Tobacco Documents Online

BAT BRITISH-AMERICA} Dr. L. C. F. Blackmanv TO Mr. H. A. Morini REF RLOE/CLN L I .C.F.B. |, 0CTI981 b~ ,.,....,,,. -°°..oeilll, COFY ........................ *°'°"'° • ',,,t~.°q.B~ ..... F~og.. I). .... O. E I y i . ---:--- • - DATE 21st October l g8l ~PANY LIMITED MEETING WITH WHO I attach the correspondence that we have had with Dr. Lambo and Mme. Daucher, his Personal Assistant. I have not, in fact, advised Philip Morris of their document being sent to us. I have, of course, no knowledge at all of how the WHO got hold of it, but I think it does indicate that their sources of information are as good as any. As I have said in my letter to Dr. Lambo, this is a purely informal and non-public meeting to seek common ground to develop a dialogue. From my previous conversations with him, I think it is possible that one of the suggestions that may come forth is that our Company funds research to be done by the WHO. In this connection, I believe it is very important to note Lambo's own interest in research. He has been in his present position for something like ten years and when he originally took it on the WHO did nearly no research at all. He has very greatly increased the amount of money which is being spent on research. My discussions with him a year ~go also indicated that he and his colleagues were very well aware of the information available worldwide on the topic of Smoking and Health. He also understood our legal position. When [ first spoke to him, I asked how seriously the WHO took the smoking issue compared with malnutrition, infant mortality, water born diseases and other endemic problems. He said that smoking should not be compared with endemic diseases which was one series of problems. It should, however, be compared with drugs and alcohol and the WHO take it extremely seriously. I also asked him what he felt a responsible member of the Industry should do. He said: I. We should not advertise to try to persuade people to smoke in excess. Moderation was definitely the key word. 2. That we should go for the "safer" cigarette. . That we should establish dialogue with the WHO (he felt this last piece of advice proved useful in their dealings with the drugs industry). As you know, the reason that we did not go forward with the meeting earlier was that we could not find anybody to advise us on their experiences with the WHO. As a result there was something like an 18 month delay before I was in a position to get some useful infor- mation about such a deal with Ciba Geigy. 0 C~

-2- I then saw Lambo again in December 1980 and the meeting we are now having has taken nearly a year to set up. When I saw him the second time he was less optimistic about the possible outcome of such a meeting than he had been on a previous occasion. He had previously said to me that people would always smoke and that this had to be accepted. If they do not smoke, they might take up other habits of a more dangerous nature. I reminded him of this statement when I last saw him and of the possible social disruption which could arise from trying to ban a stress relieving activity. He said that the WHO had done some studies on this and while initially social disruption in such circumstances could be fairly severe, the curve in fact evened out fairly soon as people adjusted. I also suggested to him that the Industry saw the WHO as a political entity. He said that this was natural since "health" was a political issue. I mentioned to him that we felt that certain governments were being very heavily pressurised by the WHO to produce anti-smoking campaigns if they wished to have assistance with other health programmes. He in no way tried to deny this. I mention these points because I believe that Lambo has a very realistic appreciation of our vision of what the WHO is doing. He is, of necessity, politically very aware. I think this awareness ~ould, in fact, help us towards a more realistic dialogue. I do not know at all what sort of outcome the meeting may have, but I see one or two areas for possible hope, namely: a. Lower deliveries and our dialogue with the British doctors. b~ The fact that Lambo himself, in fact, is from the Third World and could not, therefore, be in any way described as not having the interest of Developing Countries at heart in this controversy. As against that time, and particularly the 2½ years which have elapsed since I first saw him is not on ourside. Furthermore, he believes that as Godber, from this country, was one of the leading protagonists at WHD of anti-smoking campaigns, it would be difficult for the medical profession here to make too obvious a "U" turn if only for po]itical reasons. I do not think that there is any doubt about Lambo's sincerity or good will towards the Company which he knew very well in Nigeria. I do, however, think that he may be in a very difficult position himself. Furthermore, he will obviously have to delegate to other colleagues any further dialogue which we may have. The attitudes of such colleagues can obviously not be predicted at this stage. I suggest that we find a moment to discuss some of these points together with what material we could usefully take with us before we leave for Geneva~ ENCs. ~R~ • L~J

