fifth Avenue during the Easter parade
dressed as Statues of Liberty and holding aloft their Lucky
Strike cigarettes as "torches of freedom." See:
https://www.prmuseum.com/bernays/bernays_1929.html
1929: ADVERTISING: ATC: "Many
prominent athletes smoke Luckies all day long with no harmful
effects to wind or physician condition"
1929: BUSINESS: Philip Morris buys a
factory in Richmond, Virginia, and finally begins
manufacturing its own cigarettes.
1929: BUSINESS: Whelan's Tobacco
Products Corporation crashes shortly before the market; Philip
Morris is picked up by Rube Ellis, who calls in Leonard
McKitterick to help run it. (RK).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1930: MARKET SHARE: RANK BRAND
BILLIONS SOLD
1 Lucky Strike Regulars 43.2 billion
2 Camel 35.3
3 Chesterfield Regulars 26.4 billion
4 Old Gold Regulars 8.5 billion
5 Raleigh 85s 0.2 billion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Early 1930s: Bonnie & Clyde &
RJR. "No doubt the most notorious devotee to Camels was Bonnie
Parker who, with Clyde Barow, toured what was evidently the
Reynolds factory in the early 1930s."--The RJ Reynolds Tobacco
Co., Tilley, 1985
1930s: Cigar prices fall so low most
hand-rolling cigar businesses fail.
1930s: BRITAIN has highest rates of
lung cancer in the world
1930s: ADVERTISING: A Philip Morris ad
states: "You're bound to inhale sometimes, but you can have
this proven protection."
1930: HEALTH: 2,357 cases of lung
cancer reported in the US. (RK) The lung cancer death rate in
white males is 3.8 per 100,000.
1930: SCIENCE: Researchers in Cologne,
Germany, made a statistical correlation between cancer and
smoking.
1930: TAXES: Federal tax revenues from
tobacco products are over $500 million, 80% from cigarettes.
1930: ADVERTISING: JAMA decries health
claims made by cigarette ads
1930: BUSINESS: The successors of the
Tobacco Trust, led by RJ Reynolds, hike cigarette prices (at
the beginning of the Depression), leaving a perfect opening
for Philip Morris, Brown & Williamson, and other small
manufacturers to counter with low-priced brands..
1930-1931: BUSINESS: Benson &
Hedges introduces Parliament, which came in a hard box. It
featured a mouthpiece, and the first commercial filter tip: a
wad of cotton, soaked in caustic soda. Both were meant mostly
to keep bits of tobacco out of the smoker's mouth.
1931-06: BUSINESS: Cigarette Price
Wars begin. Cigs sold for 14 cents a pack, 2-for-27 cents in
the depths of the depression. Even with cheap leaf prices and
manufacturing costs, and with "Luckies" advancing, RJReynolds
President S. Clay Williams ups "Camel" prices a penny a pack.
Others follow suit. The major TCs are seen as greedy
opportunists. Dime-a-pack discount cigs eat into the majors'
market share, taking as much as 20% of the market in 1932; PM
releases "Paul Jones" discount brand. In 1933, TCs lower
prices. Discounts maintain 11% of the market for the rest of
the 30s (RK)
1931: Safco is established by A.G.
Busch, Safco is credited with engineering the cigarette
lighter plug for Ford's first automobiles.
1932: BUSINESS: Zippo lighter invented
by George G. Blaisdell
1933: LEGISLATION: The Agricultural
Adjustment Act of 1933 institutes price supports, saves
tobacco farmers from ruin
1933: REGULATION: Agricultural
Adjustment Act of 1933 imposes acreage restrictions on tobacco
production and provides for government loans to tobacco
farmers.
1933: BUSINESS: B&W introduces
Kool, a menthol cigarette to compete with Axton-Fisher's Spud,
the only other mentholated brand. [B&W currently touts
Kool as the first national menthol brand.]
1933: BUSINESS: Leonard B. McKitterick
becomes president of Philip Morris.
1933: BUSINESS: Philip Morris
resuscitates and revitalizes its Philip Morris as a tony, but
only premium-priced ("Now only 15 cents") "English Blend"
brand.
1933: BUSINESS: RJR begins to sell
Camel in a one-piece 10-pack carton, the first time such
packaging is used.
1933: BUSINESS: Hill & Knowlton is
officially born when John Hill is joined by Don Knowlton.
1933-11-25: ADVERTISING: The Journal
of the American Medical Association, "after careful
consideration of the extent to which cigarettes were used by
physicians in practice," publishes its first advertisement for
cigarettes (Chesterfield), a practice that continued for 20
years. (ASG)
1933: ADVERTISING: Chesterfield begins
running ads in the New York State Journal of Medicine, with
claims like, "Just as pure as the water you drink . . . and
practically untouched by human hands."
1933-04-17: ADVERTISING: Bellboy
JOHNNY ROVENTINI first goes on the air on the Ferde Grofe
Show, his distinctive voice making the famous, "Call for
Philip Morris." After being discovered by ad exec Milton Biow,
he soon became the world's first living trademark. Against the
background music of the "On the Trail Movement'' from Grof's
Grand Canyon Suite, Johnny Roventini yelled it out, in perfect
B-flat pitch, to match the music. [Here's the Johnny Roventini
Fan Page]
1934: LEGISLATION: GARRISON ACT is
passed outlawing marijuana and other drugs; tobacco is not
considered.
1934: ELEANOR ROOSEVELT is called the
"first lady to smoke in public." (ASG)
1934: BUSINESS: An A&P ad lists
cigarette prices for Lucky Strikes, Chesterfields, Old Golds
and Camels: two packs for 25 cents / a carton of ten for
$1.20.
1934: ADVERTISING: RJR: Camel: "Smoke
as many as you want. They never get on your nerves"
1935: ADVERTISING: Lorillard: "Ask
your dentist why Old Golds are better for the teeth."
1935-09: MEDIA: FORTUNE magazine
reports on "Alcohol and Tobacco" (two of its chief
advertisers), concluding (page 98), "the sum total of our
knowledge of the 'evil' of smoking does not add up to much
more than a zero."
1936: American Journal of Obstetrics
and Bynecology publishes an article raising concerns about the
effect of smoking on unborn children
1936: GERMANY: Fritz Lickint first
uses the term "Passivrauchen" (passive smoking) in Tabakgenuss
und Gesunheit.
1936: BUSINESS: B&W introduces
Viceroy, the first serious brand to feature a filter of
cellulose acetate. (RK)
1936: BUSINESS Viceroy t intorduces a
cellulose filter that it claimed removed half the particles in
smoke.
1936: BUSINESS: RJR discontinues RED
KAMEL brand
1936: BUSINESS: Otway Hebron Chalkley
becomes president of Philip Morris.
1936: ADVERTISING: Lucky Strike
launches "Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet" ad campaign
1936: GERMANY: German cigarette
manufacturer CIGARETTEN BILDENDIENST offers coupons in
cigarette packs which are redeemable for a coffee-table book
on Hitler. More coupons bought "home album" pictures suitable
for pasting into designated spots. Goebbels oversaw production
of the book. (Fahs, Cigarette Confidential)
1937: Federal Government establishes
the National Cancer Institute at Bethesda, MD (RK)
1937: BUSINESS: 'Printers Ink' reports
that R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., and Ligett & Myers Tobacco
Co. each spent at least two million dollars on advertising in
the first half of 1937. (LB)
1937: BUSINESS: By the end of the
year, Camels are outselling Luckies and Chesterfield by about
40%. (RK)
1938: LEGISLATION: Federal FOOD, DRUG
AND COSMETICS ACT supercedes 1906 Act. Definition of a "drug"
includes "articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure,
mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in man or
other animals" and "articles (other than food) intended to
affect the structure or any function of the body of man or
other animals"
1938: LEGISLATION: AGRICULTURAL
ADJUSTMENT ACT is passed again, this time authorizing
marketing quotas. The Tobacco Price Support Program: Tobacco
not purchased by manufacturers at auction is pooled and
purchased by the Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative for
storage and future sale
1938: SCIENCE: Dr. Raymond Pearl of
Johns Hopkins University reports that smokers do not live as
long as non-smokers.
1938: RADIO: Artie Shaw's band airs
twice weekly. Old Gold cigarettes, the show's sponsor, bans
Billie Holiday, and demands that only the band's white singer,
Helen Forrest, be allowed to perform.
1938: MEDIA: Consumer Reports rates 36
cigarette brands. CR notes that Philip Morris lays "great
stress in their advertising upon their substitution of glycol
for glycerine. The aura of science surrounding their 'proofs'
that this makes a less irritating smoke, does not convince
many toxicologists that they were valid. Of the many
irritating combustion products in tobacco smoke, the
modification of one has probably little more than a
psychological ffect in reducing irritation felt by the
smoker." In blindfold tests, finds little to distinguish
brands Knocks "the obvious bias of cigarette manufacturers, as
well as of the 'scientists' whom they directly or indirectly
subsidize." Rates nicotine content, finding:
Chesterfield: 2.3 mg nicotine
Marlboro: 2.3 mg nicotine
Philip Morris: 2.2 mg nicotine
Old Gold: 2.0 mg nicotine
Camel: 1.9 mg nicotine
Lucky Strike: 1.4 mg nicotine(RK)
1938: BUSINESS: MARKET SHARE:
4. Philip Morris
5. Old Gold (RK)
1939: STATISTICS: Fortune magazine
finds 53% of adult American males smoke; 66% of males under 40
smoke.
1939: Congress establishes an export
corporation to purchase surplus tobacco and sell it overseas.
1939: GERMANY: Fritz Lickint, in
collaboration with the Reich Committee for the Struggle
against Adictive Drugs and the German Antitobacco League,
publishes Tabak und Organismus (Tobacco and the Organism).
Proctor calls the 1,100 page volume "arguably the most
comprehensive scholarly indictment of tobacco ever published."
It blamed smoking for cancers all along the Rauchstrasse
("smoke alley")--lips, tongue, mouth, jaw, esophagus, windpipe
and lungs, and included "a convincing argu ent that 'passive
smoking' ( Passivrauchen. . . ) posed a serious threat to
nonsmokers." [Proctor, The Nazi War on Cancer]
1939: HEALTH: GERMANY: Franz Muller
presents "the world's first controlled epidemiological study
of the tobacco-lung cancer relationship." --Proctor.
Tabakmissbrauch und Lungencarcinom ("Tobacco Misuse and Lung
Carcinoma") finds that "the extraordinary rise in tobacco use
[is] the single most important cause of the rising incidence
of lung cancer." A brief abstarct is published in the Sept.
30, 1939 issue of JAMA Franz Hermann Muller of the University
of Cologne's Pathological Institute finds extremely strong
dose relationship between smoking and lung cancer. (Mller FH.
Tabakmissbrauch und Lungencarcinom. Zeitschrift fr
Krebsforschung 1939;49:5785.)
1939: ADVERTISING: "Philip Morris -- a
cigarette recognized by eminent medical authorities for its
advantages to the nose and throat"
1939: BUSINESS: Tobacco companies are
found price-fixing.
1939: BUSINESS: ATC introduces "king
size" Pall Mall. With Pall Mall and Lucky Strike, American
will rule the 40s.
1939: GERMANY: Hermann Goring issues a
decree forbidding the military to smoke on the streets, on
marches, and on brief off duty periods.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1939-1945: WORLD WAR II
As part of the war effort, Roosevelt
makes tobacco a protected crop. General Douglas McArthur makes
the corncob pipe his trademark by posing with it on dramatic
occasions such as his wading ashore during the invasion and
reconquest of the Philippines. Cigarettes are included in GI's
C-Rations. Tobacco companies send millions of free cigs to
GI's, mostly the popular brands; the home front had to make do
with off-brands like Rameses or Pacayunes. Tobacco consumption
is so fierce a shortage develops. By the end of the war,
cigarette sales are at an all-time high.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1940: JAPAN: WORLD WAR II: English
names on cigarette packs are replaced with Japanese ones as
part of a nationwide campaign to boost national prestige.
1940: CONSUMPTION: Adult Americans
smoke 2,558 cigarettes per capita a year, nearly twice the
consumption of 1930. (ASG cites per capita consumption for
1940 at 1,976.)
1940: HEALTH: 7,121 cases of lung
cancer reported in the US. (RK).
1940: HEALTH: JAMA publishes an
article linking smoking with a higher risk of coronary
disease.
1940: BUSINESS: MARKET SHARE BY
COMPANY:
1. RJR
2. ATC
3. Liggett & Myers
4. Brown & Williamson
5. Philip Morris (7%)
1940: BUSINESS: MARKET SHARE BY BRAND:
1. Camel (RJR) (24%)
2. Lucky Strike (ATC) (22.6%)
3. Chesterfield (18%)
-- Combined 10 cent brands (12%)
4. Raleigh (B&W) (5.1%)
5. Old Gold (3%)
5. Pall Mall (PM) (2%)
1940s: ENTERTAINMENT: "Raleigh
Cigarette Program" airs on radio. Red Skelton's show for a
period was broadcast under this name.
1940: GERMANY: 5% of the German
tobacco harvest is "nicotine-free tobacco."
1940-1950: MEDIA: George Seldes
exposes the suppression of tobacco stories by the nation's
press As most tobacco-ad-laden newspapers refused to report
the growing evidence of tobacco's hazards, muckraking pioneer
George Seldes starts his own newsletter in which he covered
tobacco. "For 10 years, we pounded on tobacco as one of the
only legal poisons you could buy in America," he told R.
Holhut, editor of The George Seldes Reader.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1941: MEDIA: Reader's Digest publishes
"Nicotine Knockout" by prizefighter Gene Tunney.
1941: HEALTH: An article by Dr.
Michael DeBakey notes a correlation between the increased sale
of tobacco and the increasing prevalence of lung cancer
1941: GERMANY: Tobacco taxes account
for 1/12th of all revenues flowing into the national treasury.
(Proctor).
1941-04-05: GERMANY: The racial
hygienist and Professor of Medicine Karl Astel founds the
Wissenschaftliches Institut zur Erforschung der Tabakgefahren
(Scientific Institute for the Research into the Hazards of
Tobacco or Institute for the Struggle Against Tobacco Hazards,
as it was also known), at Jena University in Weimar with a 100
000 Reichsmarks grant from Hitler's Reich Chancellery. Shortly
after, the industry established its own information organ, the
'Tabacologia medicinalis,' which is soon shut down by Reich
Health Fhrer Leonardo Conti. (Proctor).
1941: ADVERTISING: RJR: Camel
smoke-ring billboard becomes a Times Square landmark for the
next 25 years.
1942: SCIENCE: British researcher L.M.
Johnston successfully substituted nicotine injections for
smoking Johnston discusses aspects of addiction including
tolerance, craving and withdrawal symptoms. He concludes:
Clearly the essence of tobacco smoking is the tobacco and not
the smoking. Satisfaction can be obtained from chewing it,
from snuff taking, and from the administration of nicotine.
The experiment is reported in the British medical journal
Lancet.
1942: LITIGATION: 17-year-old Rose
Cipollone begins smoking Chesterfields.
1942: ARTS: FILM: Casablanca starring
Humphrey Bogart, and Now Voyager with Bette Davis and Paul
Henreid are released.
1942: GERMANY: The Federation of
German Women launch a campaign against tobacco and alcohol
abuse; restaurants and cafes are forbidden to sell cigarettes
to women customers.
1942: ADVERTISING: Brown and
Williamson claims that Kools would keep the head clear and/or
give extra protection against colds.
1942: BUSINESS: "Lucky Strike Green
Has Gone to War." Lucky Strike's green/gold pack turns
all-white, with a red bull's eye. The war effort needed
titanium, contained in Lucky's green ink, and bronze,
contained in the gold. ATC took this opportunity to change the
color of the pack--hated by women because it clashed with
their dresses--to white. Ad campaign coincides with US
invasion of North Africa. Sales increase 38%.
1942: MEDIA: Lucky Strike cigarettes
becomes the sponsor of Jack Benny's radio show, after Jell-o
drops its sponsorship.
1942-07: Reader's Digest publishes
"Cigarette Advertising Fact and Fiction," claiming that
cigarettes were essentially all the same, and were deadly.
1942-12-14: THE PRESS The first
complete,documented, and authoritative story on tobacco as a
cause of diseases and a shortener of life appeared in the Dec
14 1942 issue of George Seldes' IN Fact. --IN Fact, Nov. 14,
1949
1943: ADVERTISING: Philip Morris
places an ad in the National Medical Journal which reads:
"'Don't smoke' is advice hard for patients to swallow. May we
suggest instead 'Smoking Philip Morris?' Tests showed three
out of every four cases of smokers' cough cleared on changing
to Philip Morris. Why not observe the results for yourself?"
1943: BUSINESS: THAILAND: Cigarette
production is made a state monopoly under the Thailand Tobacco
Monopoly.
1943-07: GERMANY: LEGISLATION: a law
is passed forbidding tobacco use in public places by anyone
under 18 years of age.
1944-07-15: MEDIA: JAMA publishes as
its main item "The Effects of Smoking Cigarets." George Seldes
claimed mainstream news coverage of the article was generally
suppressed.
1945: REGULATION: The three largest
tobacco companies are convicted of anti-trust violations.
1945: GERMANY: Cigarettes are the
unofficial currency. Value: 50 cents each
1945: BUSINESS: Otway Hebron Chalkley
becomes chairman of Philip Morris.
1945-04: MEDIA: College of Physicians
& Surgeons publishes "The Effect of Smoking Tobacco on the
Cardiovascular System," written by Dr Roth of the Mayo Clinic.
1945-04: GERMANY: Karl Astel, founder
of the Scientific Institute for Research into the Dangers of
Tobacco, committs suicide, presumably to avoid facing the
consequences of his activities as a leading racial hygienist
in the Third Reich. The Institute is soon disbanded.
1946: ADVERTISING: RJR begins "More
Doctors Smoke Camels" ad campaign. One of the ads cited in
B&W's "A Review of Health References in Cigarette
Advertising 1927-1964", the phrase will run in ads through
1952. "According to a recent nationwide survey: MORE DOCTORS
SMOKE CAMELS THAN ANY OTHER CIGARETTE! Family physicians,
surgeons, diagnosticians, nose and throat specialists, doctors
in every branch of medicine... a total of 113,597
doctors...were asked the question: "What cigarette do you
smoke?" And more of them named Camel as their smoke than any
other cigarette! Three independent research groups found this
to be a fact. You see, doctors too smoke for pleasure. That
full Camel flavor is just as appealing to a doctor's taste as
to yours...that marvelous Camel mildness means just as much to
his throat as to yours. Next time, get Camels. Compare them in
your "T-Zone" 30-day test
1946-12-02: MEDIA: Newsweek runs a
story by Dr Wm D Stroud, professor of cardiology at the UPenn
Graduate School of Medicine, "Smoke, Drink, and Get Well."
1946: A letter from a Lorillard
chemist to its manufacturing committee states: "Certain
scientists and medical authorities have claimed for many years
that the use of tobacco contributes to cancer development in
susceptible people. Just enough evidence has been presented to
justify the possibility of such a presumption." (Maryland
"Medicaid" Lawsuit 5/1/96)
1947: ADVERTISING: RJR invites doctors
to its scientific Camel exhibit at the AMA convention.
1947-05-18: MEDIA: NY Times Sunday
magazine carries a glowIng tribute to tobacco by staff writer
W B Hayward, "Why We Smoke -- We Like It." The sidebar,
purporting to show an opposing side, contains no mention of
recent studies indicating links to heart disease, cancer and
decreased longevity.
1947: CULTURE: "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke!
(That Cigarette)," Written by Merle Travis for Tex Williams,
is national hit. The lyric "Puff, Puff, Puff, And if you smoke
yourself to death" is later used in Cipollone case as defense
that Rose Cipollone knew cigarettes were dangerous.
1947: LITIGATION: Grady Carter begins
smoking Lucky Strikes
1947: Why Do We Smoke Cigarettes? from
The Psychology of Everyday Living by Ernest Dichter
1948: HEALTH: The Journal of the
American Medical Association argues, "more can be said in
behalf of smoking as a form of escape from tension than
against it . . . there does not seem to be any preponderance
of evidence that would indicate the abolition of the use of
tobacco as a substance contrary to the public health."
1948: HEALTH: Lung cancer has grown 5
times faster than other cancers since 1938; behind stomach
cancer, it is now the most common form of the disease.
1948, 1949: MARSHALL PLAN: 93,000 tons
of tobacco are shipped free of charge to Germany. [Proctor]
1949: CONSUMPTION: 44-47% of all adult
Americans smoke; over 50% of men, and about 33% of women.
1949: LEGISLATION: Agricultural
Adjustment Act is passed again, this time authorizing price
supports.
1949: BUSINESS: Industry establishes
the Tobacco Tax Council to lobby for lower tobacco taxes.
1949: ADVERTISING: RJR: "Not one
single case of throat irritation due to smoking Camels!"
1949: MEDIA: RJR: NBC's ''Camel News
Caravan,'' a nightly news program, airs, proudly bearing the
name of its tobacco-company sponsor. It will run till 1956.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Twentieth Century--The Rise of the
Cigarette
1950 + : The Battle is Joined
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Fifties
The public's health concerns drive
companies to compete in rival ad campaigns touting their
filters (The "Tar Wars" or "Tar Derby"). When the decade
begins, 2% of cigarettes are filter tip; by 1960, 50% of
cigarettes are filter tips. 15 filter brands account for 95%
of U.S. sales (Source: Chronology Of Major Events In Cigarette
Smoking, Marketing, And Health , Bates #2025019398).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1950s: ADVERTISING: "Tar Wars."
1950: MARKET SHARE: RANK BRAND
BILLIONS SOLD
1 Camel 98.2 billion
2 Lucky Strike Regulars 82.5 billion
3 Chesterfield Regulars 66.1 billion
4 Commander 39.9 billion
5 Old Gold Regulars 19.5 billion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FTC complains that cigarette ads
touting physical benefits are deceptive. (Source: Chronology
Of Major Events In Cigarette Smoking, Marketing, And Health ,
Bates #2025019398)
1950: MEDIA: TV pop-music series "Your
Hit Parade" starts its 7-year-run; one of the first hits on
TV; it is sponsored by Lucky Strike.
1950: MEDIA: Lucky Strike's "Be Happy,
Go Lucky" wins TV Guide's commercial of the year.
(Cheerleaders sing: "Yes, Luckies get our loudest cheers on
campus and on dates. With college gals and college guys a
Lucky really rates.")
1950: STATISTICS: American cigarette
consumption is 10 cigarettes per capita, which equals over a
pack a day for smokers..
1950: HEALTH: Three important
epidemiological studies provide the first powerful links
between smoking and lung cancer In the May 27, 1950 issue of
JAMA, Morton Levin publishes first major study definitively
linking smoking to lung cancer. In the same issue, "Tobacco
Smoking as a Possible Etiologic Factor in Bronchiogenic
Carcinoma: A Study of 684 Proved Cases," by Ernst L. Wynder
and Evarts A. Graham of the United States, found that 96.5% of
lung cancer patients interviewed were moderate
heavy-to-chain-smokers.
1950-09:30: RICHARD DOLL and A
BRADFORD HILL publish first report on Smoking and Carcinoma of
the Lung in the British Medical Journal, finding that heavy
smokers were fifty times as likely as nonsmokers to contract
lung cancer.
1950: LITIGATION: P. Lorillard Co. v.
FTC. Lorillard had launched a national campaign claiming a
1942 Consumer Reports article showed Old Golds was "lowest in
nicotine and tars". While technically true, the point of the
article was that differences in tar and nicotine were
insignificant when it came to the harmfulness of all
cigarettes. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, upholding the
FTC's cease-and-desist order, declares that Lorillard's
advertising violated the FTC Act because, by printing only a
small part of the article, it created an entirely false and
misleading impression. "To tell less than the whole truth is a
well-known method of deception," the court ruled. (CC) Along
with other protracted- FTC censures against tobacco company ad
claims of the 30s and 40s, the action was too little too late.
The Consumers Union Report on Smoking and the Public Interest
(1963) said, "Like astronomers studying stars millions of
light years away, the FTC commissioners were constantly coming
to conclusions about phenomena that were no longer in
existence."
1951: Consumers in many countries now
spend from 3 to 5 per cent of their total income on tobacco
products, American delegate John B. Hutson tells the World
Tobacco Congress. Mr. Hutson, president of Tobacco Associates,
Inc., of Washington, D.C., said in a "General Economic Survey"
that "the average per capita consumption for all countries has
increased slightly during the past 20 years."
1951-10-15: MEDIA: TV series "I Love
Lucy" begins its run at 9:00 PM. It is sponsored by Philip
Morris. The animated titles that open the show each week
feature stick figures of Lucy and Desi climbing a giant pack
of Philip Morris cigarettes. It is the top-rated show for four
of its first six full seasons.
1951: BUSINESS: RJR introduces its
Winston filter tip brand, emphasizing taste.
1952: USA: Federal Trade Commission
slaps Philip Morris on wrist concerning claims about Di-Gl
reducing irritation. (LB)
1952: BUSINESS: P. Lorillard
introduces Kent cigarettes, with the "Micronite" filter. At
the press conference at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, Lorillard
boasted that the "Micronite" filter offered "the greatest
health protection in cigarette history." Its secret: asbestos.
1952: ADVERTISING: Lorillard: "Kent
and only Kent has the Micronite filter, made of a pure,
dust-free, completely harmless material that is not only
effective but so safe that it actually is used to help filter
the air in operating rooms of leading hospitals." (Life
Magazine)
1952: ADVERTISING: Lorillard: Kent:
"No other cigarette approaches such a degree of health
protection and taste satisfaction"
1952: BUSINESS: Hollingsworth &
Vose gets 100% indemnity agreement from Lorillard on filters.
1952: ADVERTISING: Liggett & Myers
widely publicizes the results of tests run by Arthur D.
Little, Inc. showing that "smoking Chesterfields would have no
adverse effects on the throat, sinuses or affected organs."
The ads run, among other places on the nationally popular
Arthur Godfiey radio and television show.
1952-09: READER'S DIGEST republishes
Roy Norr's "Cancer by the Carton" article (December, 1952)
from the October, 1952 Christian Herald. Norr was the
publisher of possibly the first modern anti-smoking
periodical, the "Norr Newsletter about Smoking and Health"
(NYC)
1953: HEALTH: Dr. Ernst L. Wynder's
landmark report finds that painting cigarette tar on the backs
of mice creates tumors. This was the first successful
induction of cancer in a lab animal with a tobacco product,
the first definitive biological link between smoking and
cancer.
1953: BUSINESS: Benson & Hedges'
Parliament sales are skyrocketing due to its filter, though
sales are still well behind the major companies' products:
B&W's Viceroy, and Lorillard's Kent.
1953: ADVERTISING: AMA bans cigarette
ads in its publications.
1953: ADVERTISING: Liggett: L&M:
"Just what the doctor ordered"
1953: ADVERTISING: "[Viceroy] gives
double-barreled health protection."
1953-12-08: HEALTH: Dr. Alton Ochsner
gives a speech in NYC, saying, "the male population of the
United States would be decimated if cigarette smoking
increases as it has in the past unless some steps are taken to
remove the cancer-producing factor from cigarettes." Tobacco
stocks drop 1 to 4 points the next day. This speech is
considered by some the last straw, which led tobacco
executives join together and to seek out John Hill.
1953-12-10,11: BUSINESS: In response
to an urgent telegram from Paul Hahn (ATC), cigarette
executives meet in New York City for first time since
price-fixing scandal of 1939, and agree to consult with John
Hill.
1953-12-15: BUSINESS: Tobacco Execs
Plan Counterattack on Smoking Studies. Plaza Hotel, New York
City: Tobacco executives meet to find a way to deal with
recent scientific data pointing to the health hazards of
cigarettes. Participants included John Hill of Hill &
Knowlton, his key aides, and the following tobacco company
presidents: Paul D. Hahn (ATC), O. Parker McComas (PM), Joseph
F. Cullman (B&H), J. Whitney Peterson, U.S. Tobacco Co.
Here's the text of BACKGROUND MATERIAL ON THE CIGARETTE
INDUSTRY CLIENT, the H&K memo covering the meeting, and
here's the document in .pdf format, Minnesota Trial Exhibit
18905
1953-12-28: BUSINESS: Hill meets again
with tobacco execs to report on his initial study of the
smoking and health problem.
1954: Doll and Hill publish The
Mortality of Doctors and Their Smoking Habits, in the BMJ; it
leads to most doctors giving up smoking
1954: BUSINESS: Philip Morris
(Australia) Ltd. is set up as PM's first major affiliate
outside the U.S.
1954: Cigarette companies sponsor ad
disputing evidence that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer.
(Source: Chronology Of Major Events In Cigarette Smoking,
Marketing, And Health , Bates #2025019398)
1954: Don Cooley, in the process of
writing an article for True Magazine, is contacted by Hill and
Knowlton. "Considerable information and assistance was
provided Donald G. Cooley in the preparation for his story in
True Magazine. This entailed conferences with the author to
work on factual revisions. . . Further research and assembling
of material and personal conferences have been extended Mr.
Cooley to provide him requested aid in his writing of a
48-page, low-priced book for newsstand sales and angled at the
idea "You don't have to give up smoking." Fawcett Publications
is issuing the book entitled 'Smoke Without Fear' , in late
August and early September. " Report of Activities through
July 31, 1954
1954: AGRICULTURE: HURRICAINE HAZEL
devastates tobacco-growing areas of North Carolina.
1954: LITIGATION: PRITCHARD VS.
LIGGETT & MYERS: (dropped by plaintiff 12 years later).
1954: LITIGATION: EVA COOPER sues R.J.
REYNOLDS TOBACCO COMPANY for her husband's death from lung
cancer. He had smoked Camels. The court rules there was no
evidence smoking caused his cancer.
1954: BUSINESS: RJR introduces its
Winston filter tips brand, emphasizing taste, not health.
