Tobacco Documents Online

4*1 George Giider Predicts Newspapers Will Dominate Info Revolution What They're Saying About TechnoPoliHcs Upcoming: FCC's Reed Hundt on Cable Controversies The American Way of Suicide Nicotine-spiking The charge surfaced last February on the ABC News program "Day One." Correspondent John Martin revealed "the tobacco industry's last best secret: how it artificially adds nicotine to cigarettes to keep people smoking and boost profits." It's not in dispute that cigarette makers have conducted extensive research on adjusting nicotine levels, and that they have the capability to do so. But have they in fact done so, with the purpose of addicting customers (which might make cigarettes a "drug," bringing them under the FDA's regulatory ambit)? FDA Commissioner Dr. David Kessler hasn'tyet made such a charge: "We do not yet have all the evidence necessary to establish cigarette manufacturers' intent," he said in March 25 Congressional testimony. Rep. Henry Waxman, the Hill's leading anti-smoking legislator, said during a recent appearance on (continued on page 2) Fog of Battle Clouds Tobacco 'Wars TechnoPolitics Deconstructs Anti-Smoking Crusade: Just Where Did Those Numbers Come From? Smoking kills-perhaps as many as 416,000 Americans every year, according to the Federal govemment. If you smoke, you are exposing yourself to increased risks from heart disease, lung cancer, and a host of other respiratory ail- ments. A strong argument could be made that tobacco should be banned, because smokers are killing themselves. But that isn't the argument being made in Washington. The new political attack on smoking features three separate charges: First, that tobacco com- panies are spiking the product with nicotine in a deliberate attempt to addict the smoker. Second, that smokers put others at risk by subjecting them to "secondhand smoke."Third, that smokers drive up health care costs, making the rest of us pay for the consequences of their personal decisions. "TechnoPolitics" (PBS) examined all three parts of the indictment In a special report. The conclusion: The key evidence supporting the anti- tobacco argument is badly flawed. Rep. Billy Tauzin vs. the Greens This-Vajun Recipe Gives~EnvironinOntalists Heartburn Rep. Billy Tauzin, a moder- ate Democrat who represents Louisiana s Cajun country in the House, would seem an unlikely environmental viilain.Though sen- sitive to oil and gas interests in his district, TauzIn has:spearheaded oil spill legislation and wetlands protection laws; as well as brokering the final passage of the Clean Air Act amendments. So why are green leaders accusing him of wanting to "Wpe out the environmental laws"? -, It's becauseTauzin has cham- pioned a fast-growing crusade known as the "property rights" movement. His proposed legisla- ` tion, the Private Property Owners Bill of Rights, would require "Just compensation" to landowners whose property decreases in value _v by 50 percentor more as a reuult of Federal environmental regulations. ' A master of Inside politics, Tauzin intends to force tfie bill to the floor, over the heads of the :. House leadership, us'irig 'the dis-: `. charge petition. Environmental organizations fear that if this-bill _ passes, regulation would have to be scaled back dramatically - or the U.S. Treasury would be forced property owners. Tauzin recently highlighted his bill on "TechnoPolitics," In de- bate with John Kostyack of the National Wildlife Federation, who said the Tauzin bill would "com- pletely wipe out environmental protections that people havebeen relying on for health and safety" . `and "bankrupt the American tax- Pay~•" - - Said Tauvn, "We're trying to say In every case where private " property owners in America are losing the use or the value of their property because of regulations to pay billIons in compensatIon to I designed for the public good, that they have a right to receive com- pensation under the Fifth Amend- ment," which Includes the so- called "takings clause." "Polluters get paid under this law forcomplying with basic envi- ronmental protection," said Kostyack. "If you want to pave over an entire wetland, you want to flood outa community, destroy i ts water supply, und er Mr. Taurin's bill, you get paid. The onlyway we can preventyou from doing that is by paying you off." The bill "does not change one regulation under the Endan- (continued on page 3)

