Chapter 32 Political issues

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Political issues: General

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"Big Tobacco Pressured Drug Companies To Soften Quit-Smoking Message"

According to tobacco industry documents, from 1982 through 1992, tobacco

companies used coercion and economic intimidation to muffle aggressive

anti-smoking messages by the makers of cessation products, such as the nicotine

patch or gum. In 1984, Philip Morris canceled chemical purchases from Dow

Chemical after one of Dow's subsidiaries, Merrell Dow, introduced Nicorette and

prepared literature for doctors' offices urging smokers to quit. Dow Chemical

eventually got the Philip Morris account back, but only after Dow assured Philip Morris

it was "committed to avoiding contribution to the anti-cigarette effort," and Merrell

Dow president David Sharrock informed tobacco executives that he would personally

begin to "screen advertising and promotional materials to eliminate any inflammatory

anti-industry statements."

Quote from news summary regarding article "Big Tobacco Threatened Drug

Manufacturers With Reprisal" by Myron Levin in Los Angeles Times, February 14,

1999

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Nicotine replacement products "are promoted in a manner certain to minimize conflict

with cigarette manufacturers... For at least a decade (from 1982 to 1992), Philip

Morris sought to intimidate drug firms marketing the stop-smoking products, using the

threat of economic reprisals to make them tone down their ads and refrain from

supporting the anti-smoking cause, according to once-secret documents..." Internal

memos showed that the cigarette industry threatened to cancel supply contracts with

the corporate parents of the drug firms. The February 14, 1999 article by Myron Levin

in the Los Angeles Times gives details of the tobacco industry's successful efforts to

water down the anti-smoking message by Merrell Dow and Ciba-Geigy in their

marketing campaigns for nicotine replacement products. The National Association of

State Fire Marshals receives $50,000 a year from Philip Morris for "administrative

expenses." The tobacco industry for decades has courted firefighters to weaken their

support for the manufacture and regulation of fire-safe cigarettes.

Baltimore Sun, February 16, 1999

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Monday, July 24, 2000

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