Abstract
In this 1991 speech (presumably before an audience of tobacco allies) R.J. Reynolds (RJR) executive Herbert Osmon displays his antipathy towards the scientific case linking tobacco use with disease, and demonstrates the adversarial attitude his tobacco company harbors towards organizations and government offices concerned with safeguarding the public's health.
Osmon gives a historical perspective of the anti-tobacco movement, stating that,
"The negative cycle [of opinion against tobacco]...got its momentum from the first surgeon general's report on smoking in 1964. That report once again raised the claimed health effects of smoking [and] began two decades of activity focused on convincing smokers of the claimed dangers of smoking. The goal was to scare them into quitting."
Osmon belittles and rails against anti-tobacco groups like STAT, ASH and GASP, but says that individuals have caused the industry the most trouble:
"...GASP and ASH and other such rabble rousers would by themselves be mostly just annoyances who nibble at the industry like ducks. Our serious opposition--the real core of the anti-smoking movement -- is a group of key people in a small number of tightly knit organizations..."
Osmon claims that the "anti-tobacco industry" is far from being a grassroots movement, and names as enemies people like Joe Tye of STAT, Mark Pertschuk of Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights and Stanton Glantz ("an anti-smoking extremist and a loud and vocal critic of ETS who is well connected at the Environmental Protection Agency,") saying these people "work hard to communicate with the worker bees in the movement and teach them how to be troublemakers."
Osmon decries the increasing organization and communications improvements within the anti-tobacco movement, and laments the fact that the government is allied with the anti-tobacco movement:
"The anti-smoking industry is not just made up of private organizations. Government also plays an important part...the Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) is administered by Ron David and sees its job as 'educating' both adults and children. The National Cancer Institute administers a huge stockpile ($2 Billion) of government funds that are given out as grants to fund cancer research...Finally, in Congress itself, there is an anti-smoking organization called 'The Congressional Task Force on Tobacco and Health...46 members of Congress who have banded together to support the agenda of the anti-smoking movement..."
Finally, Osmon states,
"We believe [the] attack on the manufacturers will increase in intensity and viciousness, and we believe it has one clear goal. The anti-smoking zealots want to break up the tobacco family. They want to put a wedge between the manufacturers and the smokers...They want to fracture our united front...They know that if they get us fighting among ourselves, they will eventually be able to dance on our graves, because we won't be able to resist the pressures if we are not united....But if we do not take their bait, if we do remain united and continue to do everything we can to resist the efforts to destroy our business, then history can repeat itself....We must remain united, and we must fight the anti-smokers at every opportunity..."
This speech shows the antipathy tobacco company executives harbor towards public health efforts to control the spread of nicotine addiction and tobacco-caused illness.
Fields
- Notes
Entire document printed in very large, clear print and thus is very legible and easy to read.
- Quotes
See document images.
- Company
- R.J. Reynolds
- Author
- Osmon, Herbert E. (RJR, TI Communications)
Director for RJR Tobacco Co. in 1987, Staff Vice President of External Affairs for RJR Tobacco Development Co. 1988-1989, and Staff Vice President of Public Policy in 1994.
- Recipient
- Presumed tobacco industry allies
RegionUnited States
Named OrganizationSTAT (Stop Teenage Addiction to Tobacco)Stop Teenage Addiction to Tobacco - anti tobacco group started by Joe Tye.
Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights (Anti tobacco organization)Concerned with clean indoor air.
*EPA ( use United States Environmental Protection Agency)
National Cancer Institute NCIDivision of Cancer Prevention and Control, National Cancer Institute located in Rockville, MD
American Heart Association (Voluntary health organization that focuses on cardiac health)Voluntary health organization that focuses on cardiac health and stroke. AHA occasionally teams with tobacco retailers to engage in promotions/fund-raisers (see http://www.smokefree.net/doc-alert/messages/247136.html and http://www.rawbw.com/~jpk/stand/Pictures.html).