PE~SO,'CAL RLOE/CLN. 21st October 1981 Or. T. K. L~bo, Deouty Director-General, ~'orld Health Organisation, 1211 -]eneva 27, Switzerland. Deer Tom, '~anv t~anks for your letter of 7th October, As I explained to .'.~. Oaucher ! will be accompanled by Dr. Lionel Blackman who is the Head of Research for our Company and by Mr. Alec ~orini, our sepior lawyer; both are on the Board of Directors. I noc~ that you shall be brin.oing a number of coll~_agues to ~e..,. mee~inc. If you are in a oosition to say, could you oleas~ be kin~ .~,-,~'~c~ tc !o~ ~ kre,., "~ho "h~- ._ • .. . : ..', are likely te ~o ~.-.H-..:ha" their ~csi-.i ons are. I woul~ just like. ~.o reconfirm., a ~int r.ade in the ~rov~e,-s diSCUSSiOnS whi.c~ w~ hP.v,-., ~,-." abo~t such a meetinc ~.hic~, "Ts " ..... it ..i ~ • ~ .... z- .= >'e we~,.. ;,,, purely i,-fo~.l =-~ ~×#loratory A~. this ~ ~ have not trld other ~e.~e-s o.~ *~. '-~ustry atout "~-" ~oZino an:; we certainly would no.-. '-:ish ei~.h~.- the or~_ss o.- ~n~, of t:~c c-?c-r • mdia to be involved. I ~m very grateful to you and your colleagues for givinG us :.~is tlms and T am very pleased that ,~ has been possible to ar-ange~ the meeting at all. I look fo~ard greatly to seeing you on 30th October, With best personal regards. Yours v~ly, R. L. O~y b.c.c. Dr. L. C. F. Blackman Mr. H. A. Morini (zC) L~v c~u

WORLD .=... HEALTH ORGANIZATION Office of the Dilec:or Gener~ T~l~phoneCentmi/Exchaage: 91 21 tl Ref. DDG S14/370/1 ORGANISATION MONDIALE DE LA SANTE 7 October 1981 Burea- du Directeur Mr R.L.~. Ely British-American Tobacco Co. L~d. Westminster[House 7 Millbank London SWIP 3JE ~.LO.~ Augleterre / Dear Bob, ~, ~ C./-- ~'~C~.n~c.,~ I / Simply a shor~ note to confirm our meeting on Friday, 30 October 1981 at 9.00 a.m. I understand that your Company will also be represented by Dr Blackman, Director of Research, and Mr Morinl, Legal Adviser. We have arranged for the meeting to take place in room g.llO of the WHO building and a few members of our technical staff will also be present. Wi~h kindest regards, Yours sincerely, Dr T.A. Lam'Bo Deputy" Direc=or-General ~F J 0 0 0 CO

,./"N.O.O.c.c. P. Sheehy, Esq. ~C~--" C. H. Stewart Lockhart,Esq. Dr. L. C. F. Blackman R. Haddon, Esq. RLOE/~/ Mrs. B, Daucher, Admi nl stratlve Offl cer, Office of the Deputy Director General, World Health Organf sation, 1211 Geneva, 27 Swi tzerl and. 24th Apri 1, 1981 .::-;2:: Dear Mrs. Daucher, Thank you for your letter of IZth March which arrived while I myself was travelling abroad. I believe that the main purpose of any meeting with Dr. Lambo would be to explore common ground that there should be on the smoking and health issue between our two organisations. We are naturally aware of the attitudes and difficulties of the WHO but we also believe that there is evidence of a truly scientific nature that might perhaps be further explored. We ourselves are spending "large sums on research which we have done ever since the controversy started and we are prepared to go on doing so in whatever way seems useful. Our suggestion would be that at the initial ~eeting our company should be represented by Dr. Blackman who is the Director in charge of Research and Development, one of our legal specialists from wlthln the company and nlyself. In this way we believe that we would have a team that could usefully discuss varied aspects of the problems. In conclusion, therefore, as outlined at the beginning of my letter, the object of the meeting would be to explore common ground on the issue of smoking and health and on the science of smoking. We would envisage that in the ltght of the results of the initial meeting it might be in our mutual interests to arrange further meetings subsequently. However, we fee] that this meeting should be entirely informal and private and no doubt you would agree. I very much look forward to receiving the comments of Dr. Lambo and his colleagues. W] th klnd regards. YourS~y~ R. L. O, 0 "-D