1954: BUSINESS: Philip Morris buys
Benson & Hedges, and in the bargain gets its president,
Joseph Cullman III
1954: ADVERTISING: Life Magazine runs
ads for L&M featuring Barbara Stanwyck and Rosalind
Russell giving testimonials for the brand's new "miracle
product," the "alpha cellulose" filter that is "just what the
doctor ordered." These ads will figure prominently in the
Cipollone trial 30 years later.
1954: ADVERTISING: Marlboro Cowboy
created for Philip Morris by Chicago ad agency Leo Burnett.
"Delivers the Goods on Flavor" ran the slogan in newspaper
ads. Design of the campaign credited to John Landry of PM. At
the time Marlboro had one quarter of 1% of the American
market.
1954-01-04: BUSINESS: Tobacco Industry
Research Committee (TIRC) announced in a nationwide 2-page ad,
A FRANK STATEMENT TO CIGARETTE SMOKERS The ads were placed in
448 newspapers across the nation, reaching a circulation of
43,245,000 in 258 cities. TIRC's first scientific director was
noted cancer scientist Dr. Clarence Cook Little, former head
of the National Cancer Institute (soon to become the American
Cancer Society). Little's life work lay in the genetic origins
of cancer; he tended to disregard environmental factors.
1954-02: UK: Health Minister Iain
Macleod, finally meets the press in regards to the Doll/Hill
studies. He emphasises that the evidence is statistical only,
thanks Doll and Hill for �what little information we have� -
and chain-smokes throughout the proceedings. He also announced
that the tobacco industry had given �250,000 for research to
the MRC. The press reported the uncertainty and the industry�s
generosity. ("40 Years Later," RCP)
1954-03-10: LITIGATION: St. Louis
factory worker Ira C. Lowe files a suit, the first product
liability action brought against a tobacco company. PHILIP
MORRIS hired DAVID R. HARDY to defend the company against a
lawsuit brought by a Missouri smoker who had lost his larynx
to cancer. This case was the beginning of PM's association
with SHOOK, HARDY & BACON. The case was won in 1962; the
jury deliberated one hour
1954-03-24: BUSINESS: RJR's first
filter, Winston, is launched.
1954-04: BUSINESS: TIRC releases A
SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE ON THE CIGARETTE CONTROVERSY, a booklet
quoting 36 scientists questioning smoking's link to health
problems. (The booklet) was sent to 176,800 doctors, general
practitioners and specialists . . . (plus) deans of medical
and dental colleges . . . a press distribution of 15,000 . . .
114 key publishers and media heads . . . . days in advance,
key press, network, wire services and columnist contacts were
alerted by phone and in person . . . and . . . hand-delivered
(with) special placement to media in Los Angeles, Chicago,
Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. The story was
carried by hundreds of papers and radio stations throughout
the country . . . . staff-written stories (were) developed
with the help of Hill & Knowlton, Inc. field offices.
(Hill & Knowlton memo, May 3, 1954.)
1954-07-26: PROPAGANDA: NCI Dr. W.C.
Hueper's talk, "Environmental Cancer of the Lung," is given at
the VIth International Cancer Congress in Sao Paolo, Brazil.
Hill & Knowlton, having received an advance copy of Dr.
W.C. Hueper's talk, and finding it favorable to their
cigarette clients, deploy the 17 page text, with 2 pages of
highlights and a cover letter, to newspapers and services,
science writers, editorial writers and feature writers. [A]s a
result of the distribution in the U.S.A., stories questioning
a link between smoking and cancer were given wide attention,
both in headlines and stories. In some press accounts, the
Hueper story took precedence over the reports of Drs. Hammond
and Wynder. [Note: Wilhelm Hueper had been through years of
battling corporate interests over water, air and occupational
pollution; while recognizing the evidence for smoking-related
causation, he felt these issues could be slighted by an
over-emphasis on smoking. He reportedly refused a $250,000 a
year offer from the Tobacco Institute.]
1954-10: PROPAGANDA: Reprints of
condensed version of Hueper paper appear in CURRENT MEDICAL
DIGEST, October 1954. The magazine reaches 123,000 doctors who
are in active practice.
1954-10: LITIGATION: Pritchard v.
L&M filed in Federal District Court, Pennsylvania Lung
cancer 1954-11: LITIGATION: Ross v. PM filed in Federal
District Court, Missouri Laryngeal cancer
1955: Dorn and Baum (NIH) 6-year (1946
- 1952) study of the mortality rates of 11,000 American
Tobacco Co. employees is published in the Journal of
Industrial Medicine and Surgery. (Jones, Day, Reavis &
Pogue, "Draft 1: Corporate Activity Project") (pp 109-110))
1955: BUSINESS: Philip Morris
introduces a flip-top box.
1955: BUSINESS: Philip Morris
Incorporated becomes the company's corporate name.
1955: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: Independent
of its Research Department, ATC President Robert Karl Heimann
participated in the last two parts of a five-party
epidemiological study of American Tobacco Co.'s own employees.
The five parts were described as follows:
1. Dorn and Baum (NIH) studied the
mortality rates during the period 1946 to 1952 of 11,000
employees. This was published in 1955 in the Journal of
Industrial Medicine and Surgery.
2. A. Finkner (UNC) studied the
smoking habits of these same employees, and published his
results in the "North Carolina Mimeo Series' in the late
1950s.
3. Haag (MCV) and Hanmer (American)
updated the Dorn-Baum, study of mortality rates for the period
1953 to 1956. This was published in about 1958 in the Journal
of industrial Medicine and Surgery.
4. Cohen (American consultant) and
Heimann updated the mortality rates for the period 19571960.
The study was entitled 'Heavy Smokers with Low Mortality" and
was published in 1963 in the Journal of Industrial Medicine
and Surgery.'
5. Cohen and Heimann published 'Heavy
Smokers with Low Mortality and the Urban Factor in Lung Cancer
Mortality" in 1964.14"
1955: BUSINESS: MARKET SHARE: American
Tobacco is still #1 in US, with 33% of the market. Philip
Morris is sixth.
1955: TV: CBS' "See It Now" airs first
TV show linking cigarette smoking with lung cancer and other
diseases. (For the first time on TV, Edward R. Murrow is not
seen smoking. He had not quit; he felt it was "too late" to
stop. Murrow died of lung cancer in 1965.)
1955: LITIGATION: Rose Cipollone, now
30, switches from Chesterfield to L&Ms.)
1955-08: LITIGATION: Lartigue v.
L&M/RJR filed in Federal District Court, Louisiana
Laryngeal cancer
1955-09: REGULATION: FTC publishes
rules prohibiting health references in cigarette advertising;
references to the "throat, larynx, lungs, nose, or other parts
of the body" or to "digestion, energy, nerves, or doctors."
1956: HEALTH: Lung cancer death rate
among white males is 31.0 in 100,000, resulting in 29,000
deaths.
1956: BUSINESS: P. Lorillard
discontinues use of "Micronite" filter in its Kent cigarettes.
1956: BUSINESS: RJR introduces Salem,
the first filter-tipped menthol cigarette.
1956: BUSINESS: BAT acquires overseas
business of Benson & Hedges.
1957: PEOPLE: DR. EVARTS GRAHAM dies
of lung cancer. He wrote to DR. ALTON OCHSNER 2 weeks before
his death, "Because of your long friendship, you will be
interested in knowing that they found that I have cancer in
both my lungs. As you know I stopped smoking several years ago
but after having smoked much as I did for years, too much
damage had been done."
1957: BUSINESS: Philip Morris Inc.
acquires Milprint and Nicolet Paper Co. of Milwaukee--it's
first non-tobacco purchase.
1957: BUSINESS: Joseph Cullman, III,
becomes president of Philip Morris
1957-07-12: Surgeon General Leroy E.
Burney issues "Joint Report of Study Group on Smoking and
Health," stating that, "prolonged cigarette smoking was a
causative factor in the etiology of lung cancer," the first
time the Public Health Service had taken a position on the
subject.
1957-03: MEDIA: READERS DIGEST article
links smoking with lung cancer, discloses that the tar and
nicotine yields of the filter brands had been rising steadily
for several years and now approximated the level of the older
and presumably more hazardous unfiltered brands. (RK)
1957-07: MEDIA: READERS DIGEST article
rates tar/nicotine levels. RJR's filterless Camel, for
example, yielded 31 mg. of tar and 2.8 mg. of nicotine per
cigarette compared with 32.6 mg. and 2.6 mg. per Winston.
Marlboro has one of the worst; in response, Leo Burnett goes
into 2 years of the unsuccessful "settleback"
campaign--Marlboro men in relaxed poses.
1957: MEDIA: Ad agency BBDO drops
READERS DIGEST over tobacco article.
Barry McCarthy, onetime executive at
Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn, said that in the
1950's, probably 1957, he was the account supervisor on the
Reader's Digest business when the Digest ran one of its many
anti-cigarette articles. American Tobacco, maker of Lucky
Strike, was a major client at the same time. The article
enraged J. T. Ross, American's public relations man, and he
got the client to insist that B.B.D.O. decide between the
magazine and the tobacco company. Since the latter billed $30
million or so, which was huge by 1950's standards, and the
Digest a couple of million, the agency relucantly dropped the
Digest --NYT, April 7, 1988; Advertising; RJR Flap Not the
First In Cigarette Ad History By Philip H. Dougherty
1957: REGULATION: Pope Pius Xii
suggests that the Jesuit order give up smoking. There were
only 33,000 jesuits in the world at that point, so the
industry was not worried about losing this handful of smokers.
They feared that the Pope or other church leaders might ask,
as a magazine headline once put it, "When are Cigs a Sin?"--E.
Whelan, "A Smoking Gun"
1957: REGULATION: Food, Drug and
Cosmetic Act is amended. The manufacturer must bear the burden
of demonstrating the product is safe and effective. Products
previously on the market, those "generally recognized among
experts as safe," or "natural constituents of food" are
exempt.
1957-03-01: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: At the
cooperative British tobacco industry Tobacco Research Council
laboratory at Harrogate, an internal report by Batco refers to
cancer by the code name, zephyr: "As a result of several
statistical surveys, the idea has arisen that there is a
causal relation between zephyr and tobacco smoking,
particularly cigarette smoking,"
1957: HEALTH: The British Medical
Research Council issues "Tobacco Smoking and Cancer of Lung,"
which states that "... a major part of the increase [in lung
cancer] is associated with tobacco smoking, particularly in
the form of cigarettes" and that "the relationship is one of
direct cause and effect."
1957: HEALTH: PREGNANCY: In the
American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Dr. Winea J.
Simpson asked what effects smoking might have on the unborn
child. The incidence of premature births and of all the
complications that go with prematurity was twice as great for
smoking mothers as it was for nonsmoking mothers. Simpson's
paper confirmed that children of smokers are not only born
early, but also weigh less and are more likely to be stillborn
or die within one month of birth. (ASG)
1957-07: REGULATION: Sen. Bennett
(R-UT) introduces bill requiring cigarette packs carry label,
"Warning: Prolonged use of this product may result in cancer,
in lung, heart and circulatory ailments, and in other
diseases." [Bates 03553092]
1957-07: REGULATION: BLATNICK HEARING:
First testimony presented to Congress on smoking and health;
Blatnick's subcommittee dismantled. After hearing that
filtered cigarettes deliver about as much tar and nicotine as
unfiltered due to the stronger tobaccos used, Minnesota
congressman John Blatnick's subcommitte moves to grant the FTC
injunctive powers over deceptive cigarette advertising. The
House strips Blatnick of his chairmanship and dissolves the
subcommittee.
1957-12: LITIGATION: Green v. American
Tobacco Co. Filed. The case will not conclude until 1970--12
years after Green's death.
1958 (approx): Haag (MCV) and Hanmer
(American) update of the Dorn-Baum study of American Tobacco
Co. employee mortality rates for the period 1953 to 1956 is
published in the Journal of industrial Medicine and Surgery.
1958: Roy Norr and the Reverend
Ben-David found The Reporter On Smoking And Health newsletter
1958: BUSINESS: Tobacco Institute
Formed
1958: DOCUMENTS: Senior PM scientist
J.E. Lincoln writes to Ross Millhiser, then-Philip Morris vice
president and later vice chairman: "This compound
[benzopyrene] must be removed from Marlboro and Parliament or
sharply reduced. We do this not because we think it is harmful
but simply because those who are in a better position to know
than ourselves suspect it may be harmful." Four months later
he wrote "that law and morality coincided . . . Act on the
doctrine of uncertainty and get the benzpyrene (sic), etc.,
out of the cigarettes." Lincoln later became PM vice president
of research. (AP)
1958-02-20: REGULATION: Blatnik
Commission report is delivered to Congress. "The cigarette
manufacturers have deceived the American public through their
advertising of filter-tip cigarettes . . . Without
specifically claiming that the filter tip removes the agents
alleged to contribute to heart disease or lung cancer, the
advertising has emphasized such claims as 'clean smoking,'
'snowy white,' 'pure,' 'miracle tip,' '20,000 filter traps,'
'gives you more of what you changed to a filter for' and other
phrases implying health protection, when actually most filter
cigarettes produce as much or more nicotine and tar as
cigarettes without filters. . . The Federal Trade Commission
has failed in its statutory duty to 'prevent deceptive acts or
practices' in filter-cigarette advertising." False And
Misleading Advertising (Filter-tip Cigarettes). Twentieth
Report By The Committee On Government Operations Very shortly
afterwards, Blatnik's commission was unceremoniously
dissolved.
1958-06: DOCUMENTS: "REPORT ON VISIT
TO U.S.A. AND CANADA," 17th of April to 12th May 1958," by H.
R. Bentley, D. G. I. Felton, and W. W. Reid, produced by
B.A.T. Company, Ltd. 3 British-American Tobacco Co.
scientists, after visiting the United States and discussing
smoking research with 35 tobacco industry scientists and
officials, write: "With one exception (H.S.N. Greene), the
individuals whom we met believed that smoking causes lung
cancer if by 'causation' we mean any chain of events which
leads finally to lung cancer and which involves smoking as an
indispensable link. In the U.S.A. only Berkson, apparently, is
now prepared to doubt the statistical evidence and his
reasoning is nowhere thought to be sound."
1959-11: HEALTH: Dr Burney publishes
an article in JAMA confirming the position of the Public
Health Service on cigarettes' causitive relation to lung
cancer.
1959-Fall: The "Vanguard Issue."
Vanguard was a tobaccoless smoke introduced in the Fall of
1959. The product's creator, Bantop Products Corporation of
Bay Shore, Long Island, immediately ran into problems
advertising it. Bantop claimed the tobacco industry conspired
to prevent its "Now Smoke Without Fear" ads. In the New York
metropolitan area, for example, only one newspaper would
accept the ads. (ASG)
1959: Industry pressures the New York
City Transit Authority to order Reader's Digest to remove from
the subways ads promoting an article titled "The Growing
Horror of Lung Cancer."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Sixties
By now, the distribution of free
cigarettes at annual medical and public health meetings has
stopped.
1960: LEGISLATION: FEDERAL HAZARDOUS
SUBSTANCES LABELING ACT (FHSA) of 1960 Authorized FDA to
regulate substances that are hazardous (either toxic,
corrosive, irritant, strong sensitizers, flammable, or
pressure-generating). Such substances may cause substantial
personal injury or illness during or as a result of customary
use.
1960: BUSINESS: Pall Mall becomes the
nation's top-selling brand. It's reign runs from 1960 to 1966.
1960-01: LEGISLATION: FTC tells
cigarette manufacturers to stop "tar derby" advertising and
cease referring to improved health effects of filters. (Bates
# 03553092)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1960-04-04: LITIGATION: Pritchard v.
Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company begins. When it was time
to deliberate, Federal Judge John L. Miller tells the jury,
"The court is of the opinion that no substantial evidence has
been offered to support a verdict against the defendant on any
theory of negligence, and that fair-minded men could not
differ as to the conclusions of fact to be drawn from the
evidence... The jury is directed to find a verdict in favor of
the defendant Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company, and against
the plaintiff, Otto E. Pritchard." The case was sent back to
Miller on appeal. The jury found on November 9, 1962 that the
smoking of Chesterfields was the cause of or one of the causes
of cancer in Pritchard's right lung, but denied damages to
Pritchard on the assumption of risk theory.
1960: Bernays Repents. ASH praises
Bernays for his efforts to inform the public about the dangers
of smoking. Bernays writes, "had I known in 1928 what I know
today I would have refused [George Washington] Hill's offer."
1960:08:02: LITIGATION: Green v.
American Tobacco Co. Decision. Lawyer/Doctor Larry Hastings is
first to win a liability suit against tobacco for causing
death. Miami Federal District Judge Emett Choate asked the
jury to consider (1) Was cancer primary in the lung? (2) Did
this cause his death? (3) Did the smoking of Lucky Strikes
cause his cancer death? In all three instances, the 12-man
jury voted "yes." The fourth interrogatory asked, "Did the
cigarette company have knowledge of the harmfulness?" The jury
said, "no." Therefore, no money was awarded. In retrial, judge
tells jury to side with defendant if the product did not
endanger an important number of smokers. Jury does.
1960-10: LITIGATION: Tobacco wins
Lartigue v. L&M/RJR.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1961: HISTORY: The Tobacco Institute
stages a celebration of the 350th anniversary of America's
first tobacco crop. The festival features Pocahontas and a
cigar-smoking John Rolfe.
1961-06-01: POLITICS: The presidents
of the American Cancer Society, the American Heart
Association, the National Tuberculosis Association, and the
American Public Health Association submit a joint letter to
President Kennedy, pointing out the increasing evidence of the
health hazards of smoking and urging the President to
establish a commission.
1961: BUSINESS: Philip Morris Overseas
Division is renamed Philip Morris International.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1962: US imposes economic embargo on
Cuba.
1962-03-07: UK: First Report of the
British Royal College of Physicians of London: Smoking and
Health,.
1962: STATISTICS: Per-capita
consumption of cigarettes stands at 12 per day among adult
Americans
1962: LEGISLATION: KEFAUVER-HARRIS
DRUG AMENDMENTS TO THE FOOD, DRUG AND COSMETICS ACT requires
that drugs must be proven effective and safe before sold and
manufacturers are to registered with the FDA.
1962: Bob Newhart Satirizes Sir Walter
Raleigh. "The Bob Newhart Show" played on NBC- briefly. In one
episode, Newhart played an Englishman getting a phone call
from Sir Walter Raleigh in the Americas. The Sir Walter
Raleigh bit is preserved on a record album. Said H. Allen
Smith, "That thing about tobacco and cigarettes is possibly
the greatest single comedy routine I've seen or heard in my
entire life." Don't tell me, Walt, don't tell me- you stick in
your ear, right Walt? Oh, between your lips! Then what do you
do to it? (Giggling) You set fire to it! Then what do you do,
Walt? You inhale the smoke! . . . Walt, we've been a little
worried about you...you're gonna have a tough time getting
people to stick burning leaves in their mouth...."
1962:06: Surgeon General Luther Terry
announces the formation of the Advisory Committee on Smoking
and Health.
1962:06: LEGISLATION: Sen. Moss (D-UT)
introduces a measure to give the FDA the power to police
content, advertising and labeling of cigarettes.
1962-07: LITIGATION: Tobacco wins Ross
v. PM
1962-11: LITIGATION: Tobacco wins
Pritchard v. L&M (and agin in 1968)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1963: LEGISLATION: FDA expressed its
interpretation that tobacco did not fit the "hazardous"
criteria stated of the Federal Hazardous Substances Labeling
Act (FHSA) of 1960, and withheld recommendations pending the
release of the report of the Surgeon General's Advisory
Committee on Smoking and Health.
1963: LITIGATION: 7 tobacco liability
suits are filed
1963-08: LITIGATION: Zagurski v.
American Tobacco filed in Federal District Court, Connecticut
Lung cancer
1963: LITIGATION: KC, MO. Local,
20-lawyer firm, Shook Hardy Bacon, wins John Ross case (filed
in 1954) for Philip Morris. SHB goes on to become virtually
synonymous with tobacco litigation.
1963: BUSINESS: PM dispenses with
tattooed sailors, et. al., and settles on the cowboy as the
sole avatar of the Marlboro Man
1963-07-17: LITIGATION: B&W's
General Counsel ADDISON YEAMAN writes in a memo, "Moreover,
nicotine is addictive. We are, then, in the business of
selling nicotine, an addictive drug effective in the release
of stress mechanisms." Yeaman was concerned about the upcoming
Surgeon General's report, and was writing of "the so-called
'beneficial effects of nicotine': 1) enhancing effect on the
pituitary-adrenal response to stress; 2) regulation of body
weight."
1963: INDONESIA: PT Hanjaya Mandala
(HM) Sampoerna is established
1963: Consumers Union's "Report on
Smoking and the Public Interest"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1964: STATISTICS: There are 70 million
smokers in the US, and tobacco is an $8 Billion/year industry.
(Joseph Ben-David, Reporter on Smoking and Health, April-May,
1963)
1964: BUSINESS: MARKET SHAREE: Pall
Mall, the nation's top-selling brand, captures nearly 15
percent of the market.
1964-01-11: 1st Surgeon General's
Report linking smoking and lung cancer: Smoking and Health:
Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the
Public Health Service See the CDC's History of the 1964
Surgeon General's ReportSee the full list of SG reports here
1964-01: REGULATION: Sen. Maurine
Neuberger (D-OR) introduces bill giving FTC authority to
regulate cigarette advertising and labeling. Also, the FTC
begins rule-making to require health warrning on cigarette
packs and in advertising. (Bates # 03553093)
1964: LITIGATION: 17 tobacco liability
suits are filed
1964: Tobacco industry writer suggests
tobacco control advocates have psychiatric certification that
they are not sufering from pyrophobia and suppressed fear of
the 'big fire' or atom bomb
1964: BUSINESS: LIGGETT Joins TIRC
1964: BUSINESS: TIRC changes its name
to the Council for Tobacco Research-USA, Inc. ("CTR").
1964: BUSINESS: MARLBORO Country ad
campaign is launched. "Come to where the flavor is. Come to
Marlboro Country." Marlboro sales begin growing at 10% a year.
1964: JAPAN: Emperor Hirohito begins
the tradition of giving out cigarettes to his staff on his
birthday.
1964-02-07: The AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSN
accepts a $10 million grant for tobacco research from six
cigarette companies. The AMA shelves its previous plans to
issue a report on smoking's relationship to cancer; the
official AMA word on smoking and health won't be issued for
another 10 years.
1964-02-28: The AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSN
supports the tobacco industry's objection to labeling cigarets
as a health hazard, writes in a letter to the Federal Trade
Commission, "More than 90 million persons in the United States
use tobacco in some form, and, of these 72 million use
cigarets... the economic lives of tobacco growers, processors,
and merchants are entwined in the industry; and local, state,
and the federal governments are recipients of and dependent
upon many millions of dollars of tax revenue."
1964-03-19: Rep. FRANK THOMPSON Jr.
(D-NJ) charges that the AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSN has entered into
a deal with tobacco-state congressmen to gain their votes
against Medicare.
1964-06-23: Rep. Orem Harris, chairman
of the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee, begins
hearings on warning labels.
1964-09-10 to 10-15: BUSINESS: Sir
PHILIP ROGERS and GEOFFREY TODD, senior officials of the
BRITISH RESEARCH COUNCIL arrive in US on month-long
fact-finding tour. Their reports will not be seen by the
public until 10/2/96.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1965: CONSUMPTION: 29.6 percent of
people who had ever smoked had quit as of 1965.
1965: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: TIRC sets up
secretive, lawyer-directed SPECIAL PROJECTS division.
1965: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: PREGNANCY: A
study by the TIRC finds that pregnant women who smoke have
smaller babies and are more likely to give birth prematurely.
1965: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: B&W's
"PROJECT JANUS" begins issuing scientific reports on the
health effects of smoking, about 30 substantial reports by
1978.
1965: BUSINESS: The tobacco industry's
Cigarette Advertising Code, announced in the Spring of 1964 to
minimize the FTC's ad restrictions, takes effect. Drawn up by
the Policy Committee of Lawyers, its administrator is
respected ex-NJ-governor Robert B. Meyner, who was given
authority to fine violators up to $100,000. The code banned
advertising and marketing directed mainly at those under 21
years old, and ended advertising and promotion in school and
college publications. No violations or fines were ever levied
In 1983, the Tobacco Institute published a pamphlet entitled
"Voluntary Initiatives of a Responsible Industry." The
pamphlet noted that "in 1964, the industry adopted a cigarette
advertising code prohibiting advertising, marketing and
sampling directed at young people."-- DOJ Complaint, 9/22/99
1965-08-01: UK: Government bans
cigarette advertisements on TV
1965: BUSINESS: MARKET SHARE:
American's share of the market sank from 35% in 1965 to 17.8%
in 1971. By 1978 they were down to 12%.
1965: LEGISLATION: Congress passes the
Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act requiring the
follwoing Surgeon General's Warning on the side of cigarette
packs: "Caution: Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous to Your
Health." . .
1965-05: LITIGATION: Weaver v. AT
filed in State Court, Missouri Lung cancer
1965-07-31: UK: Cigarette advertising
on British TV is banned.
1965-09: BUSINESS: JAPAN: Japan
Tobacco begins providing free cigarettes to elderly residents
of nursing homes on the "Respect for the Aged Day" holiday.
The practice becomes a tradition.
1965-12-17: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: CTR's
Ad Hoc Cmte sets priorities; Alvan R. Feinstein is awarded
$5,600 CTR "Special Projects" grant. ("Relationship of
cigarette smoking to the clinical course and behavior of
cancers of the lung, larynx and rectum, with particular
reference to the development of techniques of multivariable
analysis.) "The Ad Hoc Committee divided the proposals
referred to into three categories: Category A: Projects
essentially of "adversary" value. These are considered to have
a relatively high priority. Category B: Research having a
generally defensive character. Category C. Basic research." "
Bates #: 2017025366/5370 (
https://www.pmdocs.com/getallimg.asp?DOCID=2017025366/5370)
1966: Congress votes to send 600
million cigarettes to flood disaster victims in India
1966: PROPAGANDA: "It Is Safe To
Smoke" by Lloyd Mallan. "The scientific facts in the smoking
vs. health controversy--and a startling, straight-forward
conclusion." Mallan visits scientist after scientist, all of
whom tell him smoking's not really dangerous, but just in case
it is--the charcoal filter (then used on Lark cigarettes)
would the best protection. The dedication reads: This book is
for Rose Tinker Mallan, my lovely non-smoking wife, who
worries with renewed emphasis every time she reads another
scare headline in the newspapers "linking" cigarette smoking
with disease, and for my son Lloyd Jeffrey, who fiendishly
smokes the wrong kind of cigarette.
1966: BUSINESS: RJR's filter-tip
Winston becomes top-selling cigarette in the US
1966: Congress votes to send 600
million cigarettes to flood disaster victims in India
1966: FASHION: Designer Yves Saint
Laurent introduces "le smoking," a tuxedo for women.
1966-01-01: Health warnings on
cigarette packs begin
1966-05: LITIGATION: Thayer v. L&M
filed in Federal District Court, Michigan Lung cancer
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1967: 2nd Surgeon General's Report:
The Health Consequences of Smoking: A Public Health Service
Review William H. Stewart's Surgeon General's Report concludes
that smoking is the principal cause of lung cancer; finds
evidence linking smoking to heart disease
1967: Federal Trade Commission
releases the first tar and nicotine report.
1967: FCC applies TV Fairness Doctrine
to cigarette ads
1967: SCIENCE: Dr. Auerbach gives 86
beagles tracheotomies in order to pump smoke into their lungs.
1967: BUSINESS: Philip Morris
reorganizes its corporate structure to create Philip Morris
Inc. and three operating companies: Philip Morris Domestic;
Philip Morris International; and Philip Morris Industrial.
1967: BUSINESS: Joseph F. Cullman,
3rd, is appointed chairman and CEO of Philip Morris Inc.
1967-01-16: PROPAGANDA: Hawthorne
Books publishes "It Is Safe to Smoke."
1967-02-28: PROPAGANDA: Dehart Hill
& Knowlton hold a press conference for Lloyd Mallan's "It
_Is_ Safe to Smoke" Bates # 502643635
1967-06: LITIGATION: Tobacco wins
Zagurski v. American Tobacco
1967-10: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: "Tobacco
Abstracts," a trade publication which offers relevant
citations and abstracts to world literature on nicotiana drops
the section titled "Health". The announcement was as follows:
"(NOTE: Health section will be omitted from now on.)" No
further information was offered. (LB)
1967: PROPAGANDA: "It Is Safe To
Smoke" by Lloyd Mallan is taken off the market by Hawthorne
publishing after the initiation of a congressional
investigation into allegations the book was financed by the
tobacco industry.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1968: 3rd Surgeon General's Report:
The Health Consequences of Smoking: 1968 Supplement to the
1967 Public Health Service Review
1968: NCI Monograph No. 28: Effect of
filter cigarettes on lung cancer risk. Toward a Less Harmful
Cigarette. Bross, I.D. Wynder, E.L., Hoffmann, D. (Editors.).
1968. LITIGATION: Rose Cipollone, now
43, switches from L&M to Virginia Slims and Parliaments.
1968. BUSINESS: Philip Morris
introduces Virginia Slims brand, aimed at women
1968: BUSINESS: Philip Morris Domestic
changes its name to Philip Morris U.S.A.
1968: BUSINESS: Philip Morris Inc.
operating revenues top $1 billion.
1968. BUSINESS: American Tobacco
begins buying into Britain's Gallaher's
1968. BUSINESS: 'Bravo', the attempt
to create a non-tobacco based (lettuce based) cigarette, fails
(World Tobacco, 1968, p1) (LB)
1968. MOTOR SPORTS: Colin Chapman's
Team Lotus becomes the first Formula One team to accept
tobacco sponsorship.