American Lung AssociationVoluntary health organization concerned with fighting lung disease, promoting lung health and advocating clean air, indoors and out.
American Cancer Society
Office of Smoking and Health
Group Against Smoking Pollution/Group to Alleviate Smoking Pollution? ("GASP)" (Group Against (or to Alleviate) Smoking Pollution)A not-for-profit corporation founded in 1976 as the California Group Against Smoking Pollution (GASP). Now there are several state branches of GASP around the country.
Action on Smoking and Health, USPlaintiff
Named PersonWarner, Kenneth E., Ph.D (Plaintiff's expert, health care costs)Plaintiff
Blum, Alan Mayer M.D. (Doctors Ought to Care (DOC) Founder, Plaintiff Expert)
Tye, Joe (Antismoking activist (1994) (WSJ 5/16/94).)Started STAT
Johnston, James Wesley (CEO of RJR c. 1989-95)CEO of RJR domestic, c. 1989
Pertschuk, Mark (Co-Director, Americans for Nonsmokers Rights)Mark Pertschuk and Julia Carol run Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights (ANR). The telephone number is (510) 841-3032 (P. Reynolds 6/13/94). ANR v. State of CA Complaint 3/23/94). Mark Pertschuk is co-director of the Berkeley, CA-based Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights (AP 9/18/94).
Glantz, Stanton Arnold, Ph.D. (UCSF Professor of Medicine, Author of "The Cigarette Papers")Stanton A. Glantz worked for the Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California--San Francisco (1994)
Burns, David Michael, M.D. (Pulmonologist, UC San Diego; Plaintiff Expert)Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. He was the Coordinator of Developmental Pulmonary Clinical Research Laboratory.
Kennedy, Senator Ted (U.S. Senator from MA)U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, has advocated against tobacco and for public health.
Koop, C. Everett, M.D. (Surgeon General ('81-'89))former US Surgeon General (1981-1989)
Davis, Ronald Mark, M.D. (Public Health, Henry Ford Health System, Plaintiff's Expert)Board certified in Preventive Medicine (Public Health/General Preventative), editor of Tobacco Control (journal), member of WHO Technical Advisory Team.
Warner, Kenneth E., Ph.D (Plaintiff's expert, health care costs)Plaintiff
Ernster, Virginia L., Ph.D. (Staff member, National Cancer Institute Div. of Cancer Prev.)
Subjectindustry influence
industry surveillance (Intelligence-gathering on public health forces)
health advocacy group
health belief
government activity
government agency
government employee
government organization
governmental spending
Document Images
Page 2: vyy43d00
1/17/91
ANTI-SMOKING ZEALOTS
- H. E. OsMON -
GOOD MORNING.
WHOEVER SAIDv"THE ONLY CONSTANT IN LIFE IS CHANGE"
WAS A TRUE CHAMPION OF UNDERSTATEMENT. FORTY YEARS
AGO SMOKING WAS FASHIONABLE. ALMOS 2 HALF OF THE
POPULATION SMOKED. HUMPHREY BOGART AND PETER LORRE
FILLED THE SCREEN WITH SMOKE, AND BETTE DAVIS TURNED
SMOKING INTO AN ART FORM. FAIR PLAY AND GETTING ALONG
WERE THE ORDER OF THE DAY AND NO ONE TRIED TO DICTATE
SOCIAL STANDARDS AND PERSONAL BEHAVIOR.
BUT THINGS HAVE CHANGED. TODAY,\J`fHE TOBACCO
INDUSTRY LIVES IN A HOSTILE WORLD. A WORLD FILLED
WITH DISCRIMINATION, RUDENESS, AND ZEALOTRY.
w
HOW DID SMOKING,VONCE A SIMPLE PLEASURE ENJOYED AND
ACCEPTED BY THE PEOPLE, BECOME THE SUBJECT OF SQ-MUCH
DISDAIN AND MORAL"OUTRAGE? AND WHERE IS ALL THIS
GOING TO LEAD?
