Quotes from the Tobacco Industry
The following quotes were taken from internal documents of the tobacco industry. These documents were released to the public as part of settlement agreements in the
These statements reflect the tobacco industry's greed and blatant disregard for human welfare. Moreover, they reveal that the tobacco industry actively lied to the public.
Public Statement: 
"We have not concealed, we do not conceal, and we will never conceal...[W]e have no internal research which proves that smoking...is addictive."1
(British American Tobacco, 1996)
Internal Document Statements:
"Nicotine is addictive. We are, then, in the business of selling nicotine-an addictive drug effective in the release of stress mechanisms."2
(Brown & Williamson, 1963)
"It may be useful, therefore, to look at the tobacco industry as if for a large part its business is the administration of nicotine (in the clinical sense)."3
(British American Tobacco, 1967)
"...[M]onkeys can be trained to inject themselves with nicotine for its own sake, just as they will inject other dependence-producing drugs, e.g., opiates, caffeine, amphetamine, cocaine... The absorption of nicotine through the lungs is as quick as the junkie's 'fix'."4
(Brown & Williamson, 1973)
Public Statement:
"I do not think we can say that it [smoking] is safe or unsafe... [W]e do not know whether it is safe or unsafe."5
(Gareth Davis, CEO of Imperial, undated)
Internal Document Statement:
"Because known carcinogens are produced from such a wide variety of organic materials during the process of pyrolysis [chemical reaction brought about by the action of heat], it is most unlikely that a completely safe form of tobacco smoking can be evolved."6
(British American Tobacco, undated)
The tobacco industry publicly maintains that advertising does not affect overall cigarette consumption, and that it is only intended to persuade smokers to switch brands.
Internal Document Statements:
"We're in the cigarette business. We're not in the sports business. We use sports as an avenue for advertising our products... We can go into an arena where we're marketing an event, measure sales during the event and measure sales after the event, and see an increase in sales."7
(R.J Reynolds, 1989)
"...[We] are naturally more interested to learn how you plan to target the emerging young adult female smokers rather than the older female smokers."8
(Philip Morris, 1989)
"The first cigarette is a noxious experience to the noviate. To account for the fact that the beginner smoker will tolerate the unpleasantness we must invoke a psychological motive. Smoking a cigarette for the beginner is a symbolic act. I am no longer my mother's child, I'm tough, I am an adventurer, I'm not square. Whatever the individual intent, the act of smoking remains a symbolic declaration of personal identity... As the force from the psychological symbolism subsides, the pharmacological effect takes over to sustain the habit."9
(Philip Morris, 1969)
"...the base of our business is the high school student."10
(Lorillard, 1978)
Public Statement:
"The claim that environmental tobacco smoke presents a health hazard is
not supported by science."11
(British American Tobacco, undated)
Internal Document Statements:
"[G]roups of scientists should be able to produce research or stimulate controversy in such a way that public affairs people in relevant countries would be able to make use of, or market, the information."
(Memo from a BAT executive attending a meeting on plans to suppress evidence on second-hand smoke, 1988)
"If children don't like to be in a smoky room, they'll leave. When asked by a shareholder about infants who can't leave a smoky room, Harper stated, "At some point, they begin to crawl."
(Charles Harper, R.J. Reynolds Chairman at stockholders meeting, USA Today, April 18, 1996)
1. T. Stevenson, BAT Denies Smoking Claims, The Independent, 31 October 1996.
2. A. Yeaman, "Implications of Battelle Hippo I & II and the Griffith Filter," 17 July 1963,
Document Number 1802.05, http://www.library.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/html/1802.05/
3. S. Green, Note to D.S.F. Hobson, 2 March 1967,
http://www.library.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/html/1227.06/
4. Brown & Williamson, "Secondary Source Digest," 1973,
http://www.tobacco.neu.edu/mn_trial/Minnesota Trial Exhibit 13809
5.
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm199900/cmselect/cmhealth/27/2702.htm
6. F.J.C. Roe and M.C. Pike, "Smoking and Lung Cancer," undated,
Bates Number 105453524-35
7. J. DeParle, "Warning: Sports Stars May Be Hazardous to Your Health,"
The
8. C. Leiber, Philip Morris Asia, Inter-office Correspondence, 25 October 1989,
http://www.pmdocs.com/getallimg.asp?DOCID=2504034812/4813,
Bates Number 2504034812-13
9. T. Osdene, "Why One Smokes, First Draft, 1969," http://www.tobacco.new.edu/mn_trial/
Trial Exhibit 3681, Bates Number 1003287836-48
10. T. L. Atchley, "Product Information," Memo to C.L. Judge, 30 August 1978,
http://www.lorillarddocs.com/, Bates Number 03537131-32
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm199900/cmselect/cmhealth/27/2702.htm.
"You won't send flowers to my funeral, will you, Philip Morris? I didn't think so" - Mike Royko