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 Tobacco Companies - what did they know and when?		  New Topic  Topic Locked
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts
Posted - 09/06/2004 :  11:32:10  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message
During a discussion of science in one of my classes, the topic of hiding results or research came up. My professor made the claim that tobacco companies had done their own tests and found that cigarettes were dangerous long before any public studies were done, and that they hid the result. When I questioned the year that these tests were supposed done, he said he wasn't sure, just long ago. So the source of this is questionable at best.

I went to do my own research, and found this site:

http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/reg20n3d.html

Which is pretty interesting, it goes into the history of Cigarette advertising and some of the studies done on it. Basically a history cigarettes from 1920 to now. However, it doesn't mention the tobacco companies performing any of their own tests.

I have not had much time on my hand (I actually just pulled an all nighter to get my homework done..) and was wondering if anyone knew anything else about this.
Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov

Randy
SFN Regular

USA
1990 Posts
Posted - 09/06/2004 :  13:43:18   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Randy a Private Message
I used to have some sites/info on what you're looking for Ricky. What I recall is the tobacco industry had proof from their own tests as far back as the 1950s that their product causes cancer, promotes heart attacks.
It's out there somewhere, it's a matter of public record. Old news; the industry hopes we all will forget/die off.
The previous Mississippi Attorney General, Michael Moore, successfully sued the tobacco industry back in the mid 90's. His lawsuit lead to the class-action that brought the industry down to their knees. The judgement was somewhere around a third of a trillion dollars.
Notice the bastards are still in business?
"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."

"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts
Posted - 09/06/2004 :  14:45:08   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message
quote:
What I recall is the tobacco industry had proof from their own tests as far back as the 1950s that their product causes cancer, promotes heart attacks.


While the source in my first post said:

"The cigarette market entered a new era in 1950 with the publication of two well-constructed epidemiological studies on smoking. The studies—published almost simultaneously with the FTC's R. J. Reynolds decision finding cigarettes "not appreciably harmful" to healthy smokers—revealed with unprecedented clarity a strong correlation between cigarette smoking and lung cancer"

So it would appear that if 1950's was the first time this was known, they were not hiding it, as it is the same time the public reports came out.
Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard

USA
3834 Posts
Posted - 09/10/2004 :  12:59:40   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send beskeptigal a Private Message
Don't have time to look for the details but there was a whistle blower involved in disclosing the direct culpability of the upper management in squashing research they paid for but that showed cigarettes to be deadly. I have seen him interviewed. The companies trashed his career as well as firing him to try to discredit him. I'm sure you could find the name.
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Randy
SFN Regular

USA
1990 Posts
Posted - 09/10/2004 :  14:17:04   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Randy a Private Message
One of the whistle blowers was Jeffery Wigand. Certainly a true hero.
http://www.jeffreywigand.com/
There's a movie out about it called "The Insider".
http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:181097

It deals a fair amount with CBS 60 Minutes end of it. Big Tobacco threated them with a multi billion dollar libel suit if they aired his interview. The then Mississippi Attorney General Michael Moore, who successfully sued the shit out of the tobacco industry is in the movie a couple of times.
Check it out.
"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."

"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson
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Randy
SFN Regular

USA
1990 Posts
Posted - 09/21/2004 :  13:21:21   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Randy a Private Message
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3674868.stm

Looks like the govt. case against the chicken-fucker tobacco industry is underway.
"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."

"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson
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