1968-02: PAKISTAN: Pakistan Tobacco
Board was established through an ordinance (Pakistan Tobacco
Board Ordinance No: 1 of 1968), to promote the cultivation of
tobacco, manufacture and export of tobacco and tobacco
products .
1968-01: PROPAGANDA: "To Smoke or Not
to Smoke--That Is Still the Question," by Stanley Frank, a
widely read sports writer, appears in True Magazine. To call
the public's attention to the article, the Industry ran a
contemporaneous ad in 72 markets, announcing the article's
publication. On March 3,, a similar but shorter article
appeared in the National Enquirer entitled "Cigarette Cancer
Link is Bunk / 70,000,000 Smokers Falsely Alarmed." written by
"Charles Golden" (a fictitious name commonly used by the
Enquirer.) The real author was Stanley Frank. Two million
reprints of the True Magazine article were distributed to
physicians, scientists, journalists, government officials, and
other opinion leaders with a small card which stated, "As a
leader in your profession and community, you will be
interested in reading this story from the January issue of
True Magazine about one of today's controversial issues. --
THE EDITORS" The actual sender was the TI, through Tiderock..
It was subsequently disclosed through investigations by Wall
St. Journal reporter Ronald Kessler and the FTC that author
Frank had been paid $500 to write the article, by Joseph
Field, a public relations professional working for Brown and
Williamson. [Frank also received $2,000 for the article from
True.] Brown and Williamson reimbursed Field for that amount.
By the time the True article was published, Frank was an
employee of Hill and Knowlton.
1968-03-03: PROPAGANDA: National
Enquirer publishes "Cigarette Cancer Link is Bunk".
1968-10: LITIGATION: Tobacco wins
Pritchard v. L&M
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1969: 4th Surgeon General's Report:
The Health Consequences of Smoking: 1969 Supplement to the
1967 Public Health Service Review Confirms link between
maternal smoking and low birth weight
1969: SUPREME COURT: U.S. Supreme
Court applies the Fairness Doctrine to cigarettes, giving
tobacco control groups "equal time" on the air to reply to
tobacco commercials
1969: LEGISLATION: Congress enacts the
Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act of 1969, which amends the
1965 Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act to require
the following warning: "The Surgeon General Has Determined
That Cigarette Smoking is Dangerous to Your Health." The 1969
act also includes the phrase: "(b) No requirement or
prohibition based on smoking and health shall be imposed under
State law with respect to the advertising or promotion of any
cigarettes the packages of which are labeled in conformity
with the provisions of this Act."
1969: BANS: Ralph Nader asks the FAA
to ban smoking on airlines as annoying and unhealthy for
nonsmokers, and as a fire danger; Pan American Airlines
creates the first nonsmoking section.
1969: REGULATION: FCC issues a Notice
of Proposed Rulemaking to ban cigarette ads on TV and radio.
Discussions, both in Congress and in private between
legislators and tobacco companies, result in cigarette
advertisers agreeing to stop advertising on the air in return
for a delay in controls on the sale of cigarettes.
1969: BUSINESS: Philip Morris gains a
controlling interest (53%) in the Miller Brewing Company (nee
1855), then only the 7th largest brewery.
1969. BUSINESS: American Tobacco drops
"tobacco" from parent; American Brands, Inc. established with
headquarters in Old Greenwich, CT, as parent company of
American Tobacco Co.
1969. BUSINESS: RJ Reynolds Tobacco
drops "tobacco."
1969. MOTOR SPORTS: WINSTON CUP racing
is born when NASCAR driver Junion Johnson suggests to RJR they
sponsor not just a car, but the whole show.
1969: DOCUMENTS: A Philip Morris memo
from researcher William Dunn to Dr. Helmut Wakeham, Philip
Morris' director of research and development, warned against
referring to tobacco as a drug. Dunn wrote, "I would be more
cautious . . . do we really want to tout cigarette smoke as a
drug? It is, of course, but there are dangerous FDA
implications to having such conceptualization go beyond these
walls."
1969-12: LITIGATION: Tobacco wins
Thayer v. L&M
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Seventies
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cigarettes are the most heavily
advertised product in America
Magazines and newspapers stop covering
the issue in depth
1970: BUSINESS: MARKET SHARE: American
Tobacco's share of the US market has fallen to 19%.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1970: BRAND CONSUMPTION: RANK BRAND
BILLIONS SOLD
1 Winston 81.86 billion
2 Pall Mall 57.96 billion
3 Marlboro 51.37 billion
4 Salem 44.1 billion
5 Kool 40.14 billion
1970: CONSUMPTION: American cigar
consumption peaks at about 9 billion a year.
1970: Clara Gouin founds the first
GASP group in MD. Her father died of lung cancer and
emphysema. The group tried to get established groups to
endorse goals but was not successful.
1970: BUSINESS: Cigarette industry
voluntarily agrees to display "tar" and nicotine data in all
advertising.
1970: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: Roper
Researchers tell Philip Morris, True answers on smoking habits
might be difficult to elicit in the presence of parents. . .
We recommend interviewing young people at summer recreation
centers (at beaches, public pools, lakes, etc.)
1970 (approx): INDUSTRY RESEARCH:
Philip Morris purchases the Institut fur Industrielle und
Biologische Forschung GmbH, or INBIFO, a biological research
facility in Cologne, Germany.
1970: BUSINESS: Philip Morris Inc.
acquires the remaining 47 percent of Miller it does not own
from De Rance Foundation in Milwaukee.
1970: BUSINESS: RJ Reynolds Tobacco
Co. becomes a subsidiary of R.J. Reynolds Industries, Inc.
1970-02-18: Great American Smokeout is
born on "Smokeout Day." Massacusetts smoker and guidance
counselor Arthur P. Mullaney and some Randolph High School
kids come up with the idea of setting aside one day when
everyone in town would quit smoking and donate to a
scholarship fund what they would have spent that day on
cigarettes. The challenge soon caught on, and in 1977, the
American Cancer Society sponsored the first nationwide called
"The Great American Smokeout."
1970-03: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: "The Mouse
House Massacre" A major research project on smoking and
emphysema is dismantled. Former scientist Joseph E. Bumgarner
told in a deposition how he and 25 other members of Reynolds'
biological research division in Winston-Salem, N.C., were
abruptly ordered to surrender their notebooks to the company's
legal department and then were fired. .
1970-03-31: LEGISLATION: President
Nixon signs a measure banning cigarette advertising on radio
and television, to take effect after Jan. 1, 1971
1970-04: LITIGATION: Tobacco wins
Weaver v. AT
1970-04-01: LEGISLATION: Stronger
mandatory cigarette label is required. Label is changed to
read, "Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined That
Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Your Health."
1970-07-01: TWA becomes first airline
to offer no- smoking sections aboard every aircraft in its
fleet.
1970-12: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: RJR closes
down its "mouse house" facility in Winston-Salem, NC..
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1971: 5TH Surgeon General's Report:
The Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon
General
1971: Helen Story founds the second
GASP group in Berkeley due to problems with smoking in
classrooms.
1971: BUSINESS: R.J. Reynolds Tobacco
becomes R.J. Reynolds Industries
1971: UNITED AIRLINES is the first
major carrier to establish seperate sections for smokers and
nonsmokers
1971: UK: Second British Royal College
of Physicians of London Report: Smoking and Health Now Refers
to cigarette death toll as "this present holocaust."
1971: UK: Cigarette Smoking and
Health--Report by an Interdepartmental Group of Officials
finds that, all things considered, tobacco use brings in more
money than it costs in health and disability. Report is
unknown to the public until the Guardian publishes an account
on May 6, 1980.
1971: SPORTS: RJR sponsorship of
NASCAR's NASCAR Grand National Division begins.
1971: SPORTS: Virginia Slims Tennis
begins.
1971-01-02: REGULATION: TV: Cigarette
ads are taken off TV and radio as Cigarette Smoking Act of
1969 takes effect. Broadcast industry loses c. $220 Million in
ads (Ad Age, "History of TV Advertising"). The last commercial
on US TV is a Virginia Slims ad, aired on the Johnny Carson
Tonight show, Jan. 1, 1971.
1971-01-03: Joseph Cullman, then
Chairman of the Board of Philip Morris, Inc., is interviewed
on CBS' Face the Nation. The interviewers asked Cullman if he
was aware of a massive study [which] showed that babies of
smoking mothers were 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. He said, "Some women would prefer having smaller
babies." Another exchange:, "Well, I think, Mr. Ubell, in this
case your premise is wrong. I merely have to refer to the
Surgeon General's Advisory Committee report; that report
stated categorically that cigarettes are not addictive. UBELL:
I didn't say that they were addictive. I said that nicotine is
a drug, within the meaning of a term of drug, meaning a
chemical -- MR. CULLMAN: It's more important for the industry
to take the word of the Surgeon General's committee; they said
that cigarettes are not addictive. . . the Surgeon General's
committee largely exonerated nicotine as a health hazard of
any consequence to the public. I have to lean on that. After
all, the Surgeon General's committee met for nine months or
longer, and they concluded that nicotine is not a hazard to
health.>
1971-04: Cigarette manufacturers agree
to put health warnings on advertisements. This agreement is
later made into law.
1971-12-23: Nixon Administration
declares "War on Cancer"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1972: 6TH Surgeon General's Report:
The Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon
General Surgeon General's Report addresses "public exposure to
air pollution from tobacco smoke" and danger of smoking to the
unborn child.
1972: LEGISLATION: Tobacco
advertisements, direct mail and point-of-sale material are all
required to carry health warnings
1972: MIT Professor David Wilson
founds MASH an affiliate of ASH.
1972: BUSINESS: Philip Morris Inc.
acquires 100 percent of Mission Viejo Company, a community
development and home-building firm.
1972: BUSINESS: Philip Morris Inc.'s
revenues top $2 billion.
1972: BUSINESS: Marlboro becomes the
best-selling cigarette in the world
1972: BUSINESS: Marlboro Lights
introduced, promising lower tar and nicotine.
1972: PROPAGANDA: "In 1967, five
persons in the U.S. officially died of bunions. One died of
headache. One died of emotional instability!" -- Tobacco
Institute Backgrounder, 5th in a series of "background papers
on the smoking and health controversy." Bates # TIMN 0078551
https://my.tobaccodocuments.org/tdo/view.cfm?CitID=13981
1972-05: BUSINESS: Tobacco Institute
memorandum from Fred Panzer (VP) to TI President Horace R.
Kornegay, Panzer describes the industry's strategy for
defending itself in litigation, politics, and public opinion
as "brilliantly conceived and executed over the years" in
order to "cast doubt about the health charge" by using
"variations on the theme that, `the case is not proved.'" The
memorandum urges more intensive lobbying, and advocates public
relations efforts to provide tobacco industry sympathizers
with evidence "that smoking may not be the causal factor [in
disease]." Until now, the industry has supplied symmpathizers
with "too little in the way of ready-made credible
alternatives."
1972: DOCUMENTS: RJR research
scientist Claude Teague writes in a memo, "the tobacco
industry may be thought of as being a specialized, highly
ritualized and stylized segment of the pharmaceutical
industry." Significantly, he added that,"Tobacco products,
uniquely, contain and deliver nicotine, a potent drug with a
variety of physiological effects. . . Happily for the tobacco
industry, nicotine is both habituating and unique in its
variety of physiological actions, hence no other active
material or combination of materials provides equivalent
'satisfaction..'"
1972-05-24: DOCUMENTS: PM scientist Al
Udow writes memo stating that rival brand Kool had the highest
nicotine "delivery" of any king-size on the market. "This ties
in with the information we have from focus group sessions and
other sources that suggest that Kool is considered to be good
for 'after marijuana' to maintain the 'high' or for mixing
with marijuana, or 'instead." He wrote that Kool's high
nicotine is a reason for its success, and that "we should
pursue this thought in developing a menthol entry. . . The
lessened taste resulting from the lowered tar can be masked by
high menthol or other flavors. Many menthol smokers say they
are not looking for high tobacco taste anyway. . . A widely
held theory holds that most people smoke for the narcotic
effect (relaxing, sedative) that comes from the nicotine. The
'taste comes from the 'tar' (particulate matter) delivery. . .
. Although more people talk about 'taste,' it is likely that
greater numbers smoke for the narcotic value that comes from
the nicotine."
1972-09: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: Boston,
MA: Gary Huber's "Tobacco and Health Research Program, aka
"The Harvard Project" begins, the result of a $2.8 million
grant to Harvard, the largest ever for a University. It will
run until 1980, generating 239 medical publications, including
27 books and 54 peer-reviewed scientific papers ("Civil
Warriors," pp. 288-89)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1973: 7TH Surgeon General's Report:
The Health Consequences of Smoking 1973 Finds cigar and pipe
smokers' health risks to be less than cigarette smokers, but
more than nonsmokers.
1973: ETS: Nixon Administration
Surgeon General Dr. Jesse Steinfeld is fired after angering
tobacco executives by urging restrictions on secondhand smoke.
1973: ETS: Civil Aeronautics Board
requires all airlines to create nonsmoking sections. This is
the first federal restriction on smoking in public places.
1973: Arizona becomes the first state
(in modern times) to pass a comprehensive law restricting
smoking in public places.
1973: SPORTS: Marlboro Cup horse
racing begins.
1973: SPORTS: Tennis' "Battle of the
Sexes." Billie Jean King, wearing Virginia Slims colors, and
Virginia Slims sequins on her chest, defeats Bobby Riggs..
1973: SCIENCE: RJR report on success
of PM's Marlboro and B&W's Kool brands states, "A
cigarette is a system for delivery of nicotine to the smoker
in attractive, useful form. At normal smoke pH, at or below
6.0, the smoke nicotine is...slowly absorbed by the smoker. .
. As the smoke pH increases above about 6.0, an increasing
portion of the total smoke nicotine occurs in free form, which
is rapidly absorbed by the smoker and...instantly perceived as
a nicotine kick."
1973: BUSINESS: Philip Morris' Tobacco
Research Center in Richmond is dedicated.
1973-07-12: BUSINESS: RJR director of
marketing and planning R.A. Blevins Jr writes in a memo that
free nicotine, advertising expenditures and cigarette size of
Winstons and Marlboros all affected market share
"independently and collectively," but that "the variability
due to 'free nicotine' was significant and its contribution
was over and above that of advertising expenditures and
[cigarette size]."
1973-07-12: BUSINESS: RJR senior
scientist Frank Colby sends Blevins a memo suggesting that the
company "develop a new RJR youth-appeal brand based on the
concept of going back--at least halfway--to the technological
design of the Winston and other filter cigarettes of the
1950s," a cigarette which "delivered more 'enjoyment' or
'kicks' (nicotine)." Colby said that "for public relations
reasons it would be impossible to go back all the way to the
1955-type cigarettes."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1974: 8TH Surgeon General's Report:
The Health Consequences of Smoking 1974
1974-01-07: Monticello, Minnesota
decides to go non-smoking for a day, in a "D-Day" organized by
Lynn Smith. The event goes statewide in November, and in 1977
goes national--the first Great American Smokeout.
1974: SPORTS: UST creates the
Copenhagen Skoal Scholarship Awards Program for student
athletes (in conjunction with the National Intercollegiate
Rodeo Assn.)
1974: LITIGATION: Rose Cipollone, now
49, switches to True cigarettes.
1974: ADVERTISING: Joe Camel is born.
Used in Poster for French ad campaign for Camel cigarettes.
1974: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: Harrogate lab
in England is closed down.
1974: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: PM pollsters
try to find out why competing brands like Kool were slowing
Marlboro's growth among young smokers.
1974: BUSINESS: Johnny Roventini
retires after a 40-year career as Philip Morris pitchman.
1974: CANADA: The Canadian Council on
Smoking and Health is formed. Charter members include the
Canadian Cancer Society, the Canadian Heart Foundation, the
Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Lung
Association. The Non-Smokers' Rights Association is also
formed. (NCTH)
1974: US Trade Act. The threat of
punitive tariffs, as provided under Section 301, will be used
to force Asian markets considered to have "unfair" or
"discriminatory" trade restrictions to open up to U.S. tobacco
companies' products and advertising.
1974-07-1\5: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: Family
Practice News covered Alvan R. Feinstein's address to the
annual meeting of the Association of American Physicians with
this headline: "Smoking Link to Lung Ca[ncer] Termed
Diagnostic Bias." The article reads "The more cigarettes a
person says he smokes, the more likely he is to be checked by
his physician for lung cancer. Thus, cigarette smoking may be
contributing more to the diagnosis of lung cancer than to the
disease, said Dr. Feinstein of Yale University." Bates #: TITX
0002372 (
https://my.tobaccodocuments.org/tdo/view.cfm?CitID=127054)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1975: 9TH Surgeon General's Report:
The Health Consequences of Smoking 1975
1975: 3rd World Conferfence on Tobacco
or Health: New York, NY
1975. Military stops distribution of
free cigarettes in C-rations and K-rations.
1975: THAILAND bans smoking on city
buses.
1975. BUSINESS: RJR's low tar/nicotine
"NOW" cigarette released.
1975. BUSINESS: American Brands
assumes control of Britain's Gallaher's
1975: BUSINESS: PM's Marlboro
overtakes Winston as the best-selling cigarette in the U.S.
1975: BUSINESS: Philip Morris' net
earnings top $200 million.
1975-08-01: REGULATION: MINNESOTA
Clean Indoor Air Act, the nation's first statewide
anti-second-hand smoke law goes into effect to protect "the
public health and comfort and the environment by prohibiting
smoking in public places and at public meetings, except in
designated smoking areas." It is the first law to require
separation of smokers' and nonsmokers.
1975-08-26: REGULATION: Madison,
Wisconsin passes an ordinance limiting smoking, the first
community in the nation to do so; the effort was led by Margo
Redmond of GASP.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1976: 10TH Surgeon General's Report:
The Health Consequences of Smoking: Selected Chapters from
1971 through 1975 Reports
1976: REGULATION: Federal Election
Committee resolves charges that high-ranking RJR executives
were funneling illegal campaign contributions to Republican
presidential candidates from 1964 through 1972. The monies
were said to have been paid in the form of personal gifts as
high as $10,000 each from individual corporate officials, who
were repaid from an off-the-books "slush fund," drawn from
RJR's overseas customers. No jail terms, no fines: Charles B.
Wade, Smith and Peoples had to resign; Alex Galloway, a former
chairman who was also implicated during the internal
investigation, had retired in 1973. . . Lawyers threatened
lawsuits if the exact details of the scandal got out.
1976-05-29: REGULATION: Resignations
of Wade, Smith & Peoples becomes public.
1976: LITIGATION: Norma Broin, a
20-year-old non-smoking Mormon, gets a job as a flight
attendant for American Airlines (Broin vs. Philip Morris,
et.al.)
1976: SOCIETY: Formation of the
Cigarette Pack Collectors Association and first of its
conventions. (LB)
1976: LITIGATION: Donna Shimp sues New
Jersey Bell Telephone for not protecting her from second-hand
smoke. Ruling in her favor, the judge said, "if such rules are
established for machines, I see no reason why they should not
be held in force for humans."
1976: BUSINESS: Philip Morris exceeds
$4 billion in revenues.
1976: MARKET SHARE: Philip Morris'
share of the U.S. cigarette market increases to 25.1%; the
international tobacco company's share increases to 5.1%.
1976: UK: TV: Peter Taylor's Death in
the West--The Marlboro Story made by Thames Television is
shown.
1976-07-23: UK: BUSINESS: BAT
Industries is formed when Tobacco Securities Trust Company
Limited (TST) merges with British-American Tobacco Company
Limited (BATCo).
1976: SOCIETY: The Tobacco Institute
provided funds to the Smithsonian Institute for the creation
of a one-tenth scale model of the colonial ship Brilliant. The
first cargo carried by the Brilliant was tobacco in 1775. (LB)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1977: 1st Great American Smokeout
1977: REGULATION: Berkeley, California
became the first community in California to limit smoking in
restaurants and other public places.
1977: CANADA: 1st National Non-Smoking
Week
1977: UK: Royal College of Physicians
of London third report: "Smoking or Health."
1977: BUSINESS: RUSSIA: Philip Morris
signs a licensing agreement with Licensintorg, representing
the Soviet tobacco industry.
1977: BUSINESS: BAT acquires overseas
business of Lorillard, including the Kent brand.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1978: 11TH Surgeon General's Report:
The Health Consequences of Smoking, 1977-1978
1978: A Roper Report prepared for the
Tobacco Institute concludes that the nonsmokers' rights
movement is "the most dangerous development yet to the
viability of the tobacco industry that has yet occurred." The
original Surgeon General's report, followed by the first
"hazard" warning on cigarette packages, the subsequent
"danger" warning on cigarette packages, the removal of
cigarette advertising from television and the inclusion of the
danger warning in cigarette advertising, were all "blows" of
sorts for the tobacco industry. They were, however, blows that
the cigarette industry could successfully weather because they
were all directed against the smoker himself. The anti-smoking
forces' latest tack, however-on the passive smoking issue-is
another matter. What the smoker does to himself may be his
business, but what the smoker does to the non-smoker is quite
a different matter....six out of ten believe that smoking is
hazardous to the nonsmoker's health, up sharply over the last
four years. More than two-thirds of non-smokers believe it;
nearly half of all smokers believe it. This we see as the most
dangerous development yet to the viability of the tobacco
industry that has yet occurred . . . The strategic and long
run antidote to the passive smoking issue is, as we see it,
developing and widely publicizing clear-cut, credible, medical
evidence that passive smoking is not harmful to the
non-smoker's health
1978: BUSINESS: SWITZERLAND: INFOTAB
is established as a non-profit international association
(original name: ICOSI - International Committee on Smoking
Issues) by BAT, Imperial, Philip Morris, Reemtsma, R.J.
Reynolds and Rothman's International. INFOTAB is now in
regular contact with tobacco industry groups in 28
countries...Our strategic objective is to help the industry
around the world prevent unreasonable restrictions on its
operations and help smokers preserve their freedom to choose
whether or not they will smoke and where they will smoke,
within the bounds of mutual courtesy...There will also be an
emphasis on early-warning information to help the industry
anticipate potential issues and anti-smoking initiatives.
1978: BUSINESS: Philip Morris obtains
the international cigarette business of the Liggett Group Inc.
1978: BUSINESS: Philip Morris Inc.
acquires 97 percent of the Seven-Up Company
1978: BUSINESS: Philip Morris
announces plans to construct a new 26-story corporate
headquarters building in midtown Manhattan, across from Grand
Central Station.
1978: BUSINESS: For the 25th
consecutive year Philip Morris posts record revenues ($6.6
billion) and profits ($409
1978: BUSINESS: Hamish Maxwell becomes
CEO of Philip Morris. Will hold the position until 1991.
million).
1978: AUSTRALIA: Philip Morris,
Rothmans and WD & HO Wills set up the Tobacco Institute
1978: Tobacco companies fight a CA
referendum on statewide smoking restrictions with a group
called "Californians for Common Sense." Though 68% support the
referendum, CCS spends $6.6 million lampooning the
anti-smoking movement as a nagging Big Brother out to deny
personal freedoms. The referndum fails.
1978: USA: A tobacco trade journal
reports that "cigarette purchases are 2.5 times as great when
an in-store display is present compared to when no advertising
or display treatment is employed", and that cigarette sales
drop when parents shop with their children. (Tobacco
International, 22 Dec 1978, p. 33). (LB)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1979: 12TH Surgeon General's Report:
Smoking and Health: A Report of the Surgeon GeneralDr Julius
B. Richmond, first reviews health risks of smokeless tobacco.
1979: State Mutual Life Assurance
Company of America, Worcester MA, issues a 41 page report
titled, "Mortality differences between smokers and non
smokers." The abstract reads: "Cigarette smokers are subject
to a mortality risk significantly higher than that of non
smokers. These differences are real; they emerge at early
durations, contrary to what may earlier have been believed.
They are not deferred to older ages; they are statistically
significant at anyreasonable level."
1979: REGULATION: Minneapolis and St.
Paul become the first U.S. cities to ban the distribution of
free cigarette samples. (Dan Freeborn, MN Star-Tribune)
1979: DOCUMENTS: A BAT memo said, "We
also think that consideration should be given to the
hypothesis that high profits additionally associated with the
tobacco industry are directly related to the fact that the
customer is dependent up on the product . . . We are searching
explicitly for a socially acceptable addictive product." On
the other hand, the memo warned, "one must question both the
ethics and practical possibilities of society/medical opinion
permitting the advent of a new habituation process ... "
1979: TOBACCO CONTROL: Australian
activist group BUGAUP (Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against
Unhealthy Promotions) is formed, and begins re-facing tobacco
and alcohol billboards.
1979: TOBACCO CONTROL: MA: The Clean
Indoor Air Educational Foundation begins. It will later (1992)
become the Tobacco Control Resource Center.
1979: BUSINESS: Philip Morris Inc.
revenues top $8 billion; net earnings top $500 million.
1979-01: MEDIA: Mother Jones magazine
publishes "Why Dick Can't Stop Smoking." According to MoJo in
1996, As a professional courtesy, Mother Jones gave tobacco
manufacturers advance notice of the cover story so they could
pull their ads from the issue. Philip Morris, Brown &
Williamson, and others responded by canceling their entire
commitment: several years' worth of cigarette ads. In a show
of corporate solidarity, many liquor companies followed suit.
1979: ADVERTISING: Tobacco Institute
launches ad campaign against nonsmokers'-rights movement.
1979: BUSINESS: MARKET SHARE: Filter
cigarettes account for 90% of U.S. cigarette sales #4:
American Tobacco's share of the US market has fallen to 11%.
Only half ATC's cigarette volume have filters
1979: BUSINESS: Top 20 Brands Sold:
Brand (Company) Billions of cigarettes
(1979)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. MARLBORO (Philip Morris) 103.6
2. WINSTON (R. J. Reynolds) 81.0
3. KOOL (Brown & Williamson) 56.7
4. SALEM (R.J. Reynolds) 53.2
5. PALL MALL (American) 33.9
6. BENSON & HEDGES (Philip Morris)
27.8
7. CAMEL (R.J. Reynolds) 26.3
8. MERIT (Philip Morris) 22.4
9. VANTAGE (R. J. Reynolds) 20.7
10. KENT (Lorillard) 19.3
11. CARLTON (American) 15.0
12. GOLDEN LIGHTS (Lorillard) 13.2
13. TAREYTON (American) 12.2
14. VICEROY (Brown & Williamson)
11.7
15. TRUE (Lorillard) 11.5
16. RALEIGH (Brown & Williamson)
11.3
17. VIRGINIA SLIMS (Philip Morns) 10.5
18. NEWPORT (Lorillard) 9.8
19. PARLIAMENT (Philip Morris) 7.7
20. L & M (Liggett) 7.5
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Business Week December
17,1979.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Eighties
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1980: 13TH Surgeon General's ReporT:
The Health Consequences of Smoking for Women: A Report of the
Surgeon General
1980: LITIGATION: Central Hudson Gas
& Electric Corporation v. Public Service Commission of New
York. US Supreme Court sets guidleines for the regulation of
commercial speech: 1. For an ad to be protected by the First
Amendment, the advertsing must be lawful, and not misleading
2. Given that, for an ad to be banned, the state's interest
must be "substantial;" 3. The ban must "directly advance" the
state's interest; and 4. The ban must be no more extensive
than necessary to further the state's interest
1980: BUSINESS: MARKET SHARE: American
Tobacco's share of the US market has fallen to 11%.
1980: BUSINESS: Philip Morris revenues
approach $10 billion.
1980: ENTERTAINMENT: Superman II: Lois
Lane lights up. In fifty years of comic book appearnces, Lois
Lane never smoked. For a reported payment of $42,000, Philip
Morris purchases 22 exposures of the Marlboro logo in the
movie; Lois Lane, strong role model for teenage girls, gets a
Marlboro pack on her desk and begins chain smoking Marlboro
Lights. At one point in the film, a character is tossed into a
van with a large Marlboro sign on its side, and in the
climactic scene the superhero battles amid a maze of Marlboro
billboards before zooming off in triumph, leaving in his wake
a solitary taxi with a Marloro sign on top. The New York State
Journal of Medicine even published an article titled "Superman
and the Marlboro Woman: The Lungs of Lois Lane." Thoughout the
80s, "Superman II" is frequently re-run on TV in prime time.
1980: Tobacco companies fight a 2nd CA
referendum on statewide smoking restrictions; this time the
front group is called "Californians Against Regulatory
Excess." As in 1978, the referendum fails.
1980: SPORTS: CANADA: Imperial
Tobacco, through Du Maurier, begins sponsoring men's and
women's tennis.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1981: 14TH Surgeon General's Report:
The Health Consequences of Smoking -- The Changing Cigarette:
A Report of the Surgeon General .
1981: "A formalized "Blueprint for
Action," drafted in 1981 by more than 200 smoking control
"experts" attending a National Conference on Smoking OR
Health, is often identified as the catalyst for a dramatic
change (in anti-smoking activity."-- "The Anti-Smoking
Movement"
1981: CONSUMPTION: Annual consumption
peaks at 640 billion cigarettes, 60% of which are low-tar
brands.
1981: LITIGATION: Rose Cipollone loses
a lobe of her right lung to cancer; continues to smoke
cigarettes.
1981: LITIGATION: CBS Chicago news
commentator Walter Jacobsen accuses Brown & Williamson of
engaging in a lurid advertising campaign to get young people
to smoke.
1981 Massachusetts GASP files suit
against BAY Transit authority for not enforcing smoking
restrictions.
