Tobacco Documents Online

330 IAWt 42nd Streer, tVew Fnrk Ny 10036 26400 Lohser Rood Suite 312 Soulhfeld Mt 48034 2125 Biscoyne Boulevord. Mr6mc Ft ,i,i 13' (212) 736-2010 / Fax (212) 736-8396 (3!3) 352-91?0 /Fax (313) 352-9226 (305) 576-3581 /Fox: (305) 576-30J9 643p Wes/ t eha(; LosAnaeI~ CA 90028 361 Newtxuv Sheet Boston. MA 02115 190 East Minnr Avenue. Denver CO 80203 (1!3) 993 !11 /Foz (213) 467-7540 (617) 266-2121 /Fox (617) 266•1301 (303) 861-715? / Fox. (303) 832-4104 212 West Superror Sheet Chico~a ld' 60610' 8111 LBJ Free Dallaz TX 75251 630 ookwood Auenue WestHartford CT 06110 (31?) 6l9•!!31 /Fax (312)649- l527 (211) 611-96%FOac (21A) 644-7055 (20J) 953-1889 / Fox: (203) 953-1'13 . 1930 Chestnut Street Philadelphra. PA 19103 ' 1066 National'Piess Buildi~g. Wosh~ on DC 20045 1951 Fourlh Arenue Sonp~p CA 92101 (2!5)569-5990/Fax.(215)'563-1985 (202)393-7110/Fox.-(201)393-5451 (619)51/-ld60/Fdx(61~',544-0230 730 Harrison Street Son Froncisco: CA 94107 10260 Westhe mer Houston. 1X 77042 (115) 543-3361 / Fa.r IQ151543-6148 (713) 789-1635 /Fox.- (r?13),789-0980 A, Aftiliafe TRANSCRIPT DATE March 7, 1994 TI34E 8: 00-9 s 00 PM (ET) NETFIORIC ABC-TV PROGRAM Day One Forest Sawyer, anchor: We begin tonight with our continuing investigation into cigarettes and what's inside them. Now, we've uncovered what the government has known for years--that there are ingredients in cigarettes that are potentially toxic. It's known because it's had a list of all the ingredients added to cigarettes, yet it has done nothing about it. Last week we reported evidence that tobacco companies are carefully controlling the nicotine levels in cigarettes and that investigation got the attention of many people, including the head of the Food and Drug Administration. Just before our broadcast last week, the FDA issued a letter saying it's considering whether to regulate tobacco products as drugs. The FDA even suggested that cigarettes as they are now manufactured could be taken off the market. As it turned out, that was just the beginning of our investigation. John Martin has startling new information about your cigarettes' ingredients and why they've been secret for so long. John Martin reporting: It was a long time coming for anti-smoking advocates. After years of frustration, they are suddenly hopeful, calling members of Congress. Unidentified Representative of Coalition on Smoking OR Health: I'm calling to talk to you about what the FDA is planning to do. In light of what's happening, I just want to give you an update. N Scott Balin (Coalition on Smoking OR Health): The dam 0 has broken and the floodwaters are spilling out and w we're trying to respond as best we can. ~ Martin: Last week, Day One reported for the first time ~ evidence that cigarette companies manipulate levels of on nicotine, a highly addictive drug, to keep people N;h smoking. We found manufacturers add nicotine in QD ' carefully calibrated doses to fortify the tobacco waste products they insert in cigarettes and to replenish nicotine lost in processing. Material supplied'by Video Monitoring Services Of America, Inc. may be used for intemal'review analysis or research only. Any edi'ting reproduction, publicahon- re- broadcasting public showing orpublic display is forbidden and may violate copyright law A videotape of mis transcript is ovadable in an y format for a period of 31 do ys from air date, oudio cassettes for 14 days Call bny VMS odfice.