P. Sheehy, Esq., C. H. Stewart Lockhart, Esq. ZEF RLOE/JW FRO~I R. L. 0. Ely DATE 26th March, 1981 WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION I attach a copy of a letter that we have had in reply to the one that I sect to Dr. Lambo. i would welcome an opportunity to discuss this with you before I draft a reply but I would surest that the basis of our reply be that: (a) " b) (d) (e) (f) we would like to talk about scientific matters; we would like to talk about policy matters; the initial meeting would be to see how further regular on-Eoing dialo~e could be maintained; while we are aware of their attitude and difficulties, we believe that there is evidence of a truly scientific nature that perhaps has not been sufficiently taken into consideration; we are spending large sums on research; we have been doinE so ever since the controversy started; we are prepared to Eo on doinK so in whatever way seems to be useful; the initial meeting would be with 3 members of this company, namely, Dr. Blackman, a lawyer and myself. Subsequent meetinEs" could include other scientists by mutual agreement. % N <ZD 0

W'ORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION Offi,ro of u~° D~z,.clor ~ncr~ :::~'L~(.-' ~,,++..+I'~.,L +:.~";:j ';- "+ " ORGAN[SAT]ON MONDIALE DE LA SANTE Bureau du Dite¢t~r G~a,~ral c_ ~ • ~k~_,.r T+l,:phone CentmllExchangc: 91 3.1 1 l [ neo, -- \ • g~'. DDG CONFIDENTIAL • Dr R.L.O. Ely British-American Tobacco Comp any Limited P.O. Box .482 Westminster House 7 Millbank London SWIP 3JE AnEleterre 12 March 1981 e Dear Dr Ely, Before leaving on official travel Dr Lamho asked me to write to you on his behalf to thank you for your letter of 23 February and to se~d you, in extenso, the reactions of some of his colleagues in charge of the WHO programme on smoking and health. "The proposal to have a meeting between tobacco industry and WHO representatives, including perhaps yourself, is an important but delicate issue. Possible contacts with the tobacco industry were discussed at the UN Interorganizational Consultation on the WHO Smoking and Realth Programme which was held in ~Q on lO-ll February 1981 under Dr Ch'en's chairmanship. Quoting from.the text of the draft report: ".::,::" "tThe question was raised as to whether it would be useful to try to establish preliminary contacts with the tobacco industry to exchange views on such a controversial topic which opposes WHO and the industry. The participants felt that, although such a possibility should not be ruled out, it should only Be considered if a =lear and specific purpose for such contact coul~ be identified. At the present stage,.such purpose could not ~e identified and there is no justification for establishing contacts,' "Considering the industry"s overwhelming financial and political power which resulted in successful attempts to circumvent smoking control legislation and voluntary agreements in many countries, most WHO Experts on smoking and health are concerned that such contacts could jeopardize WHO's efforts, You may be interested in reading the underl~ned sections in the attached documents from Philip ~rris outlining plans to commit Third World countries to their cause, to influence FAO and UNCTAD policies, and to mitigate ~O's impact. Encls. C G L J-, C

Dr R.L.O. Ely British-American Tobacco Company Limited London Page _2 ............ 12 March 1981 --'22;" "Personally, I do not chink chac BAT's offer co meet need necessarily be turned down a priori. However, before deciding whether to accept thelr offer I would propose that the issue be discussed at a small meeting wlth relevant representatives of the WHO/HQ Advisory Group on Smoking and Health to clarify the following points: I. Should WHO meet with the tobacco industry? 2. If so, at what level. 3. Identification of the specific purposes of the meeting. . Should the meeting deal with policy or with scientific matters, or both? "I am of course at your dis.posal for any action you may think it useful to take." Dr Lambo would be very pleased if he could have your reactions to some ,T " " " of the questions such as zdent~flcation of the specific purposes of the meeting" and "should the meeting deal w~th policy or with scientific matters, or both?", In addition, Dr Lambo would like to know in advance who would accompany you to this meeting and what would be envisage@ or anticipated as a follow-up to the meeting or, in Dr Lambo's words, wha= is the overall objective of such , a meeting? Yours slncerely, B. Daucher (Mrs) Administrative Officer Office of the Deputy Director-Genera" O CD t,4 O