1981: BUSINESS: Hamish Maxwell, 57,
becomes CEO of Philip Morris (1981-1991), succeeding George
Weissman
1981: Insurance companies begin
offering discounts for nonsmokers on life insurance premiums
1981: Stanton Glantz at UCSF receives
a copy of " Death in the West"
1981: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: 1981 PM study
investigates the link between pricing and smoking levels Dick
Schweiker was proposed as Secretary of DHHS (a conservative)
and a relatively unknown surgeon by the name of C. Everett
Koop was proposed as SG. The latter was considered an
ultraconservative and darling of the far right because of his
public stand on abortion. Jesse Helms was Koops sponsor in the
Senate. Schweiker rescued the Office on Smoking and Health
from
1981-01: The Hirayama Study. Takeshi
Hirayama, chief of epidemiology of the Research Institute at
Tokyo's National Cancer Center, and his associates studied for
fourteen years 92,000 nonsmoking wives of smoking husbands to
learn what their risk was of contracting lung cancer, compared
to a similarly sized control group married to nonsmokers.
Nonsmoking wives married to axsmokers or current smokers of up
to fourteen cigarettes a day showed a 40 percent elevated risk
of lung cancer over wives married to nonsmokers; those married
to husbands smoking fifteen to nineteen cigarettes a day had a
60 percent higher risk; and those whose husbands smoked a pack
or more a day had a 90 percent heightened risk. The findings
were savaged by letters to the BMJ (by, among others, Theodore
Sterling, whose projects received $5M in CTR funds between
1973 and 1990),-- and by the Tobacco Institute in full page
ads all across the US. Meanwhile, Brown and Williamson
documents show that, although the tobacco industry was
publicly attacking Hirayama's paper, several of its own
experts were privately admitting that his conclusions were
valid. B&W counsel J. Wells said both German and British
scientists paid by the tobacco industry had reviewed the work
and "they believe Hirayama is a good scientist and that his
non-smoking wives publication is correct."15 (J. Wells, Re
Smoking and Health - Tim Finnegan, Memo to E. Pepples, 1981,
24 July) Non-smoking wives of heavy smokers have a higher risk
of lung cancer: a study from Japan (BMJ, V. 282: pp. 183-185,
17 January 1981
1981-02: David Stockton's Office of
Management and Budget "zeroes out" the Office on Smoking and
Health in its FY 82 budget. Health and Human Services
Secretary Dick Schweiker battles Stockton and the White House
to get half the funding restored.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1982: 15TH Surgeon General's Report:
The Health Consequences of Smoking -- Cancer: A Report of the
Surgeon General
1982: CONSUMPTION: 624 billion
cigarettes were sold in the US this year, the most ever.
1982: BUSINESS: Harrods' (department
store) name goes on a a cigarette; this is one of the first
instances of tobacco companies "renting names" of other
companies (See "Harley Davidson" cigarettes) (LB).
1982: BUSINESS: Philip Morris Credit
Corp. is incorporated.
1982: BUSINESS: Santa Fe Natural
Tobacco Co. is founded.
1982: HEALTH: Surgeon General's Report
(Koop) finds possibility that second-hand smoke may cause lung
cancer.
1982: LITIGATION: Rose Cipollone loses
her right lung to cancer; continues to sneak cigarettes.
1982: LEGISLATION: Congress passes the
No Net Cost Tobacco Program Act, requiring the government's
Commodity Credit Corporation, which pays for the government
tobacco purchases, to recover all the money it spends on the
price-support program. Now taxpayers no longer pay for losses
incurred by the program, though they still pay about $16
million a year in administrative costs to run it
1982: Dallas hotelier Lyndon Sanders
opens the Non-Smokers Inn; By 1990 an economic slump forced
the Non-Smokers Inn to change its policy -- and its name.
1982-01-01: CHINA: The China National
Tobacco Corporation is founded.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1983: 16TH Surgeon General's Report:
The Health Consequences of Smoking: Cardiovascualr Disease; A
report of the Surgeon General Cites smoking as a major cause
of coronary heart disease
1983: MARKET SHARE: Philip Morris
U.S.A. gains market share for the 21st consecutive year, to
reach 34.4 percent, overtaking RJR to become the #1 tobacco
co. in the US in sales. For the 30th consecutive year, Philip
Morris announces record revenues ($13 billion) and earnings
($904 million).
1983: BUSINESS: US Tobacco introduces
Skoal Bandits -- a starter product, with the tobacco contained
in a pouch like a tea bag.
1983: LITIGATION: Cipollone suit
filed; Rose finally quits smoking.
1983: REGULATION: San Francisco passes
first strong workplace smoking restrictions, banning smoking
in private workplaces
1983-06-06: MEDIA: Newsweek runs a 4
page article, "Showdown on Smoking" on the nonsmokers' rights
movement. Despite months of TI input, the removal of the item
from Cover Story status, and the deletion of 3 sidebars (on
health effects, political donations/industry lobbying, and a
poor business prognosis), TI felt, "the article contains
sufficient errors and indicatons of superficiality and poor
research so as to leqave an anti-smoking bias in readers'
minds." Issues of Newsweek before & after carried 7-10
pages of cigarette ads, but the June 6 issue carried none.
According to Larry C. White's Merchants of Death, the
estimated loss of revenue as a result of publishing the
article: $1 million.
1983: USA: BUSINESS: The creative
director of a New York advertising agency spoke of working on
tobacco advertisements, "We were trying very hard to influence
kids who were 14 to start smoking". (Medical J of Australia, 5
March 1983, p.237). (LB)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1984: 17TH Surgeon General's Report:
The Health Consequences of Smoking: Chronic Obstructive Lung
Disease, A Report of the Surgeon General Cites smoking as a
major cause of chronic obstructive lung disease.
1984: The Advocacy Institute, which
pioneered the use of electronic media for tobacco control
advocacy through the creation of the Smoking Control Advocacy
Resource (SCARCNet), is founded
1984: UK: British Medical Association
uses black edged postcards to notify MPs of smoking related
deaths
1984: CESSATION: FDA approves nicotine
gum as a "new drug" and quit-smoking aid
1984: LITIGATION: Rose Cipollone dies
of lung cancer at 58.
1984: REGULATION: Tobacco industry is
required to turn over a general list of cigarette additives
annually to the Department of Health and Human Services'
Office on Smoking and Health. The List is then locked in a
safe. Disclosure to any other party is a crime. OSH allowed to
study the list, but lacks funds.
1984: BUSINESS: Hamish Maxwell becomes
president and CEO of Philip Morris Inc.
1984: BUSINESS: The Bakery,
Confectionary and Tobacco Workers International Union
(BC&T) and the Tobacco Institute joined forces by
establishing the Tobacco Industry Labor Management Committee.
The purpose is to "contribute to greater cooperation among the
various segments of the tobacco industry, in order to improve
job security and economic development through public education
and research address problems facing the tobacco industry".
(LB)
1984: SPORTS: Champion Diver Greg
Louganis almost represents American Cancer Society at Olympics
1984-03: MEDIA: THE SATURDAY EVENING
POST stops accepting tobacco advertising. The magazine was
threatened with a partial advertising boycott by non-tobacco
divisions of tobacco companies in response to the decision.
("Smoking and Health Reporter", 1985, p3). The Post's
publisher is Cory SerVaas, MD.
1984-04-15: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: Another
"Mouse House Massacre" The Philip Morris labs at which
nicotine researchers Victor DeNoble and Paul Mele worked are
abruptly shut down.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1985: 18TH Surgeon General's Report:
The Health Consequences of Smoking -- Cancer and Chronic Lung
Disease in the Workplace: A Report of the Surgeon General
1985: HEALTH: Lung cancer surpasses
breast cancer as #1 killer of women.
1985: Stanford MBA student Joe Tye's 5
year old daughter becomes so delighted with a Marlboro
billboard, she begins squealing with delight and says, "Look
Daddy, horsies!" Tye later founds STAT (Stop Teenage Addiction
to Tobacco).
1985: LITIGATION: Brown &
Williamson sues CBS and Chicago news commentator Walter
Jacobsen for libel for his 1981 commentary. B&W wins a
$3.05 million verdict--the largest libel award ever paid by a
news organization.
1985: BUSINESS: The corporate
framework of Philip Morris Inc. is restructured and Philip
Morris Companies Inc., a holding company, becomes the publicly
held parent of Philip Morris Inc.
1985: BUSINESS: Philip Morris buys
food and coffee giant General Foods (Post's cereal, Jell-O,
Maxwell House Coffee for $5.6 billion.
1985: BUSINESS: Philip Morris net
income tops the $1 billion mark, reaching $1.26 billion.
1985: BUSINESS: Philip Morris begins
publishing Philip Morris Magazine (1985-1992)
1985: BUSINESS: RJ Reynolds Industries
buys food products company Nabisco Brands for $4.9B; renames
itself RJR/Nabisco.. Ex-Standard Brands/Nabisco head Ross
Johnson takes control of company.
1985: BUSINESS: A tobacco trade
journal reports on the job of the tobacco "flavourist" and
chemist. One job of the flavourist is to "ensure high
satisfaction from an adequate level of nicotine per puff". One
job of the chemist is "to ensure adequate levels of nicotine
and tar in the smoke". (World Tobacco, March 1987, pp.
97-103).
1985: SOCIETY: Ritz-Carlton Boston
hosts a cigar-smoker private dinner party for 20 gentlemen. It
soon becomes a regular event in Ritz-Carltons across the
country..
1985: Minnesota enacts the first state
legislation to earmark a portion of the state cigarette excise
tax to support smoking prevention programs.
1985-01-17: BUSINESS: B&W lawyer
J. Kendrick Wells writes "Re: Document Retention" memo in
reference to "removing the deadwood."
1985-08-32: REGULATION: Aspen, CO,
institutes 50% smoking ban. Smoking areas must be separately
ventilated.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1986: 19TH Surgeon General's Report:
The Health Consequences of Involuntary Smoking, A Report of
the Surgeon General (C. Everett Koop) finds smokeless tobacco
to be cancer-causing, and addictive
1986: BUSINESS: RJ Reynolds opens its
Tobaccoville plant outside Winston-Salem, NC; it was the
world's largest cigarette factory at the time.
1986: BUSINESS: RJ Reynolds
Industries, Inc. becomes RJR Nabisco Inc.
1986: BUSINESS: Philip Morris sells
off Seven-Up International to PepsiCo.
1986: BUSINESS: Spurred by the General
Foods business, Philip Morris revenues increase more than 50
percent to $25.4 billion, while net earnings reach $1.5
billion.
1986: BUSINESS: Ex-Philip Morris CEO
GEORGE WEISSMAN, begins reign as chairman of Lincoln Center
(NYC).
1986: CUBA: Fidel Castro stops smoking
cigars for health reasons.
1986: USA: The CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH
SERVICE of the Library of Congress wrote a 19 page document
titled "The proposed prohibition on advertising tobacco
products: A constitutional analysis". It concluded that (a)
commercial speech does not have the same protection under law
as non-commercial speech, (b) Congress had the authority to
regulate tobacco advertising and (c) Congress had the
authority to completely prohibit tobacco advertising under the
conditions set in the Central Hudson case and/or the Posadas
case. (LB)
1986: UK: BUSINESS: IMPERIAL GROUP is
purchased by HANSON TRUST PLC
1986: LITIGATION: U.S. Tobacco wins
SEAN MARSEE trial in Oklahoma, the only smokeless-tobacco
liability case ever tried.
1986: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: Industry ETS
Seminar Cancelled amid charges of deception on sponsorship.
Sorell Schwartz, a Georgetown pharmacologist and tobacco
industry consultant, secured funding from two tobacco
companies and other sponsors for a seminar on the science of
ETS at Georgetown in June 1986. Included among the speakers
were several authors of the National Academy of Sciences and
U.S. Surgeon General's reports on passive smoking, then being
written. Most of the moderators were members of Schwartz's
industry consulting team, the "Indoor Air Pollution Advisory
Group." Through inadvertence, Schwartz says, he failed to have
an assistant notify speakers that the conference was sponsored
in part by cigarette companies. For other technical reasons,
he also failed to print this information in the program. The
American Lung Association protested vehemently and asked
Georgetown to cancel the meeting. . . Georgetown did not yield
to the Lung Association, but Schwartz decided to cancel "on my
own.' In a later pamphlet, the Tobacco Institute describes all
this as "a direct threat to scientific integrity' and an
"attempt to stifle free speech and academic freedom."
1986: Mr. Potato Head Quits Smoking.
Surgeon General C. Everett Koop asks Hasbro to stop including
a pipe as a Mr. PH accessory. Mr. Potato Head became the
official "spokespud" for the American Lung Society and the
Great American Smoke-out.
1986-07: RJR Heir Turns Against
Tobacco. The grandson of tobacco company founder RJ Reynolds,
PATRICK REYNOLDS, speaks against tobacco at a House
Congresional hearing chaired by Congressman Henry Waxman; he
advocates a complete ban of tobacco advertising, and recounts
his memories of watching his father, RJ REYNOLDS, JR., die
from emphysema.
1987: CONSUMPTION: 44 percent of
people who had ever smoked had quit as of 1987.
1987: REGULATION: Secretary of
Transportation Elizabeth Dole refuses to ban smoking
completely on airplanes, despite a unanimous recommendation
from the National Academy of Scientists and Surgeon General C.
Everett Koop.
1987: LEGISLATION: CA: Willie Brown's
"Napkin Deal" is passed. It bars product liability actions for
inherently unsafe products, on the grounds that consumer use
of those products was "knowing" and "voluntary." Outlined on a
linen napkin at the watering hole Frank Fat's by Bill Lockyer
and then-Speaker Brown, the law was one of the most famous
back room deals ever struck in Sacramento. (Code of Civil
Procedure 1714.45). It takes effect on Jan. 1, 1988, and
remains in effect for exactly 10 years, until the Calif.
legislature, shocked by revelations from secret documents,
strips the industry's immunity away again, effective Jan. 1,
1998.
1987: BUSINESS: Philip Morris execs
are blessed by Cardinal Cooke. For the Treasures of the
Vatican exhibit, Terence Cardinal Cooke, then the Roman
Catholic Archbishop of New York, led a prayer for Mr. Weissman
and his Philip Morris colleagues. After the benediction, Frank
Saunders, PM VP, said, "We are probably the only cigarette
company on this earth to be blessed by a cardinal."
1987: LITIGATION: INDONESIA: Lawyer
R.O. Tambunan, on behalf of Indonesian youth, files a
class-action suit for Rp 1 trillion against cigarette producer
PT Bentoel, for allegedly violating the law by using the words
Remaja Jaya (Successful Youth) as the brand name of its
product. The Central Jakarta District Court dismissesthe suit,
saying that Tambunan had no right to take action as a
representative of Indonesian youth.
1987: REGULATION: Congress bans
smoking on domestic flights of less than two hours. Takes
effect in 1988.
1987: REGULATION: Beverly Hills, CA,
bans smoking in restuarants. Barry Fogel (Jacopos) the
restauranteur who is the nominal head of the Beverly Hills
Restaurant Association, later said the group was fabricated,,
and that he regretted having anything to do with it. BHRA was
organized by Rudy Cole according to Consumer Reports. It took
a survey of Beverly Hills restaurants which found business
decreased 30% durng a 1987 smoking ban. "What if they Passed a
Law That Took Away 30 Percent of Your Business" read an ad
that the Tobacco Institute ran in some restaurant trade
publications. In 1994, Fogel wrote to the NYC council that he
had been president in 1988 of the BHRA, which successfully
fought a local smokefree bill, He said the BHRA had been
organized and financed almost exclusively by the tobacco
industry. Fogel said he regretted his participation in the
group. He owns the Jacopo restaurants, and wrote that since
they went nonsmoking, "sales have risen." Fogel: 'There was no
Beverly Hills Restaurant Association before the smokefree
ordinance. We were organized by the tobacco industry. The
industry even flew some of our members by Lear Jet to another
California city considering smokefree restaurant legislation."
Mr. Fogel goes on to say "I regret my participation with the
tobacco industry." BHRA was represented by then-partner Mickey
Kantor of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips law firm in Los
Angeles
1987: Tobacco Instutute Testing
Laboratory takes over tar/nicotine tests from the FTC Test
Center.
1987: REGULATION: Department of Health
and Human Services goes smoke-free.
1987: ADVERTISING: Joe Camel Debuts in
USA. A North Carolina advertising agency uses Joe Camel to
celebrate "Old Joe's" 75th anniversary.
1987: JAPAN: A tobacco trade jcournal
reports on a group of Japanese "smoke lovers" who participated
in a panel discussion on smoking. One panelist said, "The life
expectancy of Japanese is said to be the world's longest now,
and why must we be so timidly concerned about health? Let's
enjoy life and smoking" (World Tobacco, Sept 87, p.18). (LB)
1987: JAPAN: The Tokyo Customs Office
attributes the increase in cigarette imports to the permeation
of promotional activities of the suppliers of foreign tobacco
products. (World Tobacco, Sept 87, p.7).(LB)
1987: BUSINESS: Ross Johnson attempts
a leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco.
1987: BUSINESS: Introduction of "Go to
Hell" cigarettes. Each pack comes with two messages, first, "I
like'em and I'm going to smoke'em", second, "Cheaper than
psychiatry, better than a nervous breakdown". (Tobacco
International, p.31). (LB)
1987-09: BUSINESS: Premier Introduced.
RJR's F. Ross Johnson introduces the smokeless Premier
cigarette at a press conference in New York's Grand Hyatt
Hotel.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1988: 20TH Surgeon General's Report:
The Health Consequences of Smoking: Nicotine Addiction, A
Report of the Surgeon General (C. Everett Koop) calls nicotine
"a powerfully addicting drug." In 618-page summary of over
2,000 studies of nicotine and its effects on the body, Koop
declares, "It is now clear that . . . cigarettes and other
form of tobacco are addicting and that actions of nicotine
provide the pharmacologic basic of tobacco addiction," .
1988: LITIGATION: FINLAND: First
tobacco trial in Europe. Pentti Aho, 66, is held responsible
for his own ill health.
1988: LITIGATION: CIPOLLONE: New
Jersey Judge Lee H. Sarokin, presiding over the Cipollone
trial, says he has found evidence of a conspiracy by 3 tobacco
companies that is vast in its scope, devious in its purpose,
and devastating in its results."
1988: DOCUMENTS: .Cipollone trial
reveals "Motives and Incentives in Ciragette Smoking," a 1972
confidential report prepared by the Philip Morris Research
Center of Richmond, Virginia. It reads in part, The cigarette
should be conceived not as a product but as a package. The
product is nicotine. . . . Think of the cigarette as a
dispenser for a dose unit of nicotine. . . . Think of a puff
of smoke as the vehicle of nicotine. . . . Smoke is beyond
question the most optimized vehicle of nicotine and the
cigarette the most optimized dispenser of smoke.
1988: CONSUMPTION: New Teen Smokers:
710,000
1988: BUSINESS: Philip Morris report,
"Smoking Among High School Seniors" suggests fewer youngsters
were smoking in the early 1980s because participation in
athletic programs was increasing.
1988: BUSINESS: Philip Morris pays
$13.6 billion for Kraft, Inc. As in the General Foods deal,
most of the financing is provided by non-U.S. sources.
1988: BUSINESS: Philip Morris revenues
reach nearly $32 billion; net earnings top $2.3 billion.
1988: BUSINESS: Richemont is formed.
1988: ADVERTISING: McCann-Erickson ad
agency creates "Smooth Character" line for Joe Camel campaign.
1988: SPORTS: Olympics goes
smoke-free. When the 1988 Winter Olympics were held in
Calgary, Alberta, Dr. John Hamilton Read successfully lobbies
to have the Games smoke-free. All subsequent Games also ban
smoking.
1988-01-06: LITIGATION: Merrell
Williams begins work for lawfirm Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs
analyzing secret Brown & Williamson tobacco documents.
1988-04-07: CESSATION: First World
No-Tobacco Day, sponsored by World Health Organization as part
of WHO's 40th anniversary. Slogan: Tobacco or health: The
choice is yours
1988-04-18: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: Shook
Hardy recommends renewal of $484G Feinstein "CTR Special
Project" "Dr. Alvan Feinstein has requested a renewal of his
CTR Special Project on improved scientific methods in clinical
epidemiology. Funding is requested for two years in the amount
of $484,960." Bates #:2015006928-6929
https://my.tobaccodocuments.org/tdo/view.cfm?ShowCitation=yes&CitID=2292049
1988-06: LITIGATION: Liggett Group
(L&M, Chesterfield) ordered to pay Antonio Cipollone
$400,000 in compensatory damages for its contribution to his
wife's death. In the years before the 1966 warning labels,
Liggett found to have given Cipollone an express warranty its
products were safe. First ever financial award in a liability
suit against a tobacco company; award later overturned on
technicality; plaintiffs, out of money, drop case
1988-Fall: BUSINESS: Ross Johnson
informs RJR Nabisco board he intends to lead a management
buy-out, and purchase the company for $17 billion. The ensuing
debacle will become the largest LBO ever, with Henry Kravitz'
KKR emerging the winner in 1989, paying a record $24.9
billion.
1988-11-17: Great American Smokeout;
ex-Winston model David Goerlitz quits smoking after 24 years.
1988-12 to 1993-03:Jeffrey Wigand
works at Brown & Williamson.
1988-89: CANADA: LEGISLATION: Federal
laws are enacted to prohibit tobacco advertising and ensure
smoke-free workplaces. Cigarette packs must carry one of four
specified health warnings: "Smoking reduces life expectancy;"
"Smoking is the major cause of lung cancer;" "Smoking is a
major cause of heart disease;" or "Smoking during pregnancy
can harm the baby." (NCTH)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1989: 21st Surgeon General's Report:
Reducing the Health Consequences of Smoking, 25 Years of
Progress, a Report of the Surgeon General
1989: BUSINESS: RJR releases Premier,
its smokeless cigarette, for test-marketing.
1989: BUSINESS: PM spends $300,000
test-marketing a version of its Next brand called "De-Nic,"
which contained only .1mg nicotine. The Kansas City Star
reported that apparently the major market for Philip Morris
De-Nic cigarettes was tobacco researchers, who ran out and
bought them for use in studies in which it was found that
though they tasted very similar to regular cigarettes, and
were smoked in much the same way, smokers brain waves did not
change as they do with nicotine cigarettes.
1989: BUSINESS: PM combines Kraft Inc.
and General Foods Corp. to form Kraft General Foods, the
largest food company in the United States.
1989: BUSINESS: Spurred by the Kraft
Inc. business, Philip Morris Cos. revenues increase 41 percent
to nearly $45 billion; net earnings jump 26 percent to nearly
$3 billion. Operating companies income from Philip Morris
International tops $1 billion for the first time.
1989: BUSINESS: Richemont acquires
Philip Morris' 30% interest in Rothmans International
1989: ADVERTISING: Saatchi and Saatchi
design Northwest Airlines' Smoke-free Skies campaign; RJ
Reynolds withdraws its Oreo account, which Saatchi had had for
18 years.
1989: BUSINESS: BRAND CONSUMPTION:
Marlboro has 25% of the American market
1989: BUSINESS: RJR abandons Premier,
its smokeless cigarette, after unsuccessful test-marketing in
Arizona and Missouri.
1989: CANADA: The government requires
cigarette manufacturers to list the additives and amounts for
each brand. RJ Reynolds temporarily withdraws its brands, and
reformulates them so they are different from their US
versions. Philip Morris withdraws its cigarettes from the
Canadian market entirely.
1989: UAR: Dubai Islamic Bank in the
United Arab Emirates has banned smoking by staff and customers
because Islam forbids harming the body. (Reuters, 27 July
19189). (LB)
1989-01: B&W hires Wigand as Vice
President for Research and Development, ostensibly to develop
a safer cigarette.
1989-02-08: BUSINESS: KKR buys RJR
Nabisco for $24.88 Billion (or, according to some accounts,
$29.6 billion). Lou Gerstner from American Express is
appointed CEO
1989-05-31: World No-Tobacco Day.
Slogan: The female smoker: at added risk
1989-11-21: Smoking banned on domestic
airlines. The bill by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) is enacted.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Nineties
The Millenia Approaches
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1990: 22nd Surgeon General's Report:
Health Benefits of Smoking Cessation, A Report of the Surgeon
General
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1990: BUSINESS: BRAND CONSUMPTION:
RANK BRAND BILLIONS SOLD
1 Marlboro 134.43 billion(?)
2 Winston 45.81 billion
3 Salem 32.01 billion
4 Kool 25.67 billion
5 Newport 24.09 billion
1990: CONSUMPTION: Americans smoke
fewer than 3 billion cigars annually.
1990: REGULATION: Dr. David Kessler
comes to the FDA. He will stay till 1997, his tenure marked by
the attempt, invalidated by the Supreme Court in 1999, to
regulate cigarettes as nicotine delivery devices.
1990: LITIGATION: Mississippi jury
rules that cigarettes killed Nathan Horton, but does not award
damages, finding both Horton and American Tobacco shared
culpability equally.
1990: Ben and Jerry's ice cream
boycott by dropping Oreo cookies from its ice cream.
1990: USA: Ellis Milan, president of
the Retail Tobacco Distributors of America said, "President
George Bush often talks of 1,000 points of light. I'd like to
think those points of light are coming from the glowing ends
of cigars, cigarettes and pipes across the country, and
symbolize the cornerstone of this nation -- tobacco"(LB)
1990: BUSINESS: Philip Morris acquires
Jacobs Suchard AG, a Swiss-based coffee and confectionery
company, for $4.1 billion.
1990: BUSINESS: Philip Morris'
revenues reach $51 billion; operating companies income reaches
$3.5 billion.
1990: INDIA: A tobacco trade journal
reports that India is selling its first cigarette specifically
aimed at women, MS Special Filters, "the sort of market
targeting that can get you pilloried in the US." (World
Tobacco, March 1990, p. 11). (LB)
1990: PEOPLE: Philip Morris CEO Hamish
Maxwell, a heavy smoker, undergoes quadruple bypass surgery.
1990: REGULATION: NYC Passes Tobacco
Sampling Law. Prohibits giveaway or discounted distribution of
tobacco products in public places and at public events.
Exempts tobacco retailers in their stores and wholesalers or
manufacturers.
1990: REGULATION: San Luis Obispo,
California becomes the first city in the world to ban smoking
in all public buildings including bars and restaurants.
1990: BUSINESS: The Uptown Fiasco. RJR
begins test-marketing "Uptown" cigarettes targetting blacks.
Health and Human Services secretary Louis Sullivan, along with
many black civic and religious leaders denounce the cigarette.
RJR cancels the cigarette. The success of the campaign leads
to the founding of the National Association of African
Americans for Positive Imagery (NAAAPI) in 1991.
1990: BUSINESS: Los Angeles, CA,
restaurant Remi holds its first cigar night for women, the
"George Sands Society Night."
1990-01-01: The smoking ban on all
domestic flights of less than 6 hours, except to Alaska or
Hawaii, takes effect. Smoking is also banned on interstate
buses.
1990-02: BUSINESS: Marketing firm
Spector M. Marketors, under contract for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco
Company developed plans to promote "Dakota" brand cigarettes
to the "virile female," including 18- through 20-year-old
women
1990-05-31: World No-Tobacco Day.
Slogan: Childhood and youth without tobacco
1990-08-22: RUSSIA: Scores of angry
smokers block street near Moscow's Red Square for hours in
protest of summer-long cigarette shortage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1991: LITIGATION: Mildred Wiley, a
nonsmoker, dies of lung cancer at 56. Her husband, Philip of
Marion, Indiana, will bring a suit that in December, 1995 will
be the first to establish second hand smoke as a workplace
injury eligible for workers' compensation.
1991: LITIGATION: Grady Carter is
diagnosed with lung cancer.
1991: ADVERTISING: Joe Camel's own
line of merchandise is touted by RJR as bringing in $40
Million/year in advertising billings.
1991: ADVERTISING: JAMA publishes 2
noted studies of Joe Camel and kids: One finds that 91% of 6
year olds can match Joe Camel to his product (cigarettes), and
is as recognized by preschoolers as Mickey Mouse The other
study, by Joe DiFranza, finds that since the inception of the
Joe Camel campaign in 1987, Camel's share of the under-18
market had risen from 0.5% to 32.8%.
1991: ADVERTISING: Saatchi and Saatchi
unit Campbell Mithun tests a campaign for Kool that featured a
cartoon smoking penguin wearing shades, a buzzcut and Day-Glo
sneakers.
1991: BRITAIN: The British government
will no longer provide financial aid to tobacco companies in
developing countries. (AP, 9 Feb 1991). (LB)
1991: BUSINESS: Johns Hopkins
University announces that it will sell all its $5.3 million
worth of tobacco stock. (LB)
1991: BUSINESS: Marlboro Medium is
introduced
1991: BUSINESS: PM Chairman Hamish
Maxwell (1981-1991) retires. Michael A. Miles (1991-1994)
becomes chairman & CEO, the first non-tobacco man to do
so.
1991: BUSINESS: PMI's volume tops 400
billion units.
1991: SPORTS: Health and Human
Services Secretary Louis W. Sullivan asks sports fans to
boycott events sponsored by tobacco companies, and urges
promotors to shun tobacco money. His plea is ignored.
1991-02-07: AUSTRALIA: The AFCO Case:
Federal court examines ETS studies, finds data valid
1991-05-31: World No-Tobacco Day.
Slogan: Public places and transport: better be tobacco-free
1991-06: BUSINESS: Domini Social
Equity Fund is created by Amy Domini to exclude war-related,
alcohol and tobacco stocks.
1991-07: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: Consumers'
Research Magazine publishes "Passive Smoking: How Great a
Hazard?" by Huber, Gary L; Brockie, Robert E; Mahajan, Vijay
K. "ETS is so highly diluted that it is not even appropriate
to call it smoke."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1992: CONSUMPTION: Among smokers age
12 to 17 years, a 1992 Gallup survey found that 70% said if
they had to do it over again, they would not start smoking,
and 66% said that they want to quit. Fifty-one percent of the
teen smokers surveyed had made a serious effort to stop
smoking--but had failed.
