REGULATION OF TOBACCO PRODUCTS 



TUESDAY, MAY 17, 1994 



House of Representatives, 

 Committee on Energy and Commerce, 

 Subcommittee on Health and the Environment, 



Washington, DC. 



The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:58 a.m., in room 

 2123, Raybum House Office Building, Hon. Henry A. Waxman 

 (chairman) presiding. 



Mr. Waxman. The meeting of the subcommittee will come to 

 order. 



Just over 1 month ago, this subcommittee heard remarkable tes- 

 timony from the leaders of our Nation's largest tobacco companies. 

 Testifying under oath, they told us they believe that nicotine in to- 

 bacco is not addictive, that tobacco doesn't cause disease, and ad- 

 vertising doesn't encourage children to smoke. In stark contrast to 

 the findings of the Surgeon General, tobacco company executives 

 argued that tobacco is simply one of many health risks encountered 

 in everyday life. 



Two weeks ago, we heard testimony from two Philip Morris re- 

 searchers whose innovative but secret work could have alerted pub- 

 lic health officials in 1982 to the addictive nature of nicotine. More 

 recently, news reports have revealed evidence that knowledge of 

 the addictive nature of nicotine was well known within the tobacco 

 industry 20 years before Drs. DeNoble and Mele began their work 

 for Philip Morris. 



This morning's hearing is a continuation of the subcommittee's 

 investigation of the tobacco industry. We are trying to answer a dif- 

 ficult question: Did the tobacco companies implement one of the 

 most concerted and well organized conspiracies of silence in cor- 

 porate America? 



In a 1992 opinion involving the Liggett Tobacco Group, Federal 

 Judge H. Lee Sarokin testified that the tobacco industry may be 

 the "king of concealment and disinformation". 



Recent reports in the media suggest that Judge Sarokin was cor- 

 rect. Despite industry assurances to the contrary, it now appears 

 that a voluminous body of nicotine research was conducted over 30 

 years ago by the British-American Tobacco Company in England 

 and shared with the U.S. tobacco industry through BAT's subsidi- 

 ary, the Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company of Louisville, Ky. 



Reports in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washing- 

 ton Post, and other news outlets suggest that the adverse health 

 effects of tobacco, including the addictive nature of nicotine, were 

 by the early 1960's known and accepted by senior company officials 



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