p|'FTTT ~ " - hi! J%:-£.; .w.. K;..o.TCC H v " ... ,,,el. S~: ¢ ~ t i~ ~, Jt .t ~ I a. I' { &~.6.J¢ If, al' P fb~.l, N ,~ O V R ? DCOG, ~a,~ a,"lM£ TC'..I¢I~I! fly tJ,*,~ r¢.~.¢1. IS,¢,fS C.',' $:-:OK!:.G A.';D HEALTH • ;, -a ~'= I!, -- ar Bi P!e.=-sa fi~.; enclosed a -~-; ..... g"'b ~ race!red from . D~ E _-" -_-;~ckner. I .~m in a~reement wit/h most of its contents. However, ~t -~" not in C~a te~.~.~.., of ref'e~=-= of our Task Ferce to advise ~ -xecutlve C~m~_~ttee of iCOSI on r/%ese matters. • have, ~_herefo~-, sen¢ Dr. Br:3ckner's momoranH~n. ~.o Julian Doyle wi~h C~.e recon~-zendat,/on to pass it on to C~e Executive CG-.~_~ttee, i~ he is ;~ agree:-en~ with t_he action suggested. -=e.l~nao_s you w~l .... be ~'-;~,:~ enough to sen~ Julian any additional ' i~eas you .r..a~" ,h=,:e_. e.n d~.,~ .... subject • " • _-: Julian Doyle, Brussels • ,~it,~. kindest regards, " t "- M~urs ve_--.~ sincerely, . I V Ci" ! ~a_ toch c~ ~j4 ~j4 o ~m4

.M E'M O R A N D U .M i Con: :. -'.-T~: WO.=J_: CC::!'EP_~:~CE .i # A'- the 4th World Conference spiritual leaders cf the an~i-s.-..okin.~ front wet~_ s'n~'--inc their v-sion of a smc.k'e =-~-, world ..~ trying • -.__ a-, to demonstrate the road to c~o the-e "arti:u!ar!y, Dr. H. Zah!er, ~'Z-:O, Geneva, '~as'a po'~erfu! .-= .... ----~-, re:ognized as such by friend and foe. HAs aria- • o lysis - as he gave it" in his speech on global efforts for he--er health - the role of smoking =ontro! - gives valuable:~,__,_~~-;~---ions of the .cpics the anti-smo':ing forces wtll con=an:raze on. ,0 I ! ! ,! I He --ct..:ed out the central role of nhe social acce~t=--bi!£ty _.. , ~- %:s. i£:ue. T- this fleid no~hing c~-.T~e up ".'hich "~as n_'" to Z~. ",'as j'-u~t =- confir~...a.'.ion of our own analysiszn~,'.- ".the ..... r~r~,~__ acceD=abil!tv. . issue ____~%~ be the cen~_~a!"b=~-~. .... ....... =.~-..d on ,i I: ,o li • i: ! I i f 1 i • mb : L,4 !cm -m,

• -. [.<. '. : ,." " .:}: I "". .--2 :'"ii'..'i' ";~:"" '-2 3e.r..z!l~ ~s ;'., ....,.. e,.De..se- r--c ' iC: llJ ::~ .T.! Analysis "2 }. =~ - -e ~ invited ~_c... devc!cgiDq coun'_ries "'.r_ by the Swedish international Develop- B'" introducin; the e_notiona! and ",'~ ~cal Dowers of Third World ccunuries, the anti-smoking forces have given ~= f'_'ght about the " "- _._ ~mon.-..~ is~-'-'e a new dLT.ension. !~ the social acceptability "lever" is d esi.cned to work" . it. ~--h~" Scclety of~men, the Third ;¢cr!d z~ree.?.ent a~._~, a~ exactly the S~LT.e effect in the society of stahes. -.-- a state it shall be intern-~-ionally ~; ~1~,~ai~v unacceptable tc further and prcr.cte the growing and selling cf leaf tobacco, t~.e nahufacturing and distributing ef manu- .-_ u__ ~o__c.o. The tools tc achieve that are arg,~mentaticns a!eng the confrontations of black man-wHite man, the first. o, hai.n9 exploited ~n health and wealr/~, bv the second- ,he =arch through the institutions l-as already begun. ,,.~-9 has always _~een on ~.- cuber i-" For" an organisation "-" S ~e. which must lock first for fields of action-,;hich justify its I. I io ! . own existence (and its ~.T~p!e budg~_~-) the smoking issue is an U.nc:a~ has only recently c -- • "~" c:..'.m_~.ed iEself to the other i-= ~rcbahly because they sense the stronger battalions ~h=-r_=. Because'they can have no rational arg'.-~.en~ against ~n economic branch bein~ responsible ~o_ a substantial part of World Trade and one of the most important cash crcTs -of developing countries, FA0 - althc'agh our natural ally - is ~cwin~ signs of s'~itching sides. UN itself has nature!Iv not been invo!ve~ yet. "But if all sub- ED orcanizations agree that they have s~o~.t~-d ma~i<ind's foe CD Nu=bur One, we might by one p~_-oc~ss or the other even become .. t~4 object of U N attention (like druq ~rzffic, slavery etc.). O This even more so because we would be a comfortable zcape- L~ coat cn which e,~_~ody, red and free, black and %'hire, rich and .. ~_ -':_d easily acr=e. .. CL' ,,,.,