1992: 23rd Surgeon General's Report:
Smokmg and Health in the Amencas: A 1992 Report of the Surgeon
General, in Collaboration with the Pan Amencan Health
Organization
1992: STATISTICS: Per-capita
consumption of cigarettes stands at 7 per day among adult
Americans
1992: CESSATION: Nicotine patch is
introduced.
1992: LITIGATION: Supreme Court rules
that the 1965 warning label law does not shield tobacco
companies from suits accusing them of deceiving the public
about the health effects of smoking.
1992: LEGISLATION: NYC passes Vending
Machine Law. Bans distribution of tobacco products through
vending machines except those placed at least 25 feet from the
door of a tavern.
1992: LEGISLATION: NY State passes
Adolescent Tobacco Use Prevention Act. Prohibits free
distribution of tobacco products to the public, tobacco sales
through vending machines or to minors. Requires merchants to
post signs saying no sales to minors and to ask for age
identification of anyone under 25. Allows parent of a minor
who purchased tobacco to bring a complaint against the vendor.
1992: LEGISLATION: Australia: Tobacco
Advertising Prohibition Act
1992: LITIGATION: U.S. Attorney in
Brooklyn, N.Y., begins criminal probe of industry.
1992: ENTERTAINMENT: Pinkerton Tobacco
Co., under pressure from the FTC, agrees to cease advertising
its products on TV during the "Red Man Pulling Series.".
1992-Fall: MEDIA: Marvin Shanken
publishes first issue of Cigar Aficionado
1992: BUSINESS: Philip Morris Magazine
folds
1992: BUSINESS: Philip Morris Cos.
revenues approach the $60 billion mark; net earnings fall just
short of $5 billion. Operating companies income tops $5
billion at PM U.S.A.; $2 billion at both PMI and KGF; and $1
billion at the international food business.
1992: BUSINESS: Marlboro Adventure
Team contest is introduced. Philip Morris has called the MAT
one of the most successful advertising campaigns in history.
1992: BUSINESS: Financial World ranks
Marlboro the world's No. 1 most valuable brand (value: $31.2
billion)
1992: BUSINESS: HUNGARY: BAT acquires
Pcsi Dohnygyr, Hungary's largest cigarette manufacturer.
1992-04: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: Consumers'
Research Magazine publishes "Passive Smoking And Your Heart"
by Huber, Gary L; Brockie, Robert E; Mahajan, Vijay K.
1992-04: "Marlbor Man" Wayne McLaren
asks Philip Morris to limit its advertising. Dying of lung
cancer, McLaren appears at PM's annual shareholders meeting in
Richmond, VA, and asks the company to voluntarily limit its
advertsing. Chairman Michael Miles responds: We're certainly
sorry to hear about your medical problem. Without knowing your
medical history, I don't think I can comment any further.
1992-05: AUSTRALIA: LITIGATION: ETS:
Leisel Sholem wins $50,000 in second-hand smoke suit, based on
knowledge about ETS between 1975 and 1986.
1992-05-31: World No-Tobacco Day.
Slogan: Tobacco-free workplaces: safer and healthier
1992-07-22: "Marlboro Man" Wayne
McLaren, 51, dies of lung cancer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1993: CONSUMPTION: 70% of adults who
smoke wanted to quit completely; Smoking prevalence among U.S.
adults (18 years of age and older) is estimated to be 25%,
compared with 26.3% for 1992. Forty-six million adults
currently smoke (24 million men, 22 million women). Thirty-two
million American smokers (70% of all adult smokers) report
that they want to quit smoking completely. Women (73%) are
more likely to want to quit smoking than men (67%). By 1993,
an estimated 38.2% of high school dropouts who had ever smoked
had quit, compared with 45.3% of high school graduates and
65.4% of college graduates. --"Cigarette smoking among
adults--United States, 1993," CDC, December 23, 1994, issue of
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
1993: CONSUMPTION: About 3 million
Americans smoke cigars.
1993: Incoming President Bill CLINTON
bans smoking in the White House.
1993: BUSINESS: US Tobacco introduces
Cherry-flavored Skoal long-cut.
1993: BUSINESS: Separation of
Richemont's tobacco and luxury goods operations into Rothmans
International BV/PLC and Vend�me luxury goods SA/PLC
1993: VERMONT is the first state in
the nation to ban indoor smoking.
1993: US POST OFFICE bans smoking in
its facilities.
1993: BUSINESS: Philip Morris is the
nation's #2 advertiser, behind Proctor and Gamble.
1993: BUSINESS: Cigarette promotional
expenditures reach $6.03 billion, an increase of 15.4 percent
over 1992.
1993: BUSINESS: Financial World ranks
Marlboro the world's No. 1 most valuable brand (value: $39.5
billion)
1993: BUSINESS: Philip Morris buys RJR
Nabisco's North American cold cereal operation.
1993: BUSINESS: Philip Morris'
revenues reach nearly $61 billion.
1993: BUSINESS: Con-Agra's Charles
Harper becomes CEO of RJR
1993: BUSINESS: UST introduces
low-nicotine, cherry-flavored Skoal Long Cut
1993: "Allies: The ACLU and the
Tobacco Industry" reveals an otherwise undisclosed $500,000
given by Philip Morris to the ACLU between 1987 and 1992,
along with additional sums from RJR Nabisco and the Tobacco
Institute.. The report was written by Morton Mintz in
cooperation with Public Citizen, the Advocacy Institute, the
American Heart Association and Ralph Nader.
1993: CANADA: LEGISLATION: Federal law
is enacted to raise the legal age for buying tobacco to 18.
(NCTH)
1993: Major League Baseball institutes
a tobacco prohibition policy for all minor-league teams,
coaches and staff.
1993-01 FRANCE: LEGISLATION: Tobacco
advertising is banned; Grand Prix auto race canceled because
of tobacco advertising. In February, Grand Prix is
re-instated, without direct tobacco advertising; drivers still
allowed to wear sponsors' colors.
1993: SOUTH AFRICA: First tobacco
control law passed--bans sale of cigarettes to those under 16;
largely ignored
1993-01: HEALTH: Environmental
Protection Agency declares cigarette smoke a Class-A
carcinogen.
1993-04-02: BUSINESS: "Marlboro
Friday"--PM Slashes Marlboro Prices
1993-05-31: World No-Tobacco Day.
Slogan: Health services: Our window to a tobacco-free world
1993-07-15: USA: Tobacco BBS goes
online
1993-09-29: LITIGATION: Wyatt, Tarant
files suit against Merrell Williams over "secret" tobacco
papers.
1993: LEGISLATION: NYC passes Tobacco
Product Regulation Act. Bans out-of-package tobacco sales.
Places age restrictions on handling. Prohibits sale of tobacco
products to minors. Requires one public health message for
every four tobacco ads appearing on city property. Bans use of
tobacco products on school property.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1994: STATISTICS: Of those who smoke,
70 percent expressed an interest in quitting. Another 28
percent said they had no desire to give up smoking.
Forty-eight percent said they want to quit and have tried to
do so but failed, and 22 percent want to quit but have not
tried. (Source: USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll, March 1994)
1994: 24th Surgeon General's Report:
Preventing Tobacco Use Among Young People: A Report of the
Surgeon General
1994: OSHA proposes severe workplace
smoking restrictions.
1994: Brown & Williamson tries to
force Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., to hand over confidential
documents that Waxman's subcommittee obtained in its
investigation of the tobacco industry. B&W's case was
argued in court, and lost, by Kenneth Starr.
1994: MEDIA: Frank Blethen's Seattle
(Wash.) Times becomes the largest US newspaper to refuse
tobacco advertising. "These ads were designed to kill our
readers," said Times president H. Mason Sizemore, "so we
decided to refuse them."
1994: BANS: McDonald's bans smoking in
all 11,000 of its restaurants
1994: BANS: Dept. of Defense imposes
restrictions on smoking at all US military bases worldwide
1994: BUSINESS: William Murray is
appointed chairman of Philip Morris Cos.; Geoffrey C. Bible is
named president and CEO.
1994: BUSINESS: Financial World ranks
Marlboro the world's No. 2 most valuable brand behind
Coca-Cola (value: $33 billion)
1994: BUSINESS: Philip Morris sends
out an estimated 19 million Marlboro promotional items;
briefly becomes #3 mail order house in the US
1994: CANADA: LEGISLATION: Bigger and
stronger warning messages are required on cigarette packs:
(NCTH) "Cigarettes are addictive;" "Tobacco smoke can harm
your children;" "Cigarettes cause fatal lung disease;"
"Cigarettes cause cancer;" "Cigarettes cause strokes and heart
disease;" "Smoking during pregnancy can harm your baby;"
"Smoking can kill you;" "Tobacco smoke causes fatal lung
disease in non-smokers."
994: First International Quit &
Win (IQW) competition
1994-02: CANADA: Tobacco taxes are
slashed to curb runaway bootlegging from the US.
1994-02-22: SCIENCE: Scientists from
Canada reported finding evidence of cigarette smoke in fetal
hair, the first biochemical proof that the offspring of
non-smoking mothers can be affected by passive cigarette
smoke.
1994-02: LEGISLATION: FDA commissioner
David Kessler announces plans to consider regulation of
tobacco as a drug.
1994: LEGISLATION: NY State passes
PRO-KIDS Law. Prohibits smoking on school grounds in all
schools, kindergarten through 12th grade. Bans out-of-package
cigarette sales. Prohibits smoking in child-care centers,
youth centers, group homes, public institutions or residential
treatment facilities that serve young people.
1994-03: ADVERTISING: Brown &
Williamson Tobacco yanks cigarette accounts from Saatchi unit
Campbell Mithun. Gives Kool account to Grey Advertising.
1994-02-28 & 03-07: TV: ABC airs
"Day One" segments "Smokescreen" and "The List" concerning
tobacco industry manipulation of nicotine
1994-03-24: LITIGATION: Philip Morris
sues ABC for $10 billion over the 2 "Day One" segments. (Two
other events were occurring this year: ABC was in the process
of being sold to Disney, and the huge communications bill was
going through Congress. Lobbyists swarmed Congress, especially
the powerful chairman of the House Commerce Committee, VA
Republican Tom Bliley, often dubbed"The Congressman from
Philip Morris.")
1994-03-29: LITIGATION: New Orleans,
LA. Castano case begins; a 60-attorney coalition files what
will become the nation's largest class-action lawsuit
plaintiffs charge tobacco companies hid their knowledge of the
addicting qualities of tobacco.
1994-04: IRAN:
1994-04: BUSINESS: BAT Industries
agrees to buy American Tobacco from American Brands for $1
billion.
1994-04-13: Tobacco Industry releases
"The List" of 599 cigarette additives
1994-04-14: Seven Tobacco Company
executives begin testimony in Congressional hearings
1994-04-28: ex-Philip Morris scientist
Victor J. DeNoble testifies on his research into nicotine and
addiction in rats; claims PM suppresed his findings.
1994-04: MEDIA: Time and US News and
World Report each run cover stories on tobacco; as with the
June 6, 1983 Newsweek, neither has a single tobacco
advertisement.
1994-05-07: New York TImes front-page
article reviews "secret" Brown & Williamson tobacco
papers.
1994-05-12: Stanton Glantz at UCSF
receives a box of "secret" Brown & Williamson tobacco
papers from "Mr. Butts."
1994-05-23: LITIGATION: MISSISSIPPI
becomes the first state to sue tobacco companies to recoup
health care costs associated with smoking. (The State of
Mississippi v. American Tobacco et. al., filed in the Chancery
Court of Jackson County, Mississippi (Case No. 94-1429). Case
brought by Miss. A-G Michael Moore.
1994-05-31: LITIGATION: David Burton,
who lost both legs due to peripheral vascular disease (PVD)
files suit in Federal Court in Manhattan, KS, against RJR and
American Tobacco Co.
1994-05-31: FTC Clears Joe Camel
1994-05-31: World No-Tobacco Day.
Slogan: The media and tobacco: Getting the health message
across
1994-06-02: LITIGATION: West Virginia
sues tobacco companies to recoup smokers' Medicaid costs.
1994-07: Ex-tobacco lobbyist Victor
Crawford makes first national appearance for tobacco control.
Dying of cancer, Crawford is featured with ex-surgeon general
C. Everett Koop in a Coalition on Smoking and Health radio
spot which urges a $2 federal cigarette tax to help fund
health care reform.
1994-08-17: LITIGATION: Minnesota and
Blue Cross/Blue Shield sue tobacco companie for violating
anti-trust laws by failing to disclose addictive qualities of
tobacco..
1994-11: California: Prop. 188 is
overwhelmingly defeated. The tobacco industry spent $18 M to
pass a measure sponsored by "Californians for Statewide
Smoking Restrictions" that would have pre-empted stronger
local laws, along with the coming 1995 statewide ban on
smoking in restaurants.
1994-12: SOUTH AFRICA: Health Minister
Nkosazana Zumaout mandates health warnings on cigarette packs
and advertising.
1994-12: POLITICS: FDA gets letters
from Congress. 124 members of the House sent a sharply worded
letter to the FDA, claiming the agency's tobacco proposal
would put 10,000 jobs at risk and "trample First Amendment
rights to advertise legal products to adults." Two weeks
later, 32 senators signed a virtually identical letter.
(According to Common Cause, those senators who signed the
letter had received an average of $31,368 from tobacco,
compared to $11,819 for those senators who did not sign.
Similarly, the House signatories received an average of
$19,446, in contrast to $6,728 for other Congress
members.)--Mother Jones, 4/96
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1995: BUSINESS: MARKET SHARE BY
COMPANY:
1. PM 43%
2. RJR 28%
3. Brown & Williamson 11%
4. American Tobacco Co. 7%
5. Lorillard 7%
6. Liggett & Myers 2%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1995: GOVERNMENT: Tobacco companies
give the GOP $2.4 million in "soft" dollars. The top two soft
money contributors to the GOP this year are Philip Morris
($975,149) and RJR Nabisco ($696,450). Tobacco industry PACs
gave $841,120 to Republican members of Congress.
1995: LEGISLATION: New York City
passes Smoke-Free Air Act. Strengthens Clean Indoor Air Act
(1988) by banning smoking in the dining areas of all
restaurants with more than 35 seats. Limits smoking to the bar
area of restaurants, with certain specifications, and to a
maximum of 25 percent of a restaurant's outdoor seats. Bans
smoking in outdoor seating areas, such as in sports stadiums
and recreational areas. Limits smoking in the workplace to a
separately enclosed and ventilated room and to private offices
as long as the door is kept closed and no more than three
people are present, each of whom agrees to allow smoking.
Prohibits smoking at all times in both indoor and outdoor
areas of day-care centers. Exempts restaurants seating 35
people or less. Allows smoking in stand-alone bars. Allows
smoking in sports arenas in separate smoking rooms, with some
limitations.
1995: BUSINESS: Financial World ranks
Marlboro the world's No. 2 most valuable brand behind
Coca-Cola (value: $38.7 billion). The brand also has 29% of
the US market--the highest market share it has ever had.
1995: BUSINESS: Geoffrey C. Bible
becomes chairman and CEO of Philip Morris Cos.
1995: BUSINESS: KGF is reorganized
into one operating company with category-based divisions, and
the name changes to Kraft Foods, Inc.
1995: BUSINESS: For the first time,
revenues from Philip Morris' international businesses ($32
billion) exceed those from North America ($31.4 billion).
1995: BUSINESS: Richemont buys out
Rothmans International minority shareholders
1995: CANADA: LEGISLATION: The Supreme
Court of Canada strikes down the federal ban on tobacco
advertising. Tobacco companies launch an aggressive
advertising campaign, using billboards, newspaper ads and
event sponsorships. Ottawa releases A Blueprint to Protect the
Health of Canadians, an outline of proposed legislation to
reinstate the advertising ban, but no bill has yet been
introduced in Parliament. (NCTH)
1995-01: BUSINESS: BAT completes
purchase of American Tobacco Co. for $1 Billion.
1995-02-17: LITIGATION: CASTANO: US
DIstrict Judge Okla B. Jones rules class action case may
proceed.
1995-02-22: LITIGATION: Florida sues
tobacco companies to recoup health care costs .
1995-03-19: CBS' "60 Minutes" airs
segment featuring ex-tobacco lobbyist Victor Crawford
1995-05: USA: First appearance of
Tobacco BBS on the internet.
1995-05-26: BUSINESS: Philip Morris
announces unprecedented recall of 8 billion cigarettes due to
a suspected chemical contaminant.
1995-05-31: World No-Tobacco Day.
Slogan: Tobacco costs more than you think
1995-06-09: BATF Searches 1500 Brown
& Williamson Tower, B&W's US HQ, investigating
possible complicity in smuggling.
1995-06-27: Philip Morris announces
"Action Against Access," a voluntary program aimed at
preventing youth access to cigarettes. Philip Morris this year
also instituted the"Ask first" and "Responsible Retailer
Program"
1995-06-30: "Secret" B&W papers
become available on Internet one day after the California
Supreme Court rejects B&W's attempts to suppress the
information.
1995-07-12: AMA excoriates tobacco
industry over "secret" B&W papers. AMA devotes entire July
19, 1995 issue of JAMA to a study of the papers, finds The
evidence is unequivocal -- the US public has been duped by the
tobacco industry. No right-thinking individual can ignore the
evidence. We should all be outraged, and we should force the
removal of this scourge from our nation . . .
1995-07-13: FDA declares nicotine a
drug
1995-07-21: US under-age smoking found
rising.
1995-08-10: President Clinton declares
nicotine an addictive drug; FDA sends President Clinton
proposals for regulating the sale and marketing of tobacco
products to minors
1995-08-10: LITIGATION: The 5 largest
tobacco companies file suit in a North Carolina court
challenging the FDA's authority to regulate tobacco and
advertising.. The advertising industry files in North Carolina
within days. Smokeless tobacco manufacturers U.S. Tobacco Co.
and Conwood Co file suit in Tennessee.
1995-08-21:LITIGATION: ABC apologizes
to Philip Morris for "Day One" program, pays PM an estimated
$16 million in legal fees.
1995-08-31: LITIGATION: $1.9 million
awarded plaintiff Milton Horowitz in Kent Micronite filter
case; only the 2nd time an award has been given in a liability
case against a tobacco company. However, the suit concerned
asbestos, not tobacco
1995-09-04: "Winston Man" Alan
Landers, 54, joins anti-smoking movement.
1995-09: RJR's faux-micro-smokery,
Moonlight Tobacco Co., introduces its artsy brands to New
York, Chicago and Seattle: Politix, Sedona, Jumbos, North
Star.
1995-10-12: "Marlboro Man" David
McLean dies of lung cancer at 73 [Original "Marlboro Man"
William Thourlby is still alive as of 5/2002, living in NYC.]
1995-10-20: ART: Hans Haacke and 11
other artists hang their works with protests against their New
York art show's sponsor, Philip Morris
1995-11-09: The NY Times reports that
CBS has killed broadcast of a 60 Minutes interview with a
former tobacco executive (soon revealed as Jeffrey Wigand).
That day, a CBS affiliate in Los Angeles, KCBS, killed an
anti-tobacco ad that had been running for weeks. Meanwhile,
CBS was in in the process of being sold to Westinghouse.
1995-11-29: Ex-B&W research
executive Jeffrey Wigand testifies to federal and state
prosecutors in Pascagoula, Miss.
1995-12-19: LITIGATION: Massachusettes
sues tobacco companies for conspiring to "mislead, deceive and
confuse" citizens on the hazardous effects of smoking.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1996: New Teen Smokers: 1.23 million
1996: BUSINESS: PMI takes a stake in
Poland's largest tobacco company, Zaklady Przemyslu
Tytoniowego w Krakowie S.A., and in Brazil's leading chocolate
company, Industrias de Chocolate Lacta S.A.
1996: BUSINESS: Merger of Richemont's
tobacco interests with those of Rembrandt Group Limited
1996-01-08: LITIGATION: Supreme Court
refuses to hear an ACLU challenge to the city of North Miami's
1990 ban on hiring smokers. Lower insurance costs outweighed
the privacy issue, the Florida Supreme Court had ruled in
1995. The argument was made that three members of the court --
Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia
and Clarence Thomas -- could not be hired in North Miami
because they smoke. (Kurtz vs. North Miami, No. 95-545)
1996-01-31: LITIGATION: Florida state
appeals panel allows Engle suit to proceed, but limits case to
Florida residents.
1996-02: TOBACCO CONTROL: National
Center for Tobacco-Free Kids given $30 M launch. Will
incorporate previous group, "Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids,"
when it begins operation in June, 1996.
1996-02-04: CBS airs Wigand Interview
on 60 Minutes. Wigand claims B&W Chief Sandefur lied when
telling Waxman's committed he believed nicotine was not
addictive.
1996-02-05: POLITICS: Geoffrey Bible,
CEO of Philip Morris Cos. Inc., chairs a dinner underwritten
by Philip Morris for the Republican Governors Association, and
speaks to the governors about tobacco's benefits to the
economy. The gala dinner pulls in an unprecedented $2.6
million.
1996-02-16: LITIGATION: : Gov. Kirk
Fordice (R-Miss.) sues his own attorney general, Mike Moore,
in order to block Moore's "Medicaid" lawsuit.
1996-03-02: Victor Crawford, tobacco
lobbyist-turned-tobacco-control-advocate, dies.
1996-03-09: USA: Tobacco BBS registers
tobacco.org as its domain name.
1996-03-13: LITIGATION: Liggett Group
makes dramatic break with industry, offers to settle Medicaid
and addiction-based lawsuits. .
1996-03-15: LITIGATION: Liggett
settles with 5 states over Medicaid lawsuits, agreeing to pay
over $10 million in Medicaid bills for the treatment of
smokers.
1996-03-18: FDA releases statements of
3 more tobacco industry insiders (Dr. Ian L. Uydess, Dr.
William A. Farone and Jerome K. Rivers) who claim Philip
Morris carefully controls nicotine levels in cigarettes. FDA
reopens comment period.
1996-05: LITIGATION: 44 Liquormart v.
Rhode Island. Supreme Court strikes down liquor advertising
ban as violating First Amendment
1996-05: MEDIA: The May Vanity Fair
contains a massive, 22-page article by Marie Brenner on the
inside story of the CBS/Wigand story. The issue contains no
tobacco ads. Michael Mann will use this article to make the
movie, "The Insider."
1996-05-15: BUSINESS: Philip Morris
and United States Tobacco Co. offer their own plan to stop
youth access, in order to avoid FDA control..
1996-05-20: MEDIA: The May 20, 1996
People Weekly carries 2 tobacco articles, a profile of Stanton
Glantz, and an excerpt from Grisham's The Runaway Jury. The
issue contains no tobacco ads..
1996-05-23: LITIGATION: Castano case
is de-certified by Appeals Court..
1996-05-31: World No-Tobacco Day.
Slogan: Sports and arts without tobacco: Play it tobacco-free
1996-06: CDC adds prevalence of
cigarette smoking as a nationally notifiable condition,
bringing to 56 the number of diseases and conditions
designated by Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists
(CSTE) as reportable by states. This marks the first time a
behavior, rather than a disease or illness, has been
considered nationally reportable.(LB)
1996-07-19: LITIGATION: Massachusetts
becomes the 10th state to sue tobacco companies..
1996-08-09: LITIGATION: FL: Brown
& Williamson is ordered to pay the Grady Carters $750,000
in only the second financial judgement ever in a
strictly-tobacco-oriented liability lawsuit. Carter Atty:
Norwood S. Wilner
1996-08-23: LEGISLATION: President
Clinton approves proposed FDA regulations, giving FDA
authority to regulate cigarettes as a "drug delivery device.".
1996-10-17: SCIENCE: Researchers
disclose molecular link between a substance in tobacco tar and
lung cancer: a benzo (a) pyrene derivative damages lung
cancer-suppressor gene, p53, in the exact "hotspot" associated
with lung cancer. Science magazine
1996-12: TRAVEL: St. Louis-based
CLIPPER CRUISE LINE bans smoking anywhere on one of its cruise
ships.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1997: STATISTICS: US: Forty-eight
million Americans have quit in the 21 years since the first
Smokeout in 1976; 48 million still smoke; about 34 million say
they want to quit. Between 1965 and 1990, adult smoking
declined from 42 percent to 25 percent. The average age of a
first-time smoker is 13. More than 3 million American
adolescents smoke cigarettes.
1997: CONSUMPTION: Americans spent an
estimated $51.9 billion on tobacco products in 1997, or just
under 1% of their disposable income. Of this amount, $48.7
billion (or 94%) was spent on cigarettes, $2.2 billion on
smokeless and smoking tobacco, and $0.9 billion on cigars.
(CRS)
1997: BUSINESS: PM U.S.A.'s market
share tops 50 percent.
1997: BUSINESS: Philip Morris Cos.
revenues reach $72 billion; operating companies income is
$11.7 billion.
1997: BUSINESS: China is by far the
largest producer of cigarettes in the world; the second
largest producer is the United States. In 1997 China produced
an estimated 1.7 trillion pieces, almost two and one half
times the 720 billion pieces produced in the United States.
The United States is by far the largest cigarette exporting
nation in the world, with exports in 1997 estimated about 217
billion pieces, or 21% of the world total. China is the
largest consumer market in the world, with over 300 million
smokers consuming 1.7 trillion cigarettes in 1997. (CRS)
1997: BUSINESS: Targacept is
established as a wholly owned subsidiary of R.J. Reynolds
Tobacco Company
1997-01: UK: FORMULA 1 SCANDAL:
Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone donates 1million to the
Labour Party.
1997-03-20: Liggett Tobacco and 22
states settle lawsuits; Liggett admits smoking is addictive,
can cause cancer, and the industry markets cigarettes to
teenagers; agrees to turn over documents and to warn on every
pack that smoking is addictive.
1997-03-21: Liggett issues statement:
"We at Liggett know and acknowledge that, as the Surgeon
General and respected medical researchers have found,
cigarette smoking causes health problems, including lung
cancer, heart and vascular disease and emphysema. Liggett
acknowledges that the tobacco industry markets to 'youth,'
which means those under 18 years of age, and not just those
18-24 years of age."
1997-04-18: Attorneys General confirm
they are talking with PM and RJR about a Settlement
1997-04-25: LITIGATION: NC Federal
judge WILLIAM OSTEEN rules FDA may regulate tobacco as a drug;
strikes down provisions to regulate advertising.
1997-05-01: Tobacco Cos offer a
Settlement that would include FDA regulation, money for
anti-smoking campaigns, and bans on vending machines and
outdoor advertising.
1997-05-05: Tobacco wins Connor suit.
6-member jury in Raulerson vs. RJ Reynolds Tobacco, et.al.
fails to find RJR guilty of negligence in the lung cancer
death of smoker Jean Connor.
1997-05-19: UK: FORMULA 1 SCANDAL:
Health Secretary Frank Dobson announces that Labour plans a
complete ban on tobacco advertising and sponsorship in sport.
1997-05-28: Health advocates meet in
Chicago to hear of SETTLEMENT Talks.
1997-05-28: ADVERTISING: FTC acuses
Joe Camel ad campaign of illegally targeting underage youth.
1997-05-31: World No-Tobacco Day.
Slogan: United for a tobacco-free world
1997-06-02: LITIGATION: NORMA BROIN's
airline attendants seconhand smoke trial begins jury selection
in Miami.
1997-06-17: ADVERTISING: RJR Sues FTC
over Joe Camel Complaint
1997-06-20: AGs, tobacco companies
come to landmark settlement. Agreement provides for
unprecedented restrictions on cigarettes and on tobacco
makers' liability in lawsuits. Industry to spend $360 billion
over 25 years, mainly on anti-smoking campaigns, use bold
health warning on packs, curb advertising and face fines if
youth smoking drops insufficiently. Subject to congressional
approval.
1997-07-03: LITIGATION: First State
Settlement: Tobacco Cos Settle Mississippi Medicaid lawsuit
for $3.6 Billion.
1997-07-09: RJR kills JOE CAMEL
campaign, replaces Joe with darker, sexier "What You're
Looking For."
1997-07-21: LITIGATION: BROIN: For the
first time ever, a tobacco co. executive, LIGGETT CEO BENNETT
LEBOW, testifies that cigarettes cause cancer.
1997-08-22: LITIGATION: In a video
deposition, PM CEO Geoffrey Bible says smoking "might have"
killed 100,000 people; RJR CEO Steven Goldstone links smoking
with cancer the next day.
1997-08-25: LITIGATION: Tobacco Cos
Settle Florida Medicaid lawsuit for $11.3 Billion.
1997-09-17: REGULATION: President
Clinton refuses to endorse the proposed tobacco settlement,
instead suggesting Congress work on sweeping legislation that
first and foremost reduces teen smoking; second, gives FDA
control of nicotine; third, penalizes the industry if teen
smoking doesn't go down. "The tobacco bailout deal is dead,"
said Minnesota AG Hubert Humphrey III, "This gives us a new
chance to move forward and do the right thing."
1997-09: Former Asbestos company
RAYMARK sues tobacco.
1997-10-10: Tobacco Industry Settles
BROIN--First-ever Secondhand Smoke Trial--for $350 Million.
1997-10-16: UK: FORMULA 1 SCANDAL:
Formula 1 chief Bernie Ecclestone, who previously had given
Labour a one million pound donation, visits 10 Downing Street.
The next day Tony Blair seeks an exemption for Formula One
from the UK's upcoming tobacco ban.
1997-10-17: BARNES Suit--First of the
"Little Castano" suits--is thrown out by Pennsylvania judge;
Gives impetus to national settlement movemement.
1997-10-23: Philip Morris Announces
"Accord" Smoking System
1997-11-04: UK: FORMULA 1 SCANDAL: It
is disclosed that Health Minister Tessa Jowell has written to
the European Union asking for motor-racing to be exempted from
a EU-wide ban on tobacco advertising in sport. The "U-Turn"
becomes the Labour party's first major scandal when it is
found that Ms. Jowell's husband had been a non-executive
director for an F1 company, and that Labour received a $1.7
million donation from Bernie Ecclestone in January.