Page 3: vyy43d00
FIRST,vYOU NEED TO BE AWARE THAT THE PRESENT
.
HOSTILITY TOWARD TOBACCO ISN'T SOMETHING THAT JUST
HAPPENED IN THE LAST FEW YEARS. THERE HAVE BEEN
ANTI-SMOKERS ALMOST AS LONG AS THERE HAVE BEEN SMOKERS.
IN FACT, 6 AMONG THE EARLIEST CRITICS WAS KING,JAMES I
OF ENGLAND, WHO SAID, IN 1604, THAT SMOKING WAS
"A CUSTOM LOATHSOME TO THE EYE, HATEFUL TO
THE NOSE, HARMFUL TO THE BRAIN, DANGEROUS
TO THE LUNGS, AND IN THE BLACK, STINKING
FUME THEREOF, NEAREST RESEMBLING THE
HORRIBLE STIGIAN SMOKE OF THE BOTTOMLESS
PIT." (THE BOTTOMLESS PIT IS HELL.)
KING JAMES OBVIOUSLY DIDN'T CARE MUCH FOR SMOKING. IN
FACT, HE MADE SURE IT WAS DANGEROUS TO HEALTH -- HE
TORTURED PEOPLE FOR SMOKING, AND HE EVEN BEHEADED SOME
OF THEM. BUT EVEN THAT DIDN'T PREVENT SMOKING, AND
BEFORE LONG IT WAS WIDESPREAD IN ENGLAND AND EUROPE.
Page 4: vyy43d00
THE HISTORYvOF SMOKING HAS FOLLOWED THAT KIND OF
.
PATTERN EVER SINCE. THAT IS, SINCE THE BEGINNING,
SMOKING ALTERNATED BETWEEN BEING ACCEPTED, THEN BEING
CONDEMNED, THEN BEING ACCEPTED, AND SO ON.
THE SAME PATTERN HAS BEEN TRUE IN THE UNITED STATES.
SMOKING WAS ACCEPTED AND WIDESPREAD IN THE 1700'S, BUT
EARLY IN THE 1800'S IT BEGAN TO FALL UNDER CRITICISM.
ONE OF THE EARLIEST AMERICAN CRITICS WAS -- BELIEVE IT
OR NOT -- THE SURGEON GENERAL OF GEORGE WASHINGTON'S
ARMY, A DR. BENJAMIN RUSH, WHO 8 CRITICIZED TOBACCO
BECAUSE ITS USE "EXCITED THE DESIRE FOR STRONG DRINK"
WHICH, HE SAID, LED TO INTEMPERANCE. THAT IS, SMOKING
CAUSED DRUNKENNESS.
OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL YEARS THE ANTI-SMOKING SENTIMENT
GREW. THE 9 NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER HORACE GREELEY OF
"GO WEST, YOUNG MAN" FAME ALSO SAID, "A BOY WHO SMOKES
TOBACCO HAS NO FUTURE." A VIRGINIAN NAMED JOHN
CROCKER SAID IN 1830 THAT "A CIGAR IS A DEVICE WITH
A FIRE AT ONE END AND A FOOL AT THE OTHER."
Page 5: vyy43d00
THROUGH THE 1840'S AND '50'S, THE CRITICISMS INCREASED,
.
AND MEDICAL PEOPLE STARTED CLAIMING THAT SMOKING CAUSED
DISEASES. THESE DISEASES 1 INCLUDED SUCH THINGS AS
LUNG DISEASE, IMPAIRED VISION, LOSS OF INTELLIGENCE,
BIRTH DEFECTS, NERVOUSNESS, STERILITY, AND INSANITY.
THERE WASV ALSO A LOT OF MENTION THAT USING TOBACCO
LED TO MORAL DECAY. THE CHURCHES GOT INTO THE ACT,
AND ANTI-TOBACCO MESSAGES WERE PREACHED FROM THE
PULPIT. THE METHODISTS EVEN WENT SO FAR AS TO NOT
LET ANYONE WHO SMOKED TOBACCO BECOME A MEMBER OF THE
CHURCH. A STRONG ANTI-SMOKING MOVEMENT WAS UNDER WAY.