-2- Cliff Douglass (American Cancer Society): The public doesn't know that the industry manipulates nicotine--takes it out, puts it back in, uses it,as if it were sugar being put into candy. They don't have a clue. Martin: The FDA letter ten days ago cited evidence suglesting that nicotine is used 'to satisfy an addiction of some smokers' (Marlboro, Winston, Camel cigarettes shown). The cigarette makers deny the charges. They contend nicotine is not even addictive. Besides, they say, they do "not increase the nicotine in cigarettes above what is found naturally in tobacco.' Following our broadcast, editorial writers started asking questions. A House Subcommittee scheduled hearings late this month to examine the industry's use of nicotine. In the Senate, Ted Kennedy asked the General Accounting Office to investigate nicotine manipulation by cigarette companies. Ted Kennedy (Senator): My sense is that if the investigation by the governmental agency provides the Congress and the American people with the facts on this, as brought out on your excellent report, that, I believe, can be the straw that breaks the back of the real power of the cigarette industry. Martin: There's no better example of that power than the story of the list--the list of additives manufacturers put into cigarettes. Under the law the list is provided to the government but kept secret to American consumers. What's on the list and what's not on it tell much about the power of the tobacco lobby, it's demands for secrecy and the government's failure to regulate this industry. Congressman Ron Wyden has seen the list. Ron Wyden (Representative, Oregon, Democrat): We now know that there are chemicals in tobacco products that are so toxic they wouldn't be allowed in a landfill under the federal environmental rules. Martin: Even so, consumers can't find out what those chemicals are. Michael Erickson(?) (Federal Office of Smoking and Health of the Department of Health and Human Services): It's a felony offense for me to reveal to you.or to the public or to a smoker who is interested, what ingredients are actually included in tobacco.

-3- Martin: Michael Erickson heads the Federal Office of Smoking and Health. It's part of the Department of Health and Human Services. He knows what additives are in cigarettes because each year tobacco companies are required by law to give him the list. He, in turn, can share the list only with certain government officials. Why? Brennan Dawson represents the cigarette companies for the Tobacco Institute. Brennan Dawson (Tobacco Institute): The industry, like any other industry of consumer products, wants to make sure that those things that are trade secrets are kept as trade secrets. Martin: (To Brennan) A lot of the food products that we see have ingredients and they list the ingredients. Sometimes they even list the percentage of ingredients. Dawson: And, in that list of ingredients, you'll see words like 'flavorings' where the manufacturers are not required to, in fact, turn over what can only be termed a 'recipe.' Martin: I don't think anyone's asking for the recipe. Dawson: The manufacturers provide the list to the federal government. . Martin: (To Ron Davis) Could the President of the United States look at the list if he wanted to see it? Ron Davis (Office of Smoking and Health): He would probably have to be designated as an employee of the Department of Health and Services to look at the list. Martin: Ron Davis was Michael Erickson's predecessor, running the Office of Smoking and Health. Davis: I think it's absurd that a product that's used by forty-five million Americans is used by those people without them knowing what's in the product. Martin: The list of additives is so secret that Doctor Davis was required to keep it under lock and key. N Davis: Outside my office, the director's office was the~ safe. W Martin: The safe? . ~ Davis: The safe. It usually took me three or four r,a minutes to get into the safe. It's not just the normal M lock where you have to turn to three different numbers. 0.

-4- Martin: The Office of Smoking and Health, now headed by Dr. Erickson, is located here in Atlanta. When Day One asked to videotape the safe, the staff member assigned to show us around wouldn't even tell us in which locked room it was located. When we asked him why, this was his response. Unidentified Staff Member of the Office of Smoking and Health: (Puts hand in front of camera) I don't want to lose my job. Martin: This has the scent of the Cold War, nuclear weapons, need to know. How can that be compatible with the health organization that's trying to protect the citizens? Davis: It implies that our society will be irreparably damaged if somehow people find out what the cigarette companies are putting in cigarettes, which is absurd. Martin: So, what is actually on the list? (Kool, Camel, More, Newport, Marlboro, Winston cigarettes, among others are shown) As many as seven hundred additives to cigarettes. Dr. Erickson offered one clue about what he called a special category. Erickson: There are thirteen ingredients that are not allowed to be added to food but which are added to cigarettes. Martin: Day One has learned that two of those thirteen additives should have tipped off the government to the tobacco industry's manipulation of nicotine in cigarettes. (Visual of door bearing the message 'Keep Doors Locked) Those two ingredients are tobacco extracts, which frequently is rich in nicotine, and nicotine sulfate, or salt. The list has contained these items for at least two years, yet the government did nothing about them. Matthew Myers (Coalition on Smoking OR Health): It's inexcusable that government scientists haven't acted before now to take strong action, demanding that that nicotine either be removed or that regulatory authority over tobacco products be expanded. It's inexcusable. Martin: The government just didn't do its job is what you're saying. . Myers: The government just didn't do it's job, is absolutely correct.