1997-11-07: UK: FORMULA 1 SCANDAL:
Tony Blair and Gordon Brown discuss the Ecclestone affair and
decide that Labour should write a letter to the Neill
Committee on Standards in Public Life seeking advice on
whether they should accept a second donation from the tycoon.
1997-11-10: UK: FORMULA 1 SCANDAL: In
a live interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Brown
denies any knowledge of the Ecclestone donation. Sir Patrick
responds to Labour's letter and says it would be sensible both
to hand back the original 1million donation and not to accept
the second gift.
1997-11-16: UK: FORMULA 1 SCANDAL: In
a TV interview , Blair claims Labour had turned down second
Ecclestone donation 'before any journalist had been in touch'.
1997-12-05: EUROPE: European Union
Health Ministers vote to phase out tobacco advertising.
1997-12-01: LIGGETT begins listing the
Ingredients of its cigarettes on cartons, beginning with the
26 ingredients of its L&M brand.
1997-12-18: Rep. Tom Bliley (R-VA)
posts 843 sensitive Liggett documents on House Commerce
Committee website.
1997-12-20: AP reporter Todd Lewan
breaks story of "fumo louco," a high-nicotine variety of
tobacco (Y-1) being developed by BAT in Brazil.
1997-12-30: LITIGATION: Lorillard
Tobacco Co. pays over $1.5 million to the family of Milton
Horowitz, the first time a U.S. cigarette maker has ever paid
a smoking-related personal injury claim.
1997-12-31: LITIGATION: Asbestos fund
Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust announces that it
has filed a lawsuit against 7 tobacco companies, asking they
pay their "fair share."
1997-12-31: LITIGATION: MINNESOTA
Judge Fitzpatrick fines BROWN & WILLIAMSON $100,000 for
failure to turn over American Tobacco Co. documents now held
by Gallaher in Britain. This is the most severe court sanction
against a tobacco company in decades.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1998: BUSINESS: Sara Lee sells its
loose-tobacco business, (Amphora, Drum, etc.) to Britain's
Imperial Tobacco for $1.1 billion.
1998: LEGISLATION: CA: Willie Brown's
"napkin statute" -- Code of Civil Procedure 1714.45--is
amended to allow lawsuits against tobacco companies.
1998-01-01: REGULATION: CALIFORNIA
becomes the first state in the nation to ban smoking in bars.
1998-01-07: Justice Department files a
criminal information against DNA Plant Technology Corp. of
Oakland, CA accusing them of developing "Y-1" high-nicotine
tobacco with an "unindicted coconspirator"
1998-01-14: SCIENCE: JAMA publishes
major study that links both active and passive smoking with
irreversible artery damage.
1998-01-14: LITIGATION: MANGINI
Documents Released. RJR documents that appear to discuss
targeting youths as young as 14 create a furor.
1998-01-16: LITIGATION: TEXAS settles
its medicaid lawsuit for over $14 billion.
1998-03: PROPAGANDA: BAT leaks
information to the London Telegraph on the 10-year, $2 million
study by the International agency for Research on Cancer
(IARC) (an affiliate of WHO). BAT's information was printed
uncritically. The ET author writes that the study was buried
because it found no risk. The study in fact found a 16%
increase in risk in lung cancer for non-smokers, a result
consistent with earlier studies. Although the results were
clear and comparable to those found by others, the number of
people in the study was too small to reach statistical
significance (at the 95 percent level). The findings were thus
supportive of earlier studies showing that passive smoking
increases cancer risk, but taken alone would not have been
conclusive. However, the study was described by newspapers and
the tobacco industry as demonstrating no increase in risk. . .
Ong and Glantz analysed industry documents released in US
litigation and interviewed IARC investigators. The Philip
Morris tobacco company feared that the study (and a possible
IARC monograph on second-hand smoke) would lead to increased
restrictions in Europe, so they spearheaded a $2 million
inter-industry, three-prong strategy to subvert IARC's work.
The scientific strategy attempted to undercut IARC's research
and to develop industry-directed research to counter the
anticipated findings; the communications strategy planned to
shape opinion by manipulating the media and the public; the
government strategy sought to prevent increased smoking
restrictions. For full links to items from IARC, ET, BAT
secret docs, etc., see the ASH-UK Roundup
1998-01-26: LITIGATION: MINNESOTA: The
massive Minnesota/Blue Cross-Blue Shield trial begins in
Minneapolis.
1998-01-29: SETTLEMENT: Tobacco CEOs
Appear Before the House Commerce Committee Laurence A. Tisch,
Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer, Loews Corporation,
Geoffrey Bible, Chairman, Philip Morris Companies, Inc,
Vincent A. Gierer Jr., Chief Executive Officer, UST, Inc.,
Steven F. Goldstone, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, RJR
Nabisco and Nicholas G. Brookes, Chairman, Brown &
Williamson Tobacco Companies.
1998-04-08: SETTLEMENT: Tobacco Walks
Away. "> RJR's Steven Goldstone declares settlement
negotiations "dead," and vows to take tobacco's case to the
public. UST, PM, B&W follow.
1998-04-22: 39,000 super-secret
documents are posted on the House Commerce committe web site
1998-04-27: 24th Report of the Surgeon
General on Smoking and Health:Tobacco Use Among U.S.
Racial/Ethnic Minority Groups
1998-05-02: LITIGATION: NEW YORK: A
New York State Judge places The TOBACCO INSTITUTE and the
COUNCIL FOR TOBACCO RESEARCH under temporary receivership, in
response to a state suit charging the organizations abused
their tax-exempt status under New York law, where they were
incorporated, by acting as tobacco -funded "fronts" that serve
"as propaganda arms of the industry."
1998-05-07: LITIGATION: MINNESOTA:
Tobacco Trial's last day; 6 tobacco lawyers give closing
arguments; Ciresi was due to argue the next day.
1998-05-08: LITIGATION: MINNESOTA:
Tobacco makes $6.1B settlement with Minnesota and Blue
Cross/Blue Shield. The industry agrees to the dissolution of
the Council for Tobacco Research.
1998-05-27: LITIGATION: WYNN: Alabama
Circuit Judge William Wynn, files suit seeking to revoke the
charters of the nation's five major cigarette companies. Wynn
called for the criminal enforcement of tobacco companies'
misdemeanors, and upon finding that the companies have broken
the law, that the state should revoke the companies' charters
to do business in Alabama.
1998-05-31: World No-Tobacco Day.
Slogan: Growing up without tobacco
1998-06-10: LITIGATION: WIDDICK Trial:
Largest damages in tobacco litigation history are awarded.
Jury finds for Widdick, orders B&W to pay almost $1
million. This is Norwood S. Wilner's 2nd win against B&W.
1998-06-17: LEGISLATION: On a
procedural vote, US Senate kills McCain tobacco bill.
1998-06-22: LITIGATION: CARTER
OVERTURNED. Florida's 1st District Court of Appeal votes 3-0
to overturn the Carter decision, ruling it had been filed a
week too late.
1998-07-17: LITIGATION: Federal Judge
William Osteen overturns 1993 EPA secondhand smoke report.
Here's the decision
1998-08: TRAVEL: RENAISSANCE CRUISES
claims the distinction of launching the world's first
smoke-free ship: the "R1," in which only crew may smoke--in a
room off limits to passengers. It tours the Mediterranean.
1998-08-13: LITIGATION: WIDDICK: A
Florida appeals court rules that the Widdick trial was held in
the wrong county.
1998-08-14: LITIGATION: 4th Circuit
Court of Appeals overturns the 4/25/97 Osteen ruling, throws
out FDA regulations. Here's the decision
1998-10-19: LITIGATION: BROWN v.
PHILIP MORRIS, et. al. filed. The national civil rights class
action lawsuit on behalf of African American smokers of
mentholated cigarette brands was filed in Federal District
Court in Philadelphia, PA.
1998-11-16: LITIGATION: An agreement
is announced between state attorneys general and tobacco
companies to settle lawsuits.
1998-11-23: AG SETTLEMENT: Attorneys
General of 46 states and 5 territories sign agreement with
tobacco companies to settle lawsuits.
1998-12-8: MASTER SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT
between the industry and AGs.
1998-12-18: AGRICULTURE: Flue-cured
tobacco gets an 18 percent quota cut, shocking industry
analysts.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1999: BUSINESS: MARKET SHARE: The big
3--PM, BAT and JT--hold about 40 per cent of a total world
market that experts estimate to be around 5.34 trillion
Philip Morris: 16.5 per cent of the
world market share
British American Tobacco: 15 per cent.
Japan Tobacco: about 8.1 per cent.
1999: CONSUMPTION:
China annual cigarette volume: around
1.6 trillion cigarettes
US: around 415 billion sticks.
Japan: 327 billion
Russia: 257 billion
Germany: 140 billion
India: just under 100 billion.
Brazil: 97 billion
1999: CONSUMPTION: About 10 million
Americans smoke cigars.
1999: BUSINESS: Philip Morris Cos.
revenues top $78 billion; operating companies income is $15.2
billion.
1999: BUSINESS: Merger of Rothmans
International with British American Tobacco - Richemont holds
23.3% effective interest in the enlarged British American
Tobacco.
1999-01: LITIGATION: BOLIVIA files
suit against the tobacco industry in a Texas court.
1999-01: SETTLEMENTS: "Phase II"
farmer payments established. The four largest U.S.
cigarette-makers agree to establish a $5.15 billion trust fund
to help compensate farmers and allotment holders for the
expected drop in production resulting from the AG nationwide
settlement
1999-01-21: AGRICULTURE: 4 major
tobacco companies agree to set up a $5.15 billion trust fund
for growers.
1999-01-27: LITIGATION: VENEZUELA
files suit against the tobacco industry in a Miami court.
1999-02-04: AGRICULTURE: Tobacco
companies agree to give growers $5.15 billion to compensate
them for lost income because of the AG settlement.
1999-02-07: UK: Britain's royal family
orders the removal of its seal of approval from Gallaher's
Benson and Hedges cigarettes. The company is given till the
year 2000 to remove the royal crest.
1999-02-09: LITIGATION: HENLEY V.
PHILIP MORRIS: Patricia Henley wins $1.5 million from Philip
Morris for medical costs, pain and suffering..
1999-02-10: LITIGATION: HENLEY V.
PHILIP MORRIS: Patricia Henley wins $51.5 million in punitive
damages.
1999-03-09: BUSINESS: RJ Reynolds
announces that it will sell its international tobacco unit to
Japan Tobacco for $8 billion and split its US tobacco and food
businesses.
1999-03-30: LITIGATION: JOANN
WILLIAMS-BRANCH V. PHILIP MORRIS: Oregon jury returns $81
Million verdict against PM, giving Jesse Williams' family
about $800,000 in compensatory damages and $79.5 million
punitive damages. The award is later cut to $32M, then
reinstated in June, 2002.
1999-04-26: The Supreme Court agrees
to decide whether to give the Food and Drug Administration
jurisdiction over tobacco. The Court agrees to hear a Clinton
administration appeal.
1999-05: WHO launches Framework
Convention on Tobacco Control. World Health Organization
member countries unanimously back a resolution calling for an
international attempt to regulate tobacco use; a
record-breaking 50 nations of 191 pledg financial and
political support. WCTC is due to come into effect in 2003.
1999-05: BUSINESS: RJR Nabisco sells
its international tobacco arm to Japan Tobacco for $7.8
billion; Japan Tobacco is not the world's third-largest
tobacco group.
1999-05-10: LITIGATION: KARNEY VS.
Philip Morris, et.al.: A jury in Memphis, TN, finds for the
defense in a trial that consolidated the suits of 3
plaintiffs: Bobby Newcomb, James W. Karney and Florence Bruch
(McDaniel). Jurors found RJR 30% responsible for Newcomb's
lung cancer, and B&W 20% responsible, but Tennessee law
requires damages only if a company is found more than 50%
responsible.
1999-05-13: LITIGATION: STEELE VS.
BROWN & WILLIAMSON: A federal jury in Kansas City, Mo.,
finds the company was not at fault in the case of Charles
Steele, a smoker who died of lung cancer in 1995.
1999-05-23: ENTERTAINMENT: RUPERT
MURDOCH's Fox Network runs "Independence Day," the world's
most expensive cigar commercial--and popular kid favorite--in
prime time. Fox also produced the film (cigar product
placement by Feature This).
1999-05-27: BUSINESS: PHILIP MORRIS
board member Rupert Murdoch's Fox Entertainment Group
announces that it will launch a new Web-cable property called
The Health Network.
1999-05-31: World No-Tobacco Day.
Slogan: Leave the pack behind
1999-06-15: BUSINESS: RJR NABISCO
Split is completed. The stock of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco
Holdings Inc. begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange
under the symbol "RJR."
1999-07-07: LITIGATION: ENGLE jurors
rule that smoking causes diseases such as lung cancer and that
U.S. cigarette makers hid the dangers of their products from
the public.
1999-09-22: LITIGATION: DOJ: US
Justice Department sues the tobacco industry to recover
billions of government dollars spent on smoking-related health
care, accusing cigarette-makers of a "coordinated campaign of
fraud and deceit."
1999-10-06: BUSINESS: Tabacalera and
Seita announce plans to join forces. The new combined company
will be known as Altadis.
1999-10-13: BUSINESS: Philip Morris
acknowledges scientific consensus on smoking. "There is an
overwhelming medical and scientific consensus that cigarette
smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and other
serious diseases in smokers,'' its website,
https://www.philipmorris.com, states. ``there is no safe
cigarette . . . cigarette smoking is addictive, as that term
is most commonly used today.''
1999-10-20: LITIGATION: ENGLE: 3rd
District Court of Appeal clears the way for a lump-sum,
punitive damage decision in the Penalty Phase.
1999-11: BUSINESS: Philip Morris
begins $100 Million ad campaign touting its charitable
contributions.
1999-11-12: LOBBYING: New York
Lobbying Commission hits Philip Morris with the largest fine
in commission history, $75,000; forbids PM's chief Albany
representative Sharon Portnoy from lobbying in New York state
for three years.
1999-12-01: LITIGATION: Supreme Court
hears FDA arguments.
1999-12-08: LITIGATION: FRANCE: SEITA
is found partly responsible for the death of smoker Richard
Gourlain. This is the first time a tobacco company has been
held responsible in a health liability case in France.
1999-12-10: BUSINESS: Altadis shares
begin trading on Paris and Madrid exchanges.
1999-12-22: LITIGATION: CANADA: Canada
sues 3 manufacturers over smuggling issues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Year 2000: The New Millenium
2000: BUSINESS: MARKET SHARE:
World's largest tobacco companies:
1. China National Tobacco Company 31%
[China has 385 million smokers]
2. Philip Morris 17%
3. British American Tobacco (BAT) 13%
4. RJR Reynolds 6%
5. Rothmans International 4%
2000: BUSINESS: US MARKET SHARE:
Philip Morris Inc.: 50 percent
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. : 24
percent.
Brown & Williamson Tobacco
Corp.:13 percent
Lorillard Tobacco Co.: 10 percent
Liggett Group Inc.: 1 percent
Source: "Defendants in Fla. Smokers'
Trial" AP, Jul 14, 2000
2000: BUSINESS: US MARKET SHARE: Top
Brands:
1. Marlboro, Philip Morris, 35.4
2. Doral, R.J. Reynolds, 6.3
3. Newport, Lorillard, 6.2
4. Camel, R.J. Reynolds, 5.3
5. Winston, R.J. Reynolds, 5.2
6. Basic, Philip Morris, 4.9
7. GPC, Brown & Williamson, 4.7
8. Kool, Brown & Williamson, 3.3
9. Salem, R.J. Reynolds, 3.2
10. Virginia Slims, Philip Morris, 2.6
Source: R.J. Reynolds, January 2000
2000: Reducing Tobacco Use: A Report
of the Surgeon General
2000: JAPAN: Emperor Arkihito ends the
tradition (begun by Hirohito in 1964) of giving out cigarettes
to his staff on his birthday.
2000: BUSINESS: Reduction in the
group's effective interest in British American Tobacco to 21
per cent through partial disposal of holding of preference
shares.
2000-01-19: CANADA: Health Minister
Unveils Gruesome Labels. Images of cancerous lungs, diseased
mouths, and droopy cigarettes imitating limp penises are among
a series of 16 new visual warnings that will have to cover
half of each cigarette pack sold in Canada under regulatory
reforms unveiled on Jan 19 by Health Minister Allan Rock.
2000-02-16: Farmers sue tobacco
companies in a $69 billion lawsuit seeking to recover damages
they say were caused by the industry's settlement with the
U.S. government.
2000-02-08: Wholesalers and
distributors file suit against major tobacco companies,
accusing them of collusion/price fixing because they raised
cigarette prices "by the exact amount" during 1997 and 1998.
2000-02-21: CANADA: B.C. Supreme Court
rules province's lawsuit against tobacco companies is
unconstitutional
2000-03-02: REGULATION: Philip Morris
VP Steven Parrish calls for government regulation of tobacco.
At a CASA conference, Parrish shared the podium and discussion
with Dr. David Kessler, and said that nicotine is an addictive
drug and that the Food and Drug Administration should regulate
tobacco, PM said it still opposes FDA regulation of nicotine
as a drug.
2000-03-20: LITIGATION: Whiteley
Jurors find against Tobacco California Superior Court jury
finds that the Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds acted with
malice, knew about the health hazards of smoking and
deliberately misled the public about those dangers. It also
found that the two companies committed fraud. Awards $1.7 M to
Leslie Whiteley.
2000-03-21: REGULATION: Supreme Court
Rules 5-4 against FDA Regulation of Tobacco "No matter how
important, conspicuous, and controversial the issue, and
regardless of how likely the public is to hold the Executive
Branch politically accountable, an administrative agency's
power to regulate in the public interest must always be
grounded in a valid grant of authority from Congress. "
2000-03-29: LITIGATION: Federal jury
rules UST violated antitrust laws; U.S. Tobacco Co ordered to
pay $1.05 billion to Conwood. The Kentucky jury awarded $350
million in damages to Conwood; U.S. District Judge Thomas
Russell trebled that amount pursuant to federal law. Conwood
charged that UST had engaged in anti-competitive business
practices in trying to control point-of-sale advertising,
including vandalizing and removing Conwood in-store display
racks. After a monthlong trial, the jury deliberated for
almost four hours on Tuesday before setting damages at $350
million against Greenwich, Conn.-based U.S. Tobacco. Under
federal antitrust laws, the damages were automatically
tripled.
2000-04-07: LITIGATION: Engle Jury
Awards 3 Smokers $12.7 Million in damages; punitives yet to be
decided.
2000-04-20: BUSINESS: RJR Markets
"Eclipse" cigarette as healthier alternative.
2000-05-31: World No-Tobacco Day
Slogan: Tobacco kills - Don't be duped
2000-06-25: BUSINESS: Philip Morris
Cos. agrees to acquire Nabisco Holdings Corp. for $18.9
billion.
2000-07-14: LITIGATION: Engle Jury
Awards Florida Smokers Punitive Damages of $145 Billion--the
biggest judgment in U.S. history.
2000-08-20: SPORTS: CANADA: Last Du
Maurier Open women's tennis tournament is held.
2000-08-27: LITIGATION: Russia Sues
Tobacco in Miami-Dade County court, Florida, charging Philip
Morris and other tobacco companies with causing suffering to
Russian smokers, hiding the risks of cigarettes, and damaging
Russia's economy.
2000-08: BUSINESS: RJR spins out
Targacept. A world leader in neuronal nicotinic receptor (NNR)
research and development, Targacept is dedicated to the
design, discovery and development of a new class of drugs that
will treat Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease,
ulcerative colitis and others.
2000-09-18: UK: FORMULA 1 SCANDAL:
Journalist Andrew Rawnsley, in newspaper exerpts from his
book, Servants Of The People, alleges that Chancellor Gordon
Brown and PM Tony Blair lied in television interviews about
details of Labour's 1m donation from Bernie Ecclestone.
2000-09-29: REGULATION: South Africa's
Tobacco Products Control Amendment Act comes into effect,
strictly regulating smoking and advertising.
2000-10-12: LITIGATION: JONES: A
Florida jury decides that the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. was
responsible for the death of Robert Jones' wife Suzanne M.
Jones, and awards compensatory damages totaling $200,028.57
for negligence on the part of RJR and a defective cigarette
design.
2000-11: LITIGATION: NORWAY: Lifelong
smoker Robert Lund loses case against Tiedemanns Tobaksfabrikk
A/S.
2000-11-03: LITIGATION: European Union
files suit in New York against RJR, Philip Morris on
RICO/smuggling claims.
2000-11-04: LITIGATION: ENGLE: U.S.
District Judge Ursula Ungaro-Benages rules that the Engle case
belongs in state, not federal court.
2000-11-05: LITIGATION: Lorillard,
Liggett reach a tentative $8 Billion Settlement of individual
tobacco suits, brokered by NY Judge Weinstein.
2000-11-06: LITIGATION: ENGLE: Judge
Kaye affirms $145 Billion award against tobacco companies.
2000-12-03: BUSINESS: London Times
reports that BAT has agreed to give Nottingham University 3.8m
pounds to set up an "International Centre for Corporate Social
Responsibility."
2000-12-11: BUSINESS: Philip Morris
Cos. completes its $18.9 billion acquisition of Nabisco
Holdings Corp., creating the world's second-biggest food maker
behind Switzerland's Nestle SA. Also, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco
Holdings Inc. completes its purchase of Nabisco Group Holdings
Corp., which held an 80.5 percent stake in Nabisco Holdings.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2001: BUSINESS: US MARKET SHARE: Top
Brands:
1. Marlboro, Philip Morris, 52.4%
(Source: Philip Morris 1Q, April, 2001)
2001: BUSINESS: TOP TOBACCO EXPORTERS
Country / %Share of world tobacco exports
Brazil 17%
US 10%
Zimbabwe 9%
China 6%
India 5.6%
2001-01-01: CANADA: Canada mandates
large, graphic cigarette pack labels.
2001-01: CANADA: Imperial begins
distributing three lifestyle magazines: Real Edge, for men,
The Art of Living Simple, for women, and Pursuit, an arts mag.
2001-01-11: Women and Smoking: A
Report of the Surgeon General (2001)
2001-01-11: BUSINESS: B&W
re-launches Pall Mall nationally as the New Filtered PALL MALL
2001-01-19: George Bush is inaugurated
as United States President. His cabinet nominees include WI
Gov. Tommy Thompson for Secretary of Health and Human
Services, John Ashcroft as Attorney General, and Gale Norton
as Secretary of the Interior
2001-01-22: LITIGATION: WV:
Blankenship "medical monitoring" trial is declared a mistrial
when witness Farone inadvertently references the verboten
subject: addiction. Ohio County Circuit Judge Arthur Recht had
said a few days earlier, "I guarantee I'm smarter now than I
was a month ago. As the case goes on you get a clearer
picture, and it is clear now: Addiction is, I believe, a
necessary element in this case -- the inability to quit."
2001-01-24: LITIGATION: 3 Countries
Sue Tobacco Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan file in Florida
2001-02-22: "Clearing the Smoke:
Assessing the Science Base for Tobacco Harm Reduction, " a new
report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National
Academies, is released. Products developed to lessen the risk
of disease by reducing exposure to toxic chemicals are
scientifically feasible, but in the absence of rigorous
research, no one knows if these products decrease the
incidence of tobacco-related disease or actually increase it
by encouraging smoking. The report outlines how tried-and-true
public health tools -- research, surveillance, communication,
and regulation -- should be used to ensure that the
availability of these products confers less risk to the
individual and to the population as a whole compared with
conventional tobacco products. It recommends a regulatory
strategy to assure that these products reduce risk of disease
2001-03-08: LITIGATION: Grady Carter
collects $1.1 million from Brown & Williamson Tobacco
Corp. The payment, covering a 1995 jury award of $750,000 plus
interest, represents the first time an individual collected
payment from the tobacco industry for a cigarette-related
illness.
2001-04-05: LITIGATION: FL: Miami jury
finds cigarette manufacturers not liable for the lung diseases
of former TWA flight attendant Marie Fontana. This was the
first individual case (out of about 3200 filed) after the
Broin settlement.
2001-04-16: LITIGATION: FL: Florida
state court judge rules that he would dismiss the lawsuit
brought by Ecuador against US manufacturers.
2001-05-01: Australian barmaid wins
AU$450G from employer in ETS case. In NSW Supreme Court, Mrs.
Marlene Sharp sued the Port Kembla RSL for negligence claiming
her cancer was caused by years of breathing other people's
smoke while working at the club between 1984 and 1995. The
four-man jury took about four hours to decide the club had
been negligent.
2001-05-16: LITIGATION: NJ: jury finds
Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds not liable in the Mehlman
personal lawsuit (Mehlman v. Philip Morris, et. al.)
2001-05-18: CHINA: BAT and China
Tobacco Corporation enter into joint venture resulting in the
Sino-British Cigarette Sales Co.
2001-05-22: LITIGATION: US Court of
Appeals for the DC Circuit throws out Service Employees
International Union Health and Welfare Fund, Guatemala,
Nicauragua and Ukraine suits.
2001-05-31: RELIGION: LEBANON: Senior
Shiite Muslim cleric Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein
Fadlallah issues a religious edict (fatwa) ordering his
followers to stop smoking. ''A smoker is committing two
crimes, one against himself and the other against the one
inhaling next to him," he tells AP.
2001-06-04: LITIGATION: NY: Empire
Blue Cross Blue Shield wins up to $17.8 Million for deceptive
business practices regarding smoking and asbestos exposure
from Philip Morris, RJR, Lorillard and Liggett.
2001-06-05: LITIGATION: CANADA:
Ex-cigarette salesman Joe Battaglia loses his $6,000 case
against Imperial Tobacco
2001-06-01: REGULATION: CANADA:
Toronto's strict indoor smoking law goes into effect. Bars
will be added August 1.
2001-06-06: LITIGATION: CA: Richard
Boeken is awarded $3 Billion from Philip Morris in Los Angeles
2001-06-13: BUSINESS: Philip Morris
sells off 16% of Kraft. The Kraft Foods (KFT) IPO begins
trading at $31, and ends the day at $31.25, raising $8.68
billion in the nation's second-largest initial public offering
ever. Philip Morris keeps 275 million Class A shares and all
1.18 billion of the Class B shares in Kraft, thus retaining
almost 98% of voting rights in Kraft. For many analysts, the
"tobacco taint" remains.
2001-06-19: LITIGATION: Dept. of
Justice assembles a team to negotiate a settlement over its
racketeering lawsuit.
2001-06-22: BUSINESS: Gallaher
acquires Austria Tabak..
2001-06-28: LITIGATION: US Supreme
Court bars Mass. ad restrictions.
2001-06-29: LITIGATION: CARTER: US
Supreme Court denies B&W petition; $750,000 award stands.
B&W pays Carter $1.1 M
2001-06-29: LITIGATION: FALISE:
Manville Trust drops asbestos lawsuit.
2001-07-16: CZECH REPUBLIC: News
reports reveal that Philip Morris released to the government a
PM-commissioned Arthur D. Little report which concluded that
smokers save the state money--by dying early. While the Czech
media yawns, other international media provide heavy coverage
and extremely negative commentary.
2001-07-24: Philip Morris CEO Geoffrey
Bible writes a letter to US Senator Diane
Feinstein.apologizing for the Arthur D. Little report.
2001-07-25: Steven C. Parrish, a
senior vice president, apologizes for the Arthur D. Little
report, saying in a Wall St. Journal interview, "We understand
that this was not only a terrible mistake, but that it was
wrong. . . To say it's totally inappropriate is an
understatement."
2001-07-26: Philip Morris publicly
apologizes for the Arthur D. Little report. The statment
reads, "For one of our tobacco companies to commission this
study was not just a terrible mistake, it was wrong. All of us
at Philip Morris, no matter where we work, are extremely sorry
for this. No one benefits from the very real, serious and
significant diseases caused by smoking. We understand the
outrage that has been expressed and we sincerely regret this
extraordinarily unfortunate incident. We will continue our
efforts to do the right thing in all our businesses,
acknowledging mistakes when we make them and learning from
them as we go forward."
2001-08-08: BAT breaks into South
Korean market; announces plans to invest $1bn in South Korean
cigarette operations, beginning with a new $80M factory, BAT
becomes the first foreign company to break KTG's monopoly.
2001-08-09: LITIGATION: Judge reduces
Boeken award from $3B to $100M, denies Philip Morris a new
trial. The jury plainly, and with substantial evidentiary
support, found Philip Morris's conduct reprehensible. The
record fully supports findings that Philip Morris knew by the
late 1950s and early 1960s that the nicotine in cigarettes is
highly addictive, that substances in cigarette tar cause lung
cancer, and that no substantial medical or scientific doubt
existed on these crucial facts. Nevertheless, motivated
primarily by a professed desire to generate wealth, Philip
Morris, in concert with other major American tobacco
companies, consistently endeavored through calculated
misrepresentations to create doubts in the minds of snickers ,
especially addicted smokers such as Richard Boeken, that
cigarettes are neither addictive nor disease-producing. . .
Philip Morris's doubt-creating scheme fully succeeded in the
case of Mr. Boeken and others . . . The evidence further
indicates that Philip Morris monitored the relative market
share of its Marlboro brand - the brand smoked by Boeken from
his teens - to insure it maintained dominance among underage
smokers to whom cigarettes could not be sold legally. . .
Citing the Public Health Cigarette Act of 1969, 15 U.S.C. 1331
et seq:, Philip Morris argues that Congress has determined
"that it is not reprehensible ... to market and advertise
cigarettes with the warning prescribed in that statute."
Philip Morris is not being punished for marketing cigarettes,
but rather for engaging in a fraudulent business scheme
initiated long before passage of the Act. . . Philip Morris's
conduct was in fact reprehensible in every sense of the word,
both legal and moral. -- Charles W. McCoy, Jr.