1 TP Data THE 7 SISTERS WEAR GREEN Petroleum Industry environmental expenditures, 1992: $10.5 billion Amount spent per barrel of domestically produced oil: $4 Amount spent per U.S. citizen: $41 I STILL HAVE A DREAM Number of members of Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday Commission: 40 Federal funding over next five years: $2 million Number of states that already celebrate holiday: 50 WORK ETHNIC? Percentage of 11th graders, who have part-time jobs: Taipei, Taiwan 26% Sendai, Japan 27% Minneapolis, MN 80% Hours of TV watched per week: Sendai, Japan 16.7 Taipei, Taiwan 15.1 Minneapolis, MN 12.0 FOUR WHEELS GOOD, TWO WHEELS BETTER Increase in world production, 1950-1993: Autos: 325% Bicycles: 882% ~ Tobacco Wars continued "TechnoPolitics," "I have no in- formation as to the practices of any particular company." The definitive answer to the ques- tion may come in the court- room-when Philip Morris Inc.'s $10 billion lawsuit against John Martin and ABC is heard. The tobacco company says that its cigarettes contain less nico- tine than the raw tobacco they're made from. Passive smoking In December 1992, "TechnoPolitics" broke the story on the EPA's massive study on "second-hand smoke." The EPA, we found, had used a new "confidence interval," a new measure of the reliability of a scientific finding. The old con- fidence interval was 95 per- cent but the EPA lowered it to 90 percent for the passive smoking study. The study, thus altered, reached different con- clusions than one from the Na- tional Cancer Institute (an arm of the National Institutes of Health), which found that non- smokers who live with smok- ers have no increased risk of cancer. The EPA study found that second-hand smoke causes about 3,500 deaths per year. Critics charged then that the EPA was putting its thumb on the scientific scales, tailoring the research to validate its pre- conceived conclusions. Smoking's economic costs The government's latest research on the economic costs of smoking and smoking-re- lated mortality and morbidity is outlined in a report from Congress' Office of Technol- ogy Assessment (OTA). That study found the annual costs of smoking to society to be $68 billion. Some people might be surprised to learn that the biggest chunk of that figure, $40.3 billion, repre- sents lost wages from prema- ture deaths-a cost borne more by the smoker and his family, than by society at large. The next biggest portion- $20.8 billion-accounts for medical costs associated with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of illnesses associ- ated with smoking. But the study incorporated some curious assumptions: It does not subtract the costs that people would incur if they died of something other than smok- ing. That is, it overlooks the medical bills run up by non- smokers. The OTA study also doesn't subtract the claims that smokers would have made on the public fisc, had they lived longer. Whatwould be the "net social cost" of smoking ifbetter assumptions had been used? (continued on page 4) Upcoming on TechnoPolitics • TP's in-depth interview with Washington's busiest regulator, FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, fo- cuses on his strategy for the infor- mation superhighway. Is cable the odd man out, and can the FCC successfuly manage the chaotic competition in cyberspace? And just why is cable kingpin John Malone making jokes about want- ing Mr. Hundt dead? • The controversy over breast implants rages on, even though a Mayo Clinic study has found that leaks from the devices do not cause disease. Thousands of women rely on the implants to aid their recovery from breast cancer, but some consumer ac- tivists still insist that implants should be banned, A TP Trade- Off pits Rosemary Locke of the breast cancer survivors' group Y- Me against Joanne Mott of the Public Citizen Health Research Group. • Ever wonder how the trust- ees of your retirement fund are investing the money? At CaIPERS, California's public employees' sys- tem, they've hit on a new wrinkle-investing for "workplace welfare," taking into account how well companies treat their employ- ees. Clinton Labor Secretary Rob- ert Reich gave CaIPERS the idea. And Reich's top pension official, Assistant Secretary Ofena Berg, debates the initiative with Wall Street money manager Michael Holland of The Blackstone Group. • As Congressional reauthori- zation nears for SuperFund, how will legislators change the nation's toxicwaste deanup system? Larry Wallace of the Alliance for a SuperFund Action Partnership de- bates the options with veteran EPA hazardous waste investigator Hugh Kaufinan. • Former National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Bernadine Healy returns to her first love: im- proving American medicine. A special TP interview. • YalecomputersdentistDavid Gelemter earned unwanted fame as the victim of the "FC bomber," a mysterious figure who targets re- searchers on the cutting edge of high technology. But Gelernter's serious injuries haven't slowed him down. He discusses his new book about artificial intelligence: teach- ing computers to think, and feel, more like human beings. The TechnoPolitlcs Report Publisher. Neal B. Freeman Published by The Blackwell Corporation USA Today Building 1000 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA 22209 Telephone: (703) 524-2300 The TechnoPolitics Report Is published In association with the television series, TectvtoPolitlcs*, and covers the politics of science, technology and the environment. ®1994 The Blackwell Corporation. All rights reserved, which includes the right to reproduce this newsletter or portions thereof in any form whatsoever as provided by the U.S. Copyright Law. Printed on recycled paper. 204.6,9.j 8 15

The TechnoPolitics7RePon Recent TP Reports: • A simple but dramatically effective new technology (based on the ubiquitous "plumber's helper") could save the life of thousands of heart attack victims. But the U.S. Food and Drug Ad- ministration has erected a bu- reaucratic roadblock. Syndicated columnist Don