-5- Martin: We called around Washington to find out why the list was apparently ignored by the people who could have done something with it. The Surgeon General, on the job six months today, hadn't been briefed on the list. The Secretary of Health and Human Services, who technically receives the list, has the authority to warn authority about dangerous ingredients, but never has. The law firm that compiles the list with the large tobacco companies declined to talk on camera. Until now, the idea here in Washington seems to have been worry about the smokers but spare the tobacco companies. Kennedy: The cigarette industry reminds me very clearly of the National Rifle Association. The power of the industry, of extraordinary corporate wealth and influence. Martin: How did this list come about in the first place? And why is it secret? For years, what health advocates really wanted was a law requiring a list of ingredients on every pack of cigarettes. But the tobacco companies resisted, so about ten years ago, in a compromise arranged through Congress, the companies agreed to give the government the list, but not consumers. It was up to the government to do something with the list, but it never did. Myers: The public health community demanded of the government scientists that they do something with that list or, if they didn't have the resources to do it, that they publish the list, so that those of us in the private sector, could do the research. Nonetheless, DHHS, every year, said 'No, it's our responsibility. We can't release the information and we'll get to it when we have time.' They never found the time. Martin: Why wasn't Congress rushing to use the list to learn more about a product that kills four hundred thousand Americans every year? Ask Doctor Sidney Wolf, a leading public health advocate. Doctor Sidney Wolf (Leading Public Health Advocate): One would have to look at the thirty years since the Surgeon General's Report and say the tobacco industry has had a nearly perfect victory record in terms of defeating any kind of legislation that's come across. And the way in which they've done it is by buying out members of Congress. Martin: A study by Dr. Wolf ('The Congressional Addiction to Tobacco--How the Tobacco Lobby Suffocates Federal Health Policy' is shown) showed the tobacco industry gave millions of dollars in campaign contributions to Congress, to tobacco state members and

-6- key leaders. Among the top recipients, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, House Majority Leader, Richard Gephardt, and House Ways and Means Chairman, Dan Rostenkowski. The tobacco lobby also taught public figures that taking on tobacco can be dangerous to your political health. Joseph Califano(?) was Secretary of Health Education and Welfare in Jimmy Carter's Cabinet when he attacked the cigarette makers. Joseph Califano (Former Secretary of Health Education and Welfare): It ultimately cost me my job as Secretary of Health Education. I remember Senator Kennedy said to me, 'There's no way the President can run for re-election with you in the Cabinet.' Speaker O'Neil told me that. But I want to say something important about President Carter. Since then, he has talked to me and indeed he said to me, 'You were right and I was wrong about cigarettes.' Martin: Califano says the FDA's announcement that it might regulate cigarettes indicates that Commissioner David Kessler(?) may lead a turnaround inside the government. Califano: I wish that when I had been Secretary we had been imaginative enough and thoughtful enough and aggressive enough to do what he did in his stand in nicotine and in what I think what will spark now major Congressional activity. Wyden: As far as I'm concerned, what needs to be done next is to make that list public. The public has a right to know. Martin: That, in turn, could force the tobacco industry to do something it has never before been required to do. Myers: The tobacco industry is the only industry in this entire nation that is permitted to put chemicals and other additives into its product without first proving that those chemicals are safe and effective. Martin: All of this means the tobacco companies may face new challenges in court. If juries decide the companies are intentionally addicting people, smoking victims could claim hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. Until now, the cigarette companies have managed to protect themselves from lawsuits, from regulators, and especially from Congress. But that may be changing.