2001-08-11: SETTLEMENT: National Conf.
of State Legislators report finds only 5% of state tobacco
settlement monies go to tobacco control. NCSL's PR Release is
titled: "Health Programs Benefit from Tobacco Money" (36% went
to health services and long-term care).
2001-08-22: UK: The Guardian publishes
new smuggling allegations against BAT, backed up by documents
from whistleblower Alex Solagnier,; Conservative Party
leadership candidate and BAT spokesman Kenneth Clarke is
attacked.
2001-08-24: BAT breaks into Vietnam
market. BAT announces that it has been granted a license for a
$40 million joint venture with Vintaba to build a processing
plant in Vietnam
2001-09-11: International Tobacco
Products Marketing Standards Agreement is signed JT, BAT and
Philip Morris agree that the promotion and distribution of
tobacco products should be "directed at smokers and not at
youth," and should be "consistent with the principle of
informed adult choice." The agreement will go into effect in
Dec., 2002.
2001-10-16: US Court of Appeals (First
Circuit) reinstates a Massachusetts law that requires tobacco
companies to disclose the ingredients in their products.
2001-10-19: LITIGATION: NY Judge
Weinstein refuses to throw out the jury's verdict in the Blue
Cross/Blue Shield case.
2001-11-05: BUSINESS: Brown &
Williamson begins test-marketing Advance, its "reduced risk"
cigarette, in Indianapolis, using the slogan, 'All of the
taste, less of the toxins.'
2001-11-05: BUSINESS: Vector heralds
Omni, its "reduced risk" cigarette, with an ad in Monday's
People Magazine, with the tagline, "Reduced carcinogens.
Premium taste."
2001-11-01: CANADA raises tobacco
taxes by C$1.50; some provinces increase their own taxes on
top of the federal increase.
2001-11-02: INDIA's Supreme Court
rules that smoking in public spaces must be banned
country-wide.
2001-11-15: BUSINESS: Philip Morris
proposes changing its corporate name to Altria, which would
consist of Miller Beer, Kraft Foods, and the two cigarette
branches, Philip Morris USA and Philip Morris International.
2001-11-26: LITIGATION: Philip Morris
files appeal of Engle verdicts.
2001-11-29: Beatle George Harrison
dies of lung cancer. He had been battling various forms of the
disease for at least three years: In 1998, he underwent
radiation therapy for throat cancer, which he attributed to
years of smoking. In their December l0th issues, both Time and
Newsweek extensively covered Harrison's death, but neither
magazine mentioned smoking. Both magazines carry tobacco ads.
2001-12-11: BUSINESS: RJ Reynolds
Tobacco Holdings Inc. buys Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. for
$340M in cash. Santa Fe makes Natural American Spirit
cigarettes, which contain no additives.
2001-12-13: BUSINESS: RJ Reynolds
Tobacco Holdings Inc. signs merger deal with Santa Fe Natural
Tobacco Co.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2002-01-16: BUSINESS: RJR Completes
acquisition of Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co.
2002-02-22: LITIGATION: Burton wins
suit in Kansas. RJR and B&W are found guilty of failing to
warn about the risks of smoking before warning labels appeared
in the 1960s. Jurors found that David Burton's peripheral
vascular disease (PVD), which caused him to lose both his
legs, was caused by smoking. They ordered R.J. Reynolds
Tobacco Co. to pay $196,416 in compensatory damages and Brown
& Williamson Tobacco Corp. to pay $1,984 for Burton's
medical bills and economic losses. Reynolds also was found
liable for punitive damages for fraudulently concealing the
risks and addictiveness of smoking, according to the unanimous
verdict. This is the first time the industry has lost 1) in
the MidWest; 2) in a federal court (except for Cipollone,
which was overturned on appeal); 3) in connection with PVD.
2002-02-21: REGULATION: President Bush
signs into law the Shays/Meehan-McCain Feingold Campaing
Finance Reform bill.
2002-03-22: LITIGATION: Oregon Jury
finds for Schwartz; finds Philip Morris lied on "light"
cigarettes, orders company to Pay $150 M.
2002-03-22: LITIGATION: AUSTRALIA:
Victoria Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Eames enters default
judgement for McCabe, finding British American Tobacco
Australia Services Ltd.'s 1998 destruction of 30,000 documents
--plus an untold number since 1985--deprived her of a fair
trial. The 133-page decision is sealed until a jury decides on
damages. Decision at:
https://www.tobacco.org/Documents/020322mccabe.html
2002-04-11: LITIGATION: AUSTRALIA
Melbourne Jury awards McCabe $AU700,000; Eames' 3/22 decision
is made public.
2002-04-11: SOUTH KOREA: The National
Cancer Center (NCC) officially confirms that smoking causes
lung cancer.
2002-04-11: CDC estimates smoking
health and productivity costs reach $150 billion a year,
according to a new study published in this week's WMMR. CDC
estimated the total cost of smoking at $3,391 a year for every
smoker, and even itemized the per-pack health/productivity
costs at $7.18/pack. Further, it estimated the smoking-related
medical costs at $3.45 per pack, and job productivity lost
because of premature death from smoking at $3.73 per pack.
2002-05: LITIGATION: Los Angeles
Superior Court Judge Conrad Aragon fines RJR $14.8 Million for
illegally handing out free cigarettes at events like street
fairs and car races where children are present.
2002-05: U.S. appeals court affirms a
lower court's decision and orders UST to pay a $1.05 billion
award for illegally monopolizing the market for moist snuff.
2002-05-31: World No-Tobacco Day.
Slogan: "Tobacco-Free Sports: Play it Clean."
2002-06-05: LITIGATION: Oregon Court
of Appeals reinstates $80B Williams award. "[D]efendant's
narrow focus on the ratio between punitive and compensatory
damages ignores the underlying purpose for awarding punitive
damages, which is to punish and deter a wrongdoer. The
reprehensibility of the defendant's actions, the number of
people affected or potentially affected, and indications that
the defendant will not change its actions without punishment
are all relevant factors. It is also clear that the
defendant's wealth is an important consideration; an award
that might be a serious punishment for one defendant could be
only a minor inconvenience for another."
2002-06-06: LITIGATION: California
judge fines RJR $20 million for violating the 1998 tobacco
settlement by targeting youths in a magazine advertising
campaign. The campaign appeared in a number of youth-oriented
magazines such as Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, etc. "RJR
saw itself losing market share, especially to Philip Morris,
and believed it had to be more aggressive than the other
tobacco companies in its advertising so as not to lose any
more market share even though the likely effect of these
efforts was to cause significant exposure to youth . . It was,
or should have been apparent to the skillful and bright people
who managed RJR's multimillion-dollar, sophisticated print
advertising campaign that youth were exposed to tobacco
advertising at levels substantially similar to targeted adult
smokers.'' San Diego County Superior Court Judge Ronald Prager
wrote in his opinion.
2002-06-17: CANADA: Canadian federal
government and provinces hike cigarette taxes. Prices near
1994 levels.
2002-06-18: LITIGATION: Florida jury
rules for French in Broin spinoff; nation's first award over
secondhand smoke. In a Broin spinoff case, the jury in Circuit
Court in Miami found for Lynn French, a flight attendant who
claimed her chronic sinusitis was the result of exposure to
secondhand smoke while working on flights in the 1970s and
80s, and awarded her $5.5M in damages. 2 previous Broin cases
were not successful.
2002-06-23: TOBACCO CONTROL: FRANCE:
French health officials air ad warning about the ingredients
in a "dangerous product." Half a million people call the
hotline to learn what the product is: cigarettes.
2002-07-02: FDA Forbids sale of Quick
Test 5's "Nico Water," ruling the product is a quit-smoking
drug, not a dietary supplement.
2002-08-02: NBA drops Lorillard as a
sponsor of its youth "Hoop-It-Up" tournament. Lorillard was
promoting its "Tobacco is Whacko if You're a Teen" program.
2002-08-05: LITIGATION: California
Supreme Court rules on legislators' "Napkin Deal" intentions,
allows 10-year window of immunity: Smokers can't sue over
industry conduct between 1988 and 1998, unless they claim
additives to cigarettes increased the danger. (Myers v. Philip
Morris Cos. Inc -
https://www.tobacco.neu.edu/PR/supportdocs/myers_decision.htm.,
Naegele v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. -
https://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/S090420.PDF)
2002-08-07: Exxon-Mobile signs
agreement with Attorneys General to better prevent sales of
tobacco to youth.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
U.S. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
1933: The Agricultural Adjustment Act
of 1933. Tobacco farmers were being ruined as the market
dropped, manufacturers hid their purchase plans and banks
charged interest rates of up to 37%. 25% of all families in
North Carolina were on relief as farmers appealed to the
sympathetic Roosevelt administration. The Agricultural
Adjustment Act guarantees price supports in exchange for
limiting production via allotments and quotas; so long as
farmers didn't grow past their seasonally allotted acreage,
the government would buy the unsold tobacco. The plan is
dependent on close communication with manufacturers, and their
upcoming buying needs. The bill has undergone many amendments
over the years, the most important being the 1938 bill
authorizing marketing quotas and the 1949 act authorizing
price supports.
1935: The Tobacco Inspection Act is
enacted by Congress. This act established the framework for
development of official tobacco grade standards, authorized
the Secretary of Agriculture to designate tobacco auction
markets where tobacco growers would receive mandatory
inspection of each lot of tobacco to determine its grade and
type, and provided for the distribution of daily price reports
showing the current average price for each grade. The
Agricultural Marketing Service's Tobacco Division was
established to provide these services to the industry. (Other
authorizing legislation: The Tobacco Adjustment Act; Public
Law 99-198, Section 1161; The Naval Stores Act
1938: AGRICULTURAL ADJUSTMENT ACT is
passed again, this time authorizing marketing quotas.
1949: AGRICULTURAL ADJUSTMENT ACT is
passed again, this time authorizing price supports.
1965: The FEDERAL CIGARETTE LABELING
AND ADVERTISING ACT is passed, requiring health warnings on
cigarette packages only.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1969: Congress enacts the Public
Health Cigarette Smoking Act of 1969, which amends the 1965
Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act to require the
following warning: "The Surgeon General Has Determined That
Cigarette Smoking is Dangerous to Your Health." The 1969 act
also includes the phrase: "(b) No requirement or prohibition
based on smoking and health shall be imposed under State law
with respect to the advertising or promotion of any cigarettes
the packages of which are labeled in conformity with the
provisions of this Act."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1970-04-01: REGULATION: The Public
Health Cigarette Smoking Act had been passed in 1969; The bill
as signed into law by Richard Nixon on April 1, 1970 had been
the result of over a year of fierce wrangling among the
tobacco companies, broadcasters (who stood to lose a great
deal of advertising income), the FTC, the FCC and Congress.
1971: REGULATION: UK Government bans
cigarette advertisements on radio
1971-05: Charles E. Dederich, founder
and head of Synanon, decided not only to stop supplying his
community of ex-heroin addicts cigarettes without charge but
also to ban smoking on Synanon property. The next year is one
of the most tumultuous in Synanon's history to that point.
About 100 people left. At least one member told the New York
Times that quitting tobacco was much harder than quitting
heroin.
1973: REGULATION: Congress amended the
Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act to ban TV and radio
advertising of little cigars.
1982: REGULATION: Congress passes the
No Net Cost Tobacco Program Act, requiring the government's
Commodity Credit Corporation, which pays for the government
tobacco purchases, to recover all the money it spends on quota
enforcement, price supports, and leaf grading programs. Now
taxpayers no longer pay for losses incurred by the program,
though they still pay about $16 million a year in
administrative costs to run it.
1984: The Federal Cigarette Labeling
and Advertising Act was amended to require that one of the
four warning labels listed below appears in a specific format
on cigarette packages and in most related advertising. Here's
the US Code
SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: Smoking
Causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema, And May
Complicate Pregnancy.
SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: Quitting
Smoking Now Greatly Reduces Serious Risks to Your Health.
SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: Smoking By
Pregnant Women May Result in Fetal Injury, Premature Birth,
and Low Birth Weight.
SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: Cigarette
Smoke Contains Carbon Monoxide.
1985: Tobacco Improvement Act of 1985.
Price supports for tobacco were reduced by this legislation
and domestic tobacco manufacturers were required to purchase
existing loan stocks. In addition, the price support and quota
formulas were revised in an effort to generate more
market-oriented price and production levels.
1986: Comprehensive Smokeless Tobacco
Health Education Act of 1986 extended the broadcast
advertising ban to smokeless tobacco products.
1995: It is still legal to advertise
cigars, pipe tobacco and hard liquor on TV.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In 1494, Romano Pane, the friar who
accompanied Columbus, reported that the Indians also used
tobacco by reducing it to a powder that "they take through a
cane half a cubit long: one end of this they place in the
nose, and the other upon the powder."
--from The Facts About Smoking,
Consumer Reports Books, 1991 The Arawak tribe of the Caribbean
smoked both cigars and used the tobago, a soapstone pipe. In
the North, Native Americans wrapped tobacco in corn husks or
stuffed it into hollow reeds to smoke.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1588: Hariot on Tobacco in Virginia
"There is an herb called uppowoc,
which sows itself. In the West Indies it has several names,
according to the different places where it grows and is used,
but the Spaniards generally call it tobacco. Its leaves are
dried, made into powder, and then smoked by being sucked
through clay pipes into the stomach and head. The fumes purge
superfluous phlegm and gross humors from the body by opening
all the pores and passages. Thus its use not only preserves
the body, but if there are any obstructions it breaks them up.
By this means the natives keep in excellent health, without
many of the grievous diseases which often afflict us in
England.
"This uppowoc is so highly valued by
them that they think their gods are delighted with it.
Sometimes they make holy fires and cast the powder into them
as a sacrifice. If there is a storm on the waters, they throw
it up into the air and into the water to pacify their gods.
Also, when they set up a new weir for fish, they pour uppowoc
into it. And if they escape from danger, they also throw the
powder up into the air. This is alwavs done with strange
gestures and stamping, sometimes dancing, clapping of hands,
holding hands up, and staring up into the heavens. During this
performance they chatter strange words and utter meaningless
noises.
"While we were there we used to suck
in the smoke as they did, and now that we are back in England
we still do so. We have found many rare and wonderful proofs
of the uppowoc's virtues, which would themselves require a
volume to relate. There is sufficient evidence in the fact
that it is used by so many men and women of great calling, as
well as by some learned physicians."
--Thomas Hariot, A Brief and True
Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, directed to the
investors, farmers, and well-wishers of the project of
colonizing and planting there. Imprinted at London in 1588.
Hariot was part of a group sent by Sir Walter Raleigh to
establish the first English colony in the New World. He spent
a year on Roanoke Island, 1585-1586.
Most of the members of the party
fitfully searched around for gold, and complained "because
they could not find in Virginia any English cities, or fine
houses, or their accustomed dainty food, or any soft beds of
down or feathers." But Hariot, who would be recognised in
later years as a preeminent scientist, took accurate stock of
the land and its bounties, and is reputed to have carried back
with him on Sir Francis Drake's ship two strange plants:
tobacco, and the potato.
The piece quoted above is part of a
compendium of "commodities" he wrote to help maintain interest
in Raleigh's doomed attempts to make money out of his
expeditions to the New World--the English explorations then
were very much commercial ventures.
After Hariot's return to England, he
met and became great friends with Raleigh, and was his main
contact with the outside world during the 13 years Raleigh
spent in the Tower of London (where he grew his own tobacco).
Raleigh was beheaded in 1618, and
reportedly had a pipeful just before going to the gallows.
Hariot suffered terribly from a
"cancerous ulcer of the nose" from 1615 till his death 6 years
later in 1621 at the age of 61. [Juraj Korbler says Hariot had
"cancer of the lip" in "Thomas Harriot (1560-1621), fumeur de
pipe, victime du cancer?" Gesnerus 9 (1952): 52-54]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1590: LITERATURE: Spenser's Fairie
Queen: earliest poetical allusion to tobacco in English
literature. Belphoebe includes tobacco with other medicinal
herbs gathered to heal Timais (Book III, Canto VI, 32). Into
the woods thenceforth in haste shee went, To seeke for
hearties that mote him remedy; For she of hearties had great
intendiment, Taught of the Nymphe which from her infancy Her
nourced had in trew nobility: There, whether yet divine
Tobacco were, Or Panachea, or Polygony, She fownd, and brought
it to her patient deare Who al this while lay bleding out his
hart-blood scare.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1595: ENGLAND: The first book in the
English language devoted to the subject of tobacco is
published The first book in the English language devoted to
the subject of tobacco was anonymously published in 1595, by
Anthony Chute. It has the simple title "Tabacco," and contains
an illustration of an Englishman smoking a clay pipe. In this
little work for laymen, the author earnestly urged smokers not
to abuse the kindly weed, upheld its medicinal uses, and
suggested that physicians were trying to keep smoking a secret
among themselves. The reason was, he said, that a moderate use
of the pipe was of such value in preserving health that it was
likely to make physicians unnecessary!-- from Early Literature
of TOBACCO by George Arents
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1604: "A Counterblaste to Tobacco"
"Smoking is a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the
nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the
black, stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible
Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless." -- James I of
England, "A Counterblaste to Tobacco." In his treatise, James
also noted that autopsies found smokers' "inward parts" were
"infected with an oily kind of soot." James also said if he
ever had the Devil to dinner, he'd offer him a pipe. With
regards to second-hand smoke, James said, " "The wife must
either take up smoking or resolve to live in a perpetual
stinking torment." On the other hand, James' was the first
government to find taxes on tobacco to be enormously
profitable. Trying to stamp out smoking, he first increased
taxes on tobacco 4,000%, from 2 pence/pound to six shillings,
8 pence/pound. That stopped people from buying tobacco, but
dried up the funds that had been coming into the Treasury.
James then slashed taxes down to 2 shillings/pound and watched
the money pour in. Other governments were quick to learn the
same lesson.
From George Arents:
In 1604, there was published [in
England], anonymously, the most famous of all tracts opposing
the social use of tobacco, A Counterblaste to Tobacco, by King
James. The king reiterated his contempt for those who daily
used a drug for pleasure, scorned the acceptance of a habit
adopted from unbaptized barbarians [Indians in the Americas],
bewailed the cost of what he called this "precious stink," and
repeated some of the tales of hoor then used to frighten
smokers. Among other things, he reminded his readers that some
great tobacco-takers were found, upon dissection, to have
lungs and brains covered by fine, black soot, obviously the
result of smoking! I should like to make a brief digression
here to point out that, as James' subjects didn't accept his
advice, he promptly raised the tobacco duty by four thousand
percent. But within two years he found it profitable to reduce
the duty and lease of monopoly of that tax. Thus he received a
large income from the sale of the very thing he professed most
to despise. As a result of the high duty placed upon tobacco
(a duty which was continually advanced during James' and
Charles I's reign), a state arose similar to our own, during
prohibition days. The common phrases and conditions of that
era are also applicable to the tobacco trade in London then;
the commodity was "free of duty"; sold by smugglers as "right
off the ship"; the dandies knew where the best stuff was to be
secretly had; domestic tobacco was doctored to give it the
semblance of "Spanish," and the wide advertising smoking
received, because of the campaign against it, induced many men
and women, who had never smoked before, to take up the custom.
-- George Arents, "Early Literature of Tobacco," privately
printed for distribution at The Library of Congress, 1938. In
April 1938 the Books, Manuscripts and Drawings Relating to
Tobacco from the collection of Arents were on exhibition at
the Library of Congress.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1607: Jamestown Though fitful attempts
had been made before, the lasting "plantation" of English
culture in the Americas starts here. The first permanent
English colony was established in 1607, when the Virginia
Company landed another ill-prepared group of adventurers in
Jamestown. This sad colony--wracked by malaria epidemics,
Indian attacks, intrique, laziness, torture, starvation and
goulish cannibalism--could well have failed also, but was
arguably saved not just by Pocahontas, but by her husband John
Rolfe's cultivation of the desperate colony's only substantial
resource: tobacco. Without the success of Jamestown, the
dominant culture south and west of New England could well be
Spanish. For more details, read the History of Jamestown
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1847: LONDON: Philip Morris Opens
Shop; sells hand-rolled Turkish cigarettes.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1880: Bonsack Machine is awarded
patent
1880: 21-year-old Virginian James
Albert Bonsack is granted a patent for his cigarette-rolling
machine.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The cigarette market was small then;
cigarettes were expensive and hand-rolled by the cigarette
girls. Most manufacturers didn't see a use for that many
cigarettes. The Bonsack machine had been seen and discarded by
the established cigarette manufacturers. In 1883, 27-year-old
Buck Duke leased the Bonsack machine on a favored contract. By
1887, once Duke and Bonsack's mechanics had finished tinkering
with it, it was capable of reliably rolling 120,000 cigarettes
in 10 hours. This not only takes the cigarette business out of
the hands of the cigarette girls, it means that cigarettes can
be made cheaply enough to satisfy a mass market. But the
market didn't exist. If he wanted to unload his stockpiling
cigarettes, Duke had to create the market, and he used unique
and spectacular promotions and advertising campaigns to do it.
The pressures created by the invention of the Bonsack machine
led not only to the widespread use of cigarettes as America's
favored form of tobacco, but to the modern era of mass-market
advertising and promotion.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1902-04: Tiny British manufacturer
Philip Morris, now tobacconist to the crown, sets up a
corporation in New York to sell its British brands, including
Philip Morris, Blues, Cambridge, Derby, and one named after
the street its London factory was on, Marlborough. Marlboro is
targeted towards women, and in the 30s would feature a red tip
to hide lipstick marks.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1905: POLITICS: Indiana legislature
bribery attempt is exposed, leading to passage of total
cigarette ban In 1905, a clumsy attempt at bribery virtually
forced the Indiana legislature into prohibiting cigarettes.
The measure had been passed by the Senate with the intention
of embarrassing certain reform leaders in the House; the House
as a whole was expected to hoot it down. However, right before
the vote, Representative Ananias Baker dramatically held aloft
a sealed envelope and announced that it had been given to him
by a lobbyist from the Tobacco Trust, with instructions to
vote against the bill, He opened it with a flourish: five $20
bills dropped out. The display seemed to confirm a prediction
by the state's largest tobacco dealer, reported in an
Indianapolis newspaper a few days earlier, that the trust
would "buy up the whole House" before it would permit passage
of the bill. Baker left his colleagues little choice but to
vote for the bill, lest they be suspected of having been
influenced by similar envelopes. --Smithsonian, July 1989; "In
the 1800s, antismoking was a burning issue" by Cassandra Tate
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1913: Finally freed from Duke's
American Tobacco Co., RJ Reynolds introduces Camel cigarette
brand The massive, months-long "The Camels are Coming"
campaign builds anticipation for Camels. Camel, like Prince
Albert before it, consisted of a then-unique blend of 3
tobaccos, piedmont Bright, a flavored and sweetened burley
from Kentucky, and 10% Turkish leaf. The half-price brand (10
cents for 20) is an instant hit, gaining 33% of the market by
1917, and 45% by 1923. Soon after, the American Tobacco
Company introduces Lucky Strike and Liggett & Myers
introduces Chesterfield, each with similar blends. The
"modern" cigarette has arrived.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1911: Dr. Charles Pease states
position of the NonSmokers' Protective League of America In a
letter to the New York Times dated November 10, 1911, he
writes: The right of each person to breathe and enjoy fresh
and pure air--air uncontaminated by unhealthful or
disagreeable odors and fumes is a constitutional right, and
cannot be taken away by legislatures or courts, much less by
individuals pursuing their own thoughtless or selfish
indulgence.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1950: Morton Levin publishes first
major study definitively linking smoking to lung cancer Levin
was then the director of Cancer Control for the New York State
Department of Health. His epidemiological survey of Buffalo
patients between 1938 and 1950 appeared in The Journal of the
American Medical Association. His shocking and controversial
conclusion: smokers were statistically twice as likely to
develop lung cancer as non-smokers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1952: Hollingsworth & Vose gets
100% indemnity agreement from Lorillard on filters
1952: East Walpole,
Massachusettes-based manufacturer Hollingsworth & Vose Co.
writes a "100 percent indemnity agreement" into its contract
with Lorillard. Hollingsworth supplied asbestos-laden material
for filters used in Lorillard's Kent cigarettes. The agreement
required Lorillard to pay all legal costs and damages stemming
from lawsuits over the filter's health effects.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1954-01-04 Tobacco Industry Research
Committee (TIRC) Announced. Tobacco Industry Research
Committee (TIRC) announces in a nationwide 2-page ad, A Frank
Statement to Cigarette Smokers The ads were placed in 448
newspapers across the nation, reaching a circulation of
43,245,000 in 258 cities. TIRC's first scientific director
noted cancer scientist Dr. Clarence Cook Little, former head
of the National Cancer Institute (soon to become the American
Cancer Society). Little's life work lay in the genetic origins
of cancer; he tended to disregard environmental factors. From
the complaint filed by the state of Florida in its 1995
lawsuit against tobacco companies: 59. In response to the
publication of Dr. Wynder's study in 1953, the presidents of
the leading tobacco manufacturers, including American Tobacco
Co., R.J. Reynolds, Philip Morris, U.S. Tobacco Co.,
Lorillard, and Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation-
ration, hired the public relations firm of Hill and Knowlton,
Inc., to deal with the "health scare" presented by smoking.
Acting in concert, at a public relations strategy meeting, the
participants decided to organize a committee to be
specifically charged with the "public relations" function. . .
. As a result of these efforts, the Tobacco Institute Research
Committee ("TIRC"), an entity later known as The Council for
Tobacco Research ("CTR"), was formed. 60. The TIRC immediately
ran a full-page promotion in more than 400 newspapers aimed at
an estimated 43 million Americans. That piece was entitled "A
Frank Statement To Cigarette Smokers" . . . A FRANK STATEMENT
TO CIGARETTE SMOKERS: RECENT REPORTS on experiments with mice
have given wide publicity to a theory that cigarette smoking
is in some way linked with lung cancer in human beings.
Although conducted by doctors of professional standing, these
experiments are not regarded as conclusive in the field of
cancer research. However, we do not believe results are
inconclusive, should be disregarded or lightly dismissed. At
the same time, we feel it is in the public interest to call
attention to the fact that eminent doctors and research
scientists have publicly questioned the claimed significance
of these experiments. Distinguished authorities point out:
That medical research of recent years indicates many possible
causes of lung cancer. That there is no agreement among the
authorities regarding what the cause is. That there is no
proof that cigarette smoking is one of the causes. That
statistics purporting to link cigarette smoking with the
disease could apply with equal force to any one of many other
aspects of modern life. Indeed the validity of the statistics
themselves is questioned by numerous scientists. We accept an
interest in people's health as a basic responsibility,
paramount to every other consideration in our business We
believe the products we make are not injurious to health. We
always have and always will cooperate closely with those whose
task it is to safeguard the public health. For more than 300
years tobacco has given solace, relaxation, and enjoyment to
mankind. At one time or another during those years critics
have held it responsible for practically every disease of the
human body. One by one these charges have been abandoned for
lack of evidence. Regardless of the record of the past, the
fact that cigarette smoking today should even be suspected as
a cause of a serious disease is a matter of deep concern to
us. Many people have asked us what we are doing to meet the
public's concern aroused by the recent reports. Here is the
answer: We are pledging aid and assistance to the research
effort into all phases of tobacco use and health. This joint
financial aid will of course be in addition to what is already
being contributed by individual companies. For this purpose we
are establishing a joint industry group consisting initially
of the undersigned. This group will be known as TOBACCO
INDUSTRY RESEARCH COMMITTEE. In charge of the research
activities of the Committee will be a scientist of
unimpeachable integrity and national repute. In addition there
will be an Advisory Board of scientists disinterested in the
cigarette industry. A group of distinguished men from
medicine, science, and education will be invited to serve on
this Board. These scientists will advise the Committee on its
research activities. This statement is being issued because we
believe the people are entitled to know where we stand on this
matter and what we intend to do about it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*******
From The Facts about Smoking(Consumer
Reports Books
The [tobacco] industry also created
the Tobacco Industry Research Committee (TIRC). Although the
stated purpose of the TIRC was to encourage research on
smoking, its chief accomplishment was to put forward the idea
that scientists themselves held differing opinions about
whether or not smoking was dangerous. For example, in 1954, a
front-page article in The New York Times reported that a
majority of doctors and scientists attending the American
Cancer Society meeting believed that smoking caused cancer,
but in the third paragraph of the article a representative of
the TIRC is quoted as saying that the poll was "biased,
unscientific and filled with shortcomings." In 1954, when Drs.
Graham and Wynder reported that tobacco tar painted onto the
skin of mice caused cancer, the TIRC countered with: "Doctors
and scientists have often stressed the many pitfalls present
in all attempts to apply flatly to humans any findings
resulting from animal experiments. " Whatever the validity of
the TIRC's criticisms, they served to encourage skepticism in
the public's mind about scientific reports of the dangers of
smoking. The tobacco industry also established the Tobacco
Institute, whose avowed purpose was to promote "public
understanding of the smoking and health controversy and . . .
knowledge of the historic role of tobacco and its place in the
national economy." In the first issue of Tobacco News, the
institute's president said: "The Institute and this
publication believe that the American people want and are
entitled to accurate, factual, interesting information about
this business [tobacco] which is so important in the economic
bloodstream of the nation and such a tranquilizer in our
personal lives."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*******
From PR Watch:
Hill & Knowlton's role is
described as follows in a 1994 lawsuit, State of Mississippi
vs. the Tobacco Cartel: The presidents of the leading tobacco
manufacturers ... hired the public relations firm of Hill
& Knowlton .... As a result of these efforts, the Tobacco
Institute Research Committee (TIRC), an entity later know as
The Council for Tobacco Research (CTR), was formed. The
Tobacco Industry Research Committee immediately ran a
full-page promotion in more than 400 newspapers ... entitled
"A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers."... The participating
tobacco companies recognized their "special responsibility" to
the public, and promised to learn the facts about smoking and
health ... to sponsor independent research on the subject ....
to cooperate closely with public health officials .... After
thus beginning to lull the public into a false sense of
security concerning smoking and health, the Tobacco Industry
Research Committee continued to act as a front for tobacco
industry interests. Despite the initial public statements and
posturing, ... there was a coordinated, industry-wide strategy
designed actively to mislead and confuse the public about the
true dangers associated with smoking cigarettes. Rather than
work for the good of the public health, ... the tobacco trade
association, refuted, undermined, and neutralized information
coming from the scientific and medical community. There is no
question that the tobacco industry knew what scientists were
learning about tobacco. The TIRC maintained a library with
cross-indexed medical and scientific papers from 2,500 medical
journals; as well as press clippings, government reports and
other documents. TIRC employees culled this library for
scientific data with inconclusive or contrary results
regarding tobacco and the harm to human health. These were
compiled into a carefully selected 18-page booklet, titled "A
Scientific Perspective on the Cigarette Controversy," which
was mailed to over 200,000 people, including doctors, members
of Congress and the news media.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*******
From Merchants of Death: by Larry C.