AND THEN,Nq RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF ALL THIS ANTI-
SMOKING ZEALOTRY CAME THE CIVIL WAR. SUDDENLY, IT
DIDN'T SEEM TO BE ALL THAT IMPORTANT WHETHER A MAN
SMOKED OR DRANK. -
Page 6: vyy43d00
THE SOLDIERS SPENT A LOT OF TIME DOING BOTH AND,
.
WHEN THEY RETURNED FROM THE WAR, THEY HAD NO INTEREST
IN CHANGING THEIR HABITS. SO, SMOKING ENTERED AN
ACCEPTANCE CYCLE, AND THE ANTI-SMOKING ZEALOTS GOT
QUIET. THIS LASTED ABOUT 15 YEARS. -
IT ALL V STARTED UP AGAIN IN THE 1870'S. BACK CAME ALL
THE FORMER HEALTH CLAIMS, THIS TIME ADDING HEART DISEASE,
BALDNESS, AND CONSTIPATION. AND BACK CAME THE CLAIMS
THAT SMOKING LED TO MORAL DECAY, PARTICULARLY AMONG
YOUNG BOYS. (APPARENTLY YOUNG GIRLS DIDN'T SMOKE.)
THE CLAIMED Nq EFFECTS ON HEALTH AND MORALS WAS A
CONTINUING AND GROWING THEME OF THE NEXT 40-ODD YEARS.
THE MOVEMENT GAINED NEW ENERGY AROUND 1900, WITH THE
RISE OF LUCY GASTON AND HER ANTI-CIGARETTE LEAGUE.
_
BY 1910, FAMOUS PEOPLE LIKE VTHOMAS EDISON, HENRY
FORD, AND MANY OTHERS WERE PUBLICLY CRITICIZING--
SMOKING. BUSINESSES BEGAN ELIMINATING SMOKING IN
THE WORKPLACE AND REFUSING TO HIRE SMOKERS.
Page 7: vyy43d00
DURING THE PUSH FOR PROHIBITION, V WILL ROGERS SAID,
.
"THE MINUTE THEY GET PROHIBITION, THEY WILL HOP ON TO
SOMETHING ELSE. IT WILL BE CIGARETTES ... OR SOMETHING."
SURE ENOUGH, RIGHT AFTER PROHIBITION WAS RATIFIED,
BILLY SUNDAY SAID, "PROHIBITION IS WON. NOW FOR
TOBACCO." THE MOVEMENT KEPT UP ITS AGITATION, AND
EVENTUALLY IT STARTED TO HAVE LEGISLATIVE EFFECTS.
OVER THE 9 NEXt SEVERAL YEARS, 15 STATES PASSED LAWS
BANNING THE SALE OF CIGARETTES, AND IT LOOKED LIKE
CIGARETTES WERE ON THE WAY OUT.
BUT THEN T/ ALONG CAME WORLD WAR I, FOLLOWED BY THE
LAWLESSNESS OF PROHIBITION, AND PEOPLE BEGAN TO LOSE
INTEREST IN MORAL REFORMISTS AND THEIR MESSAGES. THE
ANTI-CIGARETTE LAWS WERE REPEALED AND, BY THE EARLY
YEARS OF THE DEPRESSION, BOTH PROHIBITION AND THE
ANTI-SMOKING MOVEMENT WERE OVER. THIS BEGAN ANOTHER
30 YEARS OF SMOKING ACCEPTANCE.
Page 8: vyy43d00
THEV REASON I WENT INTO THIS HISTORY IS TO PUT THE
CURRENT ANTI-SMOKING MOVEMENT INTO PERSPECTIVE. TIMES
ARE TOUGH RIGHT NOW. SMOKING AND THE TOBACCO BUSINESS
ARE UNDER A LOT OF PRESSURE FROM A LOT OF DIRECTIONS.
BUT THISV IS NOT THE FIRST TIME IT HAS HAPPENED.
NOR THE SECOND. NOR THE THIRD. TOBACCO HAS BEEN
GOING THROUGH THESE CYCLES FOR 400 YEARS. AND THE
TOBACCO BUSINESS IS STILL HERE. AND THERE ARE STILL
50 MILLION AMERICANS WHO CHOOSE TO SMOKE.
THE NEGATIVEVCYCLE WHICH IS WITH US TODAY BEGAN
IN THE 1960'S. IT GOT'fITS MOMENTUM FROM THE FIRST
SURGEON GENERAL'S REPORT ON SMOKING IN 1964. THAT
REPORT ONCE AGAIN RAISED THE ISSUE OF CLAIMED HEALTH
EFFECTS OF SMOKING. 7HE REPORT BEGAN TWO DECADES OF
ACTIVITY FOCUSED ON'VCONYINCING SMOKERS OF THE
CLAIMED DANGERS OF SMOKING. THE GOAL WAS TO SCARE
THEM INTO QUIITING. _
Page 9: vyy43d00
AND, IN FACT, LARGE NUMBERS OF PEOPLE DID QUIT. BUT
.
THE ANTI-SMOKING ZEALOTS WEREN'T SATISFIED, BECAUSE
THEY WANTED EVERYONE TO QUIT. THEY BECAME FRUSTRATED
BECAUSE THERE WERE STILL MILLIONS OF PEOPLE SMOKING,
AND THE NUMBER WASN'T GETTING SMALLER. -
SO,V ABOUT 10 OR 12 YEARS AGO, THEY DECIDED TO CHANGE
THEIR STRATEGY. THEY-DECIDED THAT THE BEST WAY TO PUT
NEW LIFE INTO THE MOVEMENT WAS TO FOCUS LESS ON THE
SMOKER AND INSTEAD ENLIST NON-SMOKERS IN THE WAR
AGAINST SMOKING AND CAST THE SMOKER AS A SOCIAL
OUTCAST.
THAT WAS V THE BEGINNING OF THE ATTACK ON ENVIRONMENTAL
TOBACCO SMOKE -- SO-CALLED "SECOND-HAND SMOKE." THEY
WANTED TO CREATE THE IMPRESSION THAT ETS WAS A SERIOUS
HEALTH THREAT TO NON-SMOKERS.-
IT DIDN'T MATTER THAT THEIR ALLEGATIONS WEREN'TIBASED
ON SOUND SCIENCE.' THEY"DID NOT HAVE TO BE ACCURATE TO
BE EFFECTIVE.
Page 10: vyy43d00
AS A RESULT, `ff FREEDOMS WE ONCE TOOK FOR GRANTED ARE
NOW BEING THREATENED.
FREEDOM V OF CHOICE -- THE RIGHTS OF INDIVIDUALS
TO MAKE UP THEIR OWN MINDS AND WORK OUT THEIR OWN
DIFFERENCES -- IS BEING THREATENED BY SMOKING
RESTRICTION LAWS.
FREEDOM Vu OF SPEECH -- THE RIGHTS OF MANUFACTURERS
TO CONMUNICATE WITH THEIR CUSTOMERS -- IS BEING
THREATENED WITH CENSORSHIP.
FREEDOM FROM V UNFAIR TAXATION -- THE RIGHTS OF
INDIVIDUALS AND COMPANIES TO ONLY PAY A "FAIR
SHARE" TAX BURDEN -- IS BEING THREATENED BY
DISCRIMINATORY EXCISE TAXES.
_
NOW, SOME OF YOU MAY BELIEVE THAT THE PRESENT ANTI-
SMOKING MOVEMENT, AND THE PRESSURES ON OUR BUSI,NESS
AND THREATS TO OUR FREEDOMS THAT HAVE RESULTED, AROSE
SPONTANEOUSLY FROM THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE AND IS MOVING
ALONG ON ITS OWN NATURAL MOMENTUM.
