Tobacco Documents Online

This Philip Morris (PM) 5-year plan describes actions PM took to address smoking and health issues around the world between 1980 and 1984. Several passages of the Plan indicate that poorer and lesser-developed countries provide more favorable markets for cigarettes for several reasons: Firstly, people who are more desperate for their survival tend to pay less attention to smoking and health, and the governments and medical establishments of these countries tend to follow suit: [From Page 64]:

"Smoking and Health is not yet considered to be a crucial issue by the Egyptian Tobacco Industry...and Health is not an issue among the general Egyptian populace who are more concerned with day-to-day survival and consider smoking to be one of their few pleasures in life. The health question...is not considered to be a priority by the [Egyptian] medical profession."

The poorer economies of less-developed countries also help Philip Morris because the governments of these countries are more heavily dependent on tobacco taxes for income, and thus less apt to restrict tobacco marketing, use and advertising:

From Page 65-6:

"In general, little official governmental attention has been paid to smoking and health in Africa and the African Health Ministers, where they exist, have not taken a strong stand on this issue. This is in large part because most [African] governments are preoccupied by other priorities (economic and social development), and because cigarette advertising and tax revenues are important to the African economies. Therefore, governments are not inclined to impose restrictions which might jeopardize this income."

PM also understood that if religious leaders and doctors in Africa took a strong public health stand against tobacco use, it could affect cigarette consumption "because of the mentality of the Africans":

From Pg. 66:

"Smoking and health is of little concern to the African people and it seems not to be a popular issue among them. However, if an anti-smoking campaign supported by religious leaders and/or the medical profession is developed, this could seriously affect consumption because of the mentality of the Africans, and their faith in their religious leaders and doctors."

PM also recognized that a high rate of illiteracy means a populace will rely less on printed reports for health information, which benefits the tobacco companies. The following passage discusses the high rate of illiteracy in Nigeria and how health information from the "outside" was starting to affect "the upper class" (which presumably had higher literacy rates than the general population): From Page 68:

"As not less than seventy percent of the Nigerian population is illiterate, Nigerians form their opinions on smoking and health almost exclusively on the basis of rumor and superstition. The population is becoming more aware of the allegations against smoking largely because of press coverage from outside reports. The prevalent attitude in model developed countries has some impact on the upper class..."

PM also found that increasing levels of wealth and education in underdeveloped countries tends to work against cigarette manufactuers:

"Future Developments and Their Effect on Philip Morris' Activity

As Nigeria's wealth becomes more evenly distributed among its population and a greater number of Nigerians become educated, the spill-over effect as regards smoking and health may become more evident..."

Describes the threat that the smoking and health issue has upon the industry. Describes the structure and initial formation of ICOSI ("formed so that in face of the growing threat to the industry world wide, the Comanies and NMAs can united and respond with common approaches.") Lists the forming companies of ICOSI. Describes industry plans and activities to fight the smoking and health issue primarily in northern Europe

This is the famous Philip Morris (PM) document wherein William L. Dunn, principal scientist and leader of "smoker psychology" programs at PM, exhorts his colleagues to "Think of the cigarette pack as a storage container for a day's supply of nicotine...Think of the cigarette as a dispenser for a dose unit of nicotine...Think of a puff of smoke as the vehicle of nicotine..."

Dunn also summarizes the individual personality traits that distinguish smokers from nonsmokers, saying studies show that smokers have "greater anti-social tendencies, poorer mental health, greater reliance on 'external' than 'internal' controls, [are] more emotional, less agreeable, [have] poorer academic performance, higher incidence of prior hospitalizations...more auto accidents."

In perhaps the oddest part of the paper, Dunn cites psychoanalytic theory that refers to smoking as "pulmonary eroticism," saying in smoking "the lungs have become sexualized and smoking is but another form of the sexual act...."

Philip Morris' proposal to organize a scientific conference about the benefits of smoking to "provide the scientific facts for a pro-cigarette public relations campaign" (see Doc-Alert posting of 7 Feb. 2005) was borne out. In January, 1972 PM convened a gathering of scientists on the island of St. Martin in the French Antilles "to reflect upon human cigarette smoking behavior." Dr. William Dunn of Philip Morris Research Center wrote, "It was hoped that such a conference would redirect the scientific community's interest to the fundamental motivation question" about smoking, and "correct for a dearth of interdisciplinary cross talk among those conducting research on smoking." The official sponsor of the conference was the Council for Tobacco Research-USA (CTR). The gathering was located in a warm tropical locale during the dead of winter, and PM picked up all the expenses for participants to attend. The roster of scientists attending was impressive. A conference objective was to re-direct the scientific focus on smoking onto the behavior of the smoker, and away from the dangers of tobacco use. To help disguise the true goal of the conference to the participants, PM changed the originally-proposed title ("A Scientific Conference on the Benefits of Smoking") to"Smoking Behavior: Motives and Incentives."

After the conference, Dr. Dunn wrote a somewhat flowery summary of the proceedings that extolled the virtues of cigarettes. This document contains the now-famous words, "Think of the cigarette pack as a storage container for a day's supply of nicotine...Think of the cigarette as a dispenser for a dose unit of nicotine...Think of a puff of smoke as the vehicle of nicotine..." http://tobaccodocuments.org/landman/2024273959-3975.html

Presented during the conference was an entirely new hypothesis about smoking, which proposed that smokers self-select themselves in an unconscious effort to modify a genetic glucose metabolism deficiency with nicotine. [Tobacco Institute Newsletter #83, 1 Oct. 1973, 500081795 at -1800]. The conference also examined the attempt of an entire town to quit smoking (Greenfield, Iowa, during the filming of the 1969 movie Cold Turkey, starring Dick Van Dyke--see Doc-Alert posting http://tobaccodocuments.org/landman/140507.html) and concluded that the people of the town had a high failure rate and that few people remained quitters after the experiment.

To spread ideas generated during the conference into the global scientific and medical community, PM compiled a 312-page book from the proceedings, published and distributed it to medical schools, clinics, hospitals and research institutions throughout the U.S. and abroad. (The book can be seen at http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ywl94f00). A review of the book in the American Psychiatric Association's publication Contemporary Psychology noted that it conspicuously avoided the word "addiction," pointed out that the word was mentioned only three times in the entire book and that and two of these times were in reference to alcohol and morphine. The review writer also noted the "obvious omission" of any discussion about medical developments regarding smoking, attributing it to the fact that the conference was industry-sponsored. The book review was entitled "All the Dirt About the Filthy Weed," which did not sit particularly well with members of the tobacco industry (The review can be seen at http://tobaccodocuments.org/landman/2060489392-9422.pdf ).

The document referenced in this posting is a 31-page excerpt of the book.