White
The year 1954 marked the beginning of
the cigarette Big Lie. It was in this year that the cigarette
companies got together to plot the strategies that would keep
them viable far into the future, strategies that still guide
their response to the fact that their products kill 10 percent
of their customers. Speaking frankly to investors in June of
1954, O. Parker McComas, then president of Philip Morris, said
that the health problem must be taken seriously--that is,
"carefully evaluated for its effect on industry public
relations, as well as its effect on the consumer market."
Therefore, he said, Philip Morns had joined with "practically
all elements of industry" to form the Tobacco Industry
Research Committee. There were great expectations for the
TIRC: "We hope that the work of TIRC will open new vistas not
only in research, but in liaison between industry and the
scientific world." As for the nature of the TIRC, McComas said
that it was similar to other industries' organizations such as
the American Meat Institute, the American Petroleum Institute,
and so on. This was not for consumption by the general public,
of course. An ad was run in newspapers across the country on
January 4, 1954, that announced the formation of the TIRC and
touted the committee's objectivity. "In charge of the research
activities of the Committee will be a scientist of
unimpeachable integrity and national repute. In addition,
there will be an Advisory Board of scientists disinterestedin
the cigarette industry. A group of distinguished men from
medicine, science, and education will be invited to serve on
this Board. These scientists will advise the Committee on its
research activities."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***
There would be no pro-cigarette
studies funded by the committee--fakes would be too easily
discredited. Instead, research would be done around the
periphery--keeping scientists busy on incidental issues,
diverting attention from the main point: the link between
cigarettes and disease. For example, one of the committee's
first priorities was funding of studies on why people smoke.
Another favored area for research was whether some people have
a genetic predisposition to cancer. This could keep scientists
busy indefinitely. Still, it was obvious that independent
scientists would continue to investigate the health effects of
smoking. . . The basic public relations strategy was to
emphasize the few studies that did not prove that smoking
caused disease. What could never be mentioned was that a study
that does not prove a relationship between smoking and disease
cannot logically prove the opposite--that no relationship
exists. . . With the advent of the TIRC, the cigarette
companies could say that no one spent more on research on
smoking and health than they did. Most important, the TIRC
would serve the function of creating a controversy. The
current name of the committee is the Council for Tobacco
Research and it still serves the function of making it seem
like there is a valid difference of opinion among scientists
about whether smoking is dangerous. The value of the Tobacco
Industry Research Committee to the industry was revealed only
a few months after its creation. At a meeting in Atlantic
City, New Jersey, in early June of 1954, the American Cancer
Society announced that a majority of cancer researchers, chest
surgeons, and pathologists believed that smoking might lead to
lung cancer. This news was carried on the front page of The
New York Times on June 7, 1954. But, unlike pre-1954 articles
that had allowed the news to stand alone, this article
included in its third paragraph a denunciation of the
statement. Timothy V. Hartnett, chairman of the Tobacco
Industry Research Committee, called the poll of doctors
"biased, unscientific and filled with shortcomings."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***
In February of 1956, Dr. Evarts A.
Graham reported on another study in which he had painted mice
with tobacco tars. He had been criticized for his earlier
study of this kind because he had used only one type of mouse.
In this new study he used other strains and also painted
rabbits' ears with the tars. Again, he induced cancer. This
time the industry was ready for him--thanks to the Tobacco
Industry Research Committee. When newspapers reported Dr.
Graham's study they also reported the response of the TIRC:
"Doctors and scientists have often stressed the many pitfalls
present in all attempts to apply flatly to humans any findings
resulting from animal experiments." To a scientist, the
response was worthless, but it was enough to cast doubt in the
public's mind. Most important for the industry, the TIRC
provided smokers with some ammunition, some arguments that
justified their not quitting.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1963-07-17: LITIGATION: B&W's
General Counsel Addison Yeaman writes in a memo, "Moreover,
nicotine is addictive. We are, then, in the business of
selling nicotine, an addictive drug effective in the release
of stress mechanisms." In context, Yeaman was concerned about
the upcoming Surgeon General's report, and was writing of "the
so-called 'beneficial effects of nicotine': 1) enhancing
effect on the pituitary-adrenal response to stress; 2)
regulation of body weight." Moreover, nicotine is addictive.
We are, then, in the business of selling nicotine, an
addictive drug effective in the release of stress mechanisms.
But cigarettes -- we will assume the Surgeon General's
Committee to say -- despite the beneficent effect of nicotine,
have certain unattractive side effects: 1) They cause, or
predispose to, lung cancer. 2) They contribute to certain
cardiovascular disorders. 3) They may well be truly causative
in emphysema, etc., etc. We challenge those charges and we
have assumed our obligation to determine their truth or
falsity by creating the new Tobacco Research Foundation. In
the meantime (we say) here is our triple, or quadruple or
quintuple filter, capable of removing whatever constituent of
smoke is currently suspect while delivering full flavor -- and
incidentally -- a nice jolt of nicotine. And if we are the
first to be able to make and sustain that claim, what price
Kent?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1964-01-11: First Surgeon General's
Report released.
From Smoking and Health:
Cigarette smoking is causally related
to lung cancer in men; the magnitude of the effect of
cigarette smoking far outweighs all other factors... Cigarette
smoking is much more important than occupational exposures in
the causation of lung cancer in the general population ...
Cigarette smoking is the most important of the causes of
chronic bronchitis in the United States, and increases the
risk of dying from chronic bronchitis and emphysema ...
Although the causative role of cigarette smoking in deaths
from coronary disease is not proven the Committee considers it
more prudent from the public health viewpoint to assume that
the established association has causative meaning than to
suspend judgment until no uncertainty remains. President John
F. Kennedy had won the 1960 Presidential election by only 0.1
percent of the vote. His vice-president, Lyndon Johnson had
successfully delivered the crucial Southern vote. Kennedy had
an ambitious program to implement, and was fully aware many
congressional committees were dominated by tobacco state
legislators. Yet the 1962 Royal College of Physicians' Report
increased public pressure on Kennedy to take a public stand.
At a press conference on May 23, 1962, Kennedy said in reply
to a question on the subject, "That matter is sensitive enough
and the stock market is in sufficient difficulaty without my
giving you an answer which is not based on complete
information, which I don't have, and, therefore, perhaps I
will be glad to respond to that question in more detail next
week." Kennedy soon acceded to American health groups'
long-standing request to create a Presidential Commission to
study the matter. Surgeon General Luther Terry worked closely
with the tobacco industry on the commission. The industry was
presented with a list of 150 "outstanding medical scientists"
and were allowed to cross out any names they wished. Terry
remembers only 3 or 4 were so eliminated. Industry views were
made known to the committee members. The scientists worked for
a year in a sub-basement of the Nataional Library of Medicine
in Bethesday, MD., and when their report was to be printed, it
received the same clasification as a state secret. On a
carefully-chosen Saturday morning (to prevent a disastrous
slide on Wall St.), January 11, 1964, at 9 AM, 200 reporters
were physically locked into the State Department's auditorium
to hear a two hour briefing by surgeon general Dr. Luther L.
Terry and a panel of experts. The top-secret measures were
felt necessary because of the bold and closely-guarded
conclusion reached in a 357-page brown paperback book the
reporters received titled Smoking and Health. When the press
conference was over, the reporters ran madly to the
telephones. In 1964, in a country where over 50% of adult
males smoked, a multi-billion dollar industry seemed to hang
by the book's astounding verdict: smoking causes cancer.
Cigarette smoking is a health hazard of sufficient importance
in the United States to warrant appropriate remedial action.
At the time, 46% of all Americans smoked; smoking was accepted
in offices, airplanes and elevators, and TV programs were
sponsored by cigarette brands. Within 3 months of Terry's
report, cigarette consumption had dropped 20%, but, as was the
pattern in England following the Royal Physicians' Report, was
soon to climb back with a vengeance. "It was a very dramatic
and courageous thing to do," said Joseph Califano, the top
domestic policy aide to then-President Johnson. But the
Johnson Administration had enough wars--domestic and
foreign--to fight. The Administration didn't want to pull its
resources from poverty and civil rights to undertake action
which would undoubtedly entail severe social, economic and
regional disruptions. "We wanted to get schools integrated,
the voters' rights act passed, fair housing passed. And all of
those things required us to take on the whole phalanx of
Southern states," Califano said. Smoking rates since 1965,
from National Health Interview Surveys compiled by the U.S.
Office on Smoking and Health.
% US Adult
Smokers in: % ALL % Men % Women
1965 42.4 51.9 33.9
1966 42.6 52.5 33.9
1970 37.4 44.1 31.5
1974 37.1 43.1 32.1
1976 36.4 41.9 32.0
1977 36.0 40.9 32.1
1978 34.1 38.1 30.7
1979 33.5 37.5 29.9
1980 33.2 37.6 29.3
1983 32.1 35.1 29.5
1985 30.1 32.6 27.9
1987 28.8 31.2 26.5
1988 28.1 30.8 25.7
1990 25.5 28.4 22.8
1991 25.7 28.1 23.5
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Surgeon General's Advisory
Committee:
Dr. Terry acted as chairman
Dr. James M. Hundley, assistant
surgeon general, acted as vice chairman.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The members, announced on October 27,
1962, were:
Dr. Stanhope Bayne-Jones, former dean,
Yale School of Medicine
Dr. Walter J. Burdette, head of the
Department of Surgery, University of Utah School of Medicine
William G. Cochran, professor of
Statistics, Harvard University
Dr. Emmanuel Farber, chairman,
Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh
Louis F. Fieser, professor of Organic
Chemistry, Harvard University
Dr. Jacob Furth, professor of
Pathology, Columbia University
Dr. John B. Hickam, chairman,
Department of Internal Medicine, Indiana University
Dr. Charles LeMaistre, professor of
Internal Medicine, the University of Texas Southwestern
Medical School
Dr. Leonard M. Schuman, professor of
Epidemiology, University of Minnesota School of Public Health
Dr. Maurice H. Seevers, chairman,
Department of Pharmacology, University of Michigan.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1964: Industry writer suggests tobacco
control advocates have psychiatric certification that they are
not suffering from pyrophobia and suppressed fear of the 'big
fire' or atom bomb
1964: USA: In response to the release
of the Report to the Surgeon General in Jan. 1964, "World
Tobacco" magazine published a two page article (pp. 19-20)
titled "International perspective on smoking and health" in
the March 1964 issue. It ended with a review of the 25 years
of research conducted by Dr. H. Aschenbenner of W. Germany,
the Secretary General of the International Association of
Scientific Tobacco Research whose work suggests that "before
reports on smoking and health are taken seriously, those
making the reports should have psychiatric certification that
they are not suffering from pyrophobia (fear of fire)". His
works "have proven that tobacco antagonism often springs from
a morbid (and often unconscious) pyrophobia -- a phenomena
whose many manifestations include suppressed fear of the 'big
fire' or atom bomb." -- contributed by Larry Breed
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1966-01-01: Health warnings on
Cigarette Packs begin
In order to adhere to the recently
passed Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act, cigarette
packages begin to carry labels which read: "Caution--cigarette
smoking may be hazardous to your health."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1967: John Banzhaf convinces FCC to
apply TV Fairness Doctrine to cigarette ads, and to allow
anti-smoking grups to respond to cigarette advertisements on
TV. Noted commercials include one in which a young boy is seen
smoking his dad's discarded cigarette, a light-hearted Gene
Kelly spot, and a heartfelt plea by William Talman, who played
the prosecuting attorney in the Perry Mason TV series: I have
lung cancer. Take some advice about smoking and losing from
someone who's been doing both for years. If you haven't
smoked, don't start. If you do smoke--quit. Don't be a loser.
Talman died before the commercial aired. Cigarette consumption
declines each year for the next 4 years, for the first time in
a century when cigarette consumption rose almost yearly. Some
credit these commercials with helping as many as 10,000,000
Americans quit smoking between 1967 and 1970. When the federal
government moved to ban TV cigarette advertising, the industry
did not fight it. Many credit their acquiescence to these
commercials
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1970s: Cigarettes are the most heavily
advertised product in America; magazines and newspapers stop
covering tobacco issues in depth. In a survey of leading
national magazines, the Columbia Jounalism Revue in 1978 is
unable to find a single article in 7 years of publication that
would have given readers an clear notion of the nature and
extent of the medical and social havoc being wreaked by the
cigarette-smoking habit . . . one must conclude that
advertising revenue can indeed silence the editors of American
magazines.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1971-01-02: TV Cigarette Ads Banned
January 2, 1971. Delayed for one day
to allow a final glut of College Bowl ads, the Public Health
Cigarette Smoking Act of 1969, which included a nationwide ban
on tobacco advertising on television and radio, went into
effect at midnight. Fairness Doctrine anti-smoking ads also
disappear. "It was going to be a whole new world now,"
recalled the company's acknowledged ad wizard, Jack Landry. As
his farewell gesture to the medium he had used so effectively,
Landry scheduled a ninetysecond Marlboro commercial, to begin
at 11:58.30 and end precisely at the stroke of midnight. He
sat home alone by his television set, watched four of his
beloved cowboys gallop off into the sunset for the last time,
and wept. "A lot of the excitement went out of the business
then," George Weissman recalled. (RK) Cigarette sales begin
rebounding from their four year decline. The bill also
required an updated warning on cigarette packages: "Warning:
The Surgeon General Has Determined That Cigarette Smoking is
Dangerous to Your Health." The tobacco industry is reputed to
have been hard-hit by the counter-ads required by 1967's
Fairness Doctrine, which undoubtedly influenced their
acceptance of this legislation. Feeling betrayed, advertising,
broadcasting and publishing interests fought a losing battle.
The industry's advertising expenditures decreased over the
next two years, but the industry soon found other venues in
which to market: sports promotion, point-of-sales promotions,
and increased use of the print medium. RJ Reynolds'
top-selling Winston brand, which had been eclipsed in the 60s
by Philip Morris' Marlboro, was particularly hard-hit. While
the sales impact of the Marlboro cowboy translated into print
beautifully, Winston's identifier was a catchy if notedly
ungrammatical jingle, "Winston tastes good, like a cigarette
should." Reynolds never found an effective visual substitute
for their jingle. Throughout the 70s Reynolds became
distracted with myriad diversification missteps, and developed
business practices which led to shelves full of stale
Winstons. Philip Morris quickly became the number one tobacco
company in the US, and its Marlboro brand became the number
one best-selling cigarette..
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1971: UK: Second British Royal College
of Physicians of London Report, Smoking and Health Now From
Smoking and Health Now: The suffering and shortening of life
resulting from smoking cigarettes have become increasingly
clear as the evidence accumulates. Cigarette smoking is now as
important a cause of death as were the great epidemic diseases
such as typhoid, cholera, and tuberculosis that affected
previous generations in this country. Once the causes had been
established they were gradually brought under control ... But
despite all the publicity of the dangers of cigarette smoking
people seem unwilling to accept the facts and many of those
who do are unwilling or unable to act upon them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1977: 1st Great American Smokeout
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1976: TV: Death in the West--The
Marlboro Story made by Peter Taylor and Director Martin Smith
for Thames TelevisionThe film, contrasting Marlboro promotions
with interviews with cowboy smokers dying of lung ailments,
was shown in Britain, but legal problems erupted with Philip
Morris. In an out-of-court settlement, Thames turned over all
copies save one to PM. The sole remaining copy was to stay
sealed in Thames' vault, and terms of the settlement were to
remain secret. The film was sent to Stanton Glantz in 1982,
and soon after was shown all over the USA.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1977: UK: Royal College of Physicians
of London third report, Smoking or Health From Smoking or
Health: Deaths from coronary heart disease are responsible for
about half of the total excess deaths among cigarette smokers
and are numerically greater than the excess deaths from either
lung cancer or chronic bronchitis... That the association
between smoking and heart disease is largely one of cause and
effect is supported by its strength and consistency, its
independence of the other risk factors, its enhancement in
those smokers who inhale, and by the progressive lessening of
the risk in those who give up.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1979-01: Report of the US
Surgeon-General, Dr Julius B. Richmond. Cigarette smoking is
causally related to lung cancer in both men and women... is a
significant causative factor in cancer of the larynx... is a
significant causal factor in the development of oral cancer...
is a causal factor in the development of cancer of the
esophagus... is related to cancer of the pancreas... is one of
the three major independent risk factors for heart attack...
and sudden cardiac death in adult men and women... a major
risk factor in arteriosclerotic peripheral vascular disease...
a cause of chronic obstructive lung disease... increases the
risk of fetal death through maternal complications...
contributes to the risk of their infants being victims of the
'sudden infant death syndrome' [cot death].6
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1980: US Surgeon General special
report: The Health Consequences of Smoking for Women The rise
in lung cancer death rates is currently much steeper in women
than in men. It is projected that ... the lung cancer death
rate will surpass that of breast cancer in the early 1980s...
The risk of spontaneous abortion, fetal death, and neonatal
death increases directly with increasing levels of maternal
smoking during pregnancy.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1984: Louganis, Olympics, Tobacco From
"Merchants of Death" by Larry C. White: Take the case of
Olympic diver Greg Louganis. He trained for the 1984 Olympics
(where he was to win two gold medals) at the Mission Viejo
training center in southern California. Mission Viejo had been
the home of the top American swimmers and divers, including
Mark Spitz, who won seven gold medals at the 1972 Olympics.
The swimming club, and the town in which it is located, is
owned by a subsidiary of Philip Morris called the Mission
Viejo Realty Group. Greg Louganis was born in 1960. By the
time he was eight years old he had started to smoke. He said
to a congressional committee studying cigarette advertising,
"Smoking was more of a way of rebelling than something I
enjoyed. I thought I was cool and that it would make me more
grown up--like my parents who both smoked. I thought that my
neighborhood pals would accept me if I joined the guys every
day outside school to sneak a smoke. By the time I was in
junior high, I was hooked on these deadly products, and I was
willing to risk whatever future I might have had as a diver
and an athlete, all to get my daily fix of those little
tobacco sticks. I know now from reading the statistics on
nicotine addiction and smoking habits that 85 to 90 percent of
smokers start before or during their teenage years. As a diver
I kept rationalizing that I didn't need a great amount of wind
to succeed, just power and strength." Louganis continued to
smoke until he was twenty-three, even though he had to do it
surreptitiously: "My diving coach at the time, Dr. Sammy Lee,
would never coach me again if he ever found out that I had
even contemplated the idea of smoking cigarettes." But then
one day he had a personal epiphany that enabled him to quit
smoking: "I had been practicing at the Mission Viejo facility
one day and on the way out I noticed this twelve-year-old kid
smoking. When I asked him why, he said that he wanted to be
just like me! He knew I smoked and he figured that it did not
seem to affect my diving performance, so he thought it must be
all fight to smoke. At that point I began to question what I
was doing, and I quit smoking. I realized that in a way I was
a 'Marlboro Man' of sons .... " Louganis later told me, "After
I quit I wanted to tell every twelveyear-old that I had quit."
So he started doing volunteer work for the American Cancer
Society. According to his manager, Jim Babbitt, the Mission
Viejo executives were not very happy about this: "They
grimaced when the ACS was mentioned." And they warned Louganis
to "keep a low profile." "1 was very disappointed," he says.
"Number one, I was acting as an individual and I don't feel
that it was right for the company to have the power to say,
'Don't say this, it's against what our company is selling.'
Maybe they could say that I was biting the hand that fed me,
but I believe that there is a higher value." Louganis's
activities that the Mission Viejo executives and their masters
at Philip Morris on Park Avenue found so displeasing reached a
crescendo in January of 1984. In that Olympic year, Louganis
was asked by the American Cancer Society to be national
chairman of its annual Great American Smokeout. Babbitt was
very enthusiastic. He told me, "I was pushing for it heavily.
I thought this would have made Greg a hero in other areas than
diving. It would have been a real coup for him, a great move
for Greg and his career. And, after all, he's told me that he
considers quitting smoking the greatest accomplishment of his
life." An athlete of his stature in that position would have a
major effect on the image of smoking among young people. But
it was not to be. Babbitt got the message from the public
relations department of Mission Viejo. If Greg were to accept
the honorary position from the American Cancer Society, he
would be barred from training at Mission Viejo. "It was done
very subtly, very polished. But also very definite."
Louganis's coach, Ron O'Brien, was the best in the world. The
diver could not contemplate competing in the Olympics without
his guidance. But O'Brien worked for Mission Viejo. Babbitt
says the threat of Louganis's being sent away from Mission
Viejo, away from his coach, was the sports world's equivalent
of saying, "I'll kill your mother." And it didn't stop there.
Two of the public relations people told Babbitt that if
Louganis accepted the Cancer Society invitation, they too
would be fired. "Heads would roll," Babbitt says. Both
Louganis and Babbitt agreed that there was really no choice.
The diver declined the honorary position so that he could go
to the Olympics. Of course, he could not explain why, at the
time, since even this would have been considered a hostile
act. The most ironic footnote to this story is that after his
great success in Los Angeles in the 1984 Olympics, his first
offers for endorsement contracts came from tobacco companies,
and a PM subsidiary. Louganis rejected them without
discussion. [Note: the only major endorsement Louganis landed
was from swimwear manufacturer Speedo. Their association
continues today. Speedo appears to be aware that Louganis has
AIDS.]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1991-02-07: AUSTRALIA: The AFCO Case:
Federal Court examines 1986 ETS studies, finds data valid
Transcripts: THE 1991 AFCO Decision ...there is a strong
public interest in the respondent being prevented from making
the statement that there is little evidence and nothing which
proves that cigarette smoke causes disease in non-smokers.
Active smokers are likely to be misled or deceived by the
statement into believing that theirsmoking does not prejudice
the health of non-smokers, particularly small children.
Non-smokers are likely to be deceived or misled by the
statement into believing that cigarette smoke does not affect
their own health or the health of their children. These are
serious matters. -- Justice Trevor Morling, Australian Federal
Court, February 7, 1991 In 1986, the Tobacco Institute of
Australia ran newspaper ads that claimed there was "little
evidence and nothing which proves scientifically that
cigarette smoke causes disease in nonsmokers." The Australian
Federation of Consumer Organizations (AFCO) brought suit in
Australian Federal Court under the Trade Practices Act. Heavy
guns and major resources of both sides were thrown into the
case, which lasted 30 months. 320 reports were presented,
including evidence from noted ETS-critic and Cato Institute
lecturer Gary Huber (The financial connection between Huber's
work and the tobacco industry was not revealed until Business
Week broke the story in 1994). The main evidence for the
plaintiffs were reports from 1986 by the US Surgeon General,
the National Research Council (US), the National Health and
Medical Research Council (Australia) and the Froggatt inquiry
into health and smoking (Britain). The court found that even
in 1986 there was "overwhelming evidence" that ETS triggers
respiratory attacks in children, and "compelling scientific
evidence that cigarette smoke causes lung cancer in
non-smokers." In a 211-page judgement, the court found that
the TIA's advertised statement breached the Trade Practices
Act and was likely to mislead people on the effects of ETS.
Justice Trevor Morling granted an injunction which prevented
the Tobacco Institute from running similar ads. The Journal of
the American Medical Association said in reference to the
case, "It is not surprising that the tobacco industry, which
for decades has continued to obfuscate the causal link between
smoking and disease despite massive evidence, should feel
threatened by studies that show that nonsmokers may be harmed
and killed by their products. After all, in 1991, the evidence
that ETS causes lung cancer was reviewed and found, by a
federal court in Australia, to be 'compelling.' And it's not
surprising that scientist-editors at JAMA, who have read the
evidence on both sides, believe that ETS is a great danger to
nonsmokers and are depressed by industry tactics. . . "It is
interesting that the judge in the Australian case was
generally critical of the narrow approach of the statistical
experts called by the Tobacco Institute of Australia, and
their tendency to be 'overcritical' of parts of every study
while sometimes demanding "unattainable standards" of proof of
causation. He was more favorably impressed by the broader
approach of the epidemiologists, who stressed the importance
of the pattern that emerged from all these studies -- studies
'supported by strong biological plausibility.'"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1994-04-14: Seven Tobacco Company
executives begin testimony in Congressional hearings
The officers who appeared before Henry
Waxman's (D-CA) Committee beginning April 14, 1994, were:
William Campbell, CEO, Philip Morris
James Johnston, CEO, RJR Tobacco Co
Joseph Taddeo, President, U.S. Tobacco
Co
Andrew Tisch, CEO, Lorillard Tobacc
Thomas Sandefur, CEO, Brown &
Williamson Tobacco Co
Ed Horrigan, CEO, Liggett Group
Donald Johnston, CEO, American Tobacco
Co.
The following was the most famous
exchange (April 15, 1994):
REP. WYDEN: Let me ask you first, and
I'd like to just go down the row, whether each of you believes
that nicotine is not addictive. I've heard virtually all of
you touch on it--yes or no, do you believe nicotine is not
addictive?
WILLIAM I. CAMPBELL (Philip Morris): I
believe that nicotine is not addictive, yes.
REP. WYDEN: Mr. Johnston...
JAMES JOHNSTON (RJReynolds): Uh,
Congressman, cigarettes and nicotine clearly do not meet the
classic definition of addiction. There is no intoxication--
REP. WYDEN: We'll take that as a no.
And again, time is short, if you can just, I think each of you
believe nicotine is not addictive, I'd just like to have this
for the record.
JOSEPH TADDEO (US Tobacco): "I don't
believe that nicotine or our products are addictive."
ANDREW TISCH (P Lorillard): I believe
that nicotine is not addictive.
EDWARD HORRIGAN (Ligget Group): I
believe that nicotine is not addictive.
THOMAS SANDEFUR (Brown &
Williamson): I believe that nicotine is not addictive.
DONALD JOHNSTON (American Tobacco
Co.): And I too believe that nicotine is not addictive.
1994-05-31: FTC Clears Joe Camel
1994-05-31: the FTC votes 3-2 not to
file a complaint that the R.J. Reynolds "Joe Camel"
advertising campaign encourages children to buy cigarettes.
Two commissioners issued strongly dissenting opinions.
"Although it may seem intuitive to some that the Joe Camel
advertising campaign would lead more children to smoke or lead
children to smoke more, the evidence to support that intuition
is not there," a commission statement said. Commissioners Mary
L. Azcuenaga, Deborah Owen and Roscoe Starek III voted against
taking any further action. Dennis Yao and Chairwoman Janet
Steiger issued strongly dissenting statemtents: "I have reason
to believe that the Camel campaign induced underage people to
start smoking and that proceedings against such ads would be
in the interest of the public," Steiger said. Yao said, "There
is evidence that the carton character has appeal to minors and
that Camel has increased its market share among minors. There
is also evidence that the decade-and-a-half decrease in
smoking among minors has slowed down in the time since the Joe
Camel campaign began." The FTC's province was to determine not
if the ads encouraged kids to smoke, but whether the ads
encouraged kids to do something illegal--_buy_ cigarettes. The
Commissioners were forced to act under pressure from attorneys
general of 27 states (who urged a ban in Sept. of 1993), the
Surgeon General Antonia Novello, and the entire FTC staff (in
August of 1993) urging them to ban Joe Camel. The FTC seemed
unwilling to address First Amendment legal issues that are, in
the words of one observer, "on the periphery of settled law .
. . I think it's an ugly baby that showed up on their
doorstep. They don't know what to do with it." While the
decision was pending--with 2 Commissioners having already
voted to ban, and the others hanging fire--another observer,
Art Amolsch, publisher of the newsletter FTC:Watch, said, "It
is a volatile issue, and I have a feeling there are some
commissioners who would prefer not to vote, not to go on the
record on this." Had the FTC voted against the campaign, the
matter would then have been turned over to an Administrative
law judge, leading to a case that probably would have dragged
on for years. Fred Danzig, editor of the trade weekly
Advertising Age, said, "We long ago called for RJR to kill the
campaign on their own . . . Whether they're right or wrong is
hardly the issue anymore because the public perception is that
RJR is trying to lure kids to cigarette smoking simply by
using a cartoon character." Some issues that keep the pot
stirring: In 1991, 3 years into the campaign, over half of 3-6
year olds recognized Joe Camel, more than recognized Mickey
Mouse or Ronald McDonald. 91% of six-year-olds match Joe Camel
with his product, and Camel's share of the kid market had
jumped by a factor of 50. Nicholas Price, the British creator
of the image (for an adult magazine in France in 1974), has
said he is "mortified" that the character is being used to
target kids. After a 15 year decline, youth smoking rose in
1988--the first full year of the Joe Camel campaign.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1995-07-21 Two reports find alarming
increases in cigarette smoking among minors in the US: Trends
in Smoking Initiation Among Adolescents and Young Adults --
United States, 1980-1989 (CDC) The Monitoring the Future Study
(Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan. This
study covers the years 1991-1994)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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