.C; • ' • *-*.i ~.: *°- + @ " .~ :.. ~ o° r q.+.;\ :" ::tr" A r,c ..,.-+ i ; :.-: ! ',+,i c- r",+ .... 3 As..-- ceneral, obse=va~-icn, one can state that all ~,,,i.d- World issues cenarallv° _ to an cve~whe.1_+~ing extenP, are decided by. e:cticns r.~ther than =- ~ ..c~s. See inZ the s.T.oking +ssue and t_he black-whlte ccnfronuation, both -are highly e.T.otiona!, it bec:.T.es easy to conceive that they qualify easily as de- t+_-m..--+ng ~-ac~o~+ in +~ha d eci.sion of whether the +~<~+ World .. will stand on t/he side of the anti-tobacco forces or on the side c_= ~hcse who a pzroach +.he prcble.~., objecti%+'ely. C.-.ce '.:'-.~. a S ~ . S' ~- rand has been t~'<en, it "'~Ii become virtuailv . s .... ~o _averse ,_t by rational ar~'--~..ants. the deve!cpr..ent tcwards a Thi-; World-; ~.!i!. Cbj active i~i';e .-..'I---~ try;. to stop_ I • ~ cc..-:n..i~--..ent against tobacco. ;j I "- +! .-_u" try to +.+ .... . +I ~'e , st ~.=~ =I~ or at least a substantial Dart II • • t. ~ t 9-" " ~ Wcrid countries co~:itted to our ~ause. _+-/~-- "7 We mus~. ~z..2 to inf!u~nce official FAO and Unctad policy to-~.-.~'=.~ a pro. tchac=o zt~_nd. .-_+. F;e , 'St try _. r_u _ to mitic='e the Lm:act of :;--'.0b' pushing the.T~ II into = =ore objective and neutral position IV. Action record=sanded [*... It is recc.-.r..end~_d t.hat ICOSI work cut a+n action plan and • a~pcint personnel res~cns++_b!e for its execution. It is zu=ges+--ad that the action plan should include the following cons ideraticns : -+ ~- a fact that tobaczo is a ~; World cash crop which can-. be replaced by any o~her co.T.~.odity. On the contrary, manl~ or+he.~ countries try to replac# their crops by tobacco. Target ccuntri.[ ~.':cu!d he made a'+,are of this.=a~~-. and of the long te~+m threah • "nti-tcbacco r...easur~s pose fcr £heir economy. we~..~.__~,,~ approach the Grc~:ar C~u- ,-~s thrcuch, our tobacco :-" : buying connections and not ~hrouch our cigarette manufacturi:.-: interests in the~,-_'±-_'=~._e~.t.. " +" court:ties. This ..-"_.'---+- the advantace ".- ~'~'~.._ azDr~ach__ ~s"- mac~" by.. the agric~',-~_~_~ forces of the respec=" : a~;, ~v ~ec+D!e ".:ho .h~, _ + -m_e!ves be!cnc =o the Third World. _.-=" .-.'_ c~ O~

° °. ..o p 1"~ ~ L "~..'I%I~'P~ .... -" 4 by an industry already under a~.tach, by multinational onto_--.: . who only care for~,.h.~i.-~,- excessive profits. -.,n ~:e Gro'-'er Countries the problem should be ,.na~.e conscious on 6~verr_-..ent la:~el as to ~s~---blish a Goverru-,ent policy. Tho_n it" is possibl~ -~ encourage the Gro'.~er Countries t'o form" alliances under the siien~ r,_,sponsibility, of t~e one o~ them • .'hich is effected the ~.ost, e.~. ... / Brazil - Southern and Central ;=merica Malawi - A/rica _'ndcnesi~- South-East" .Asia. i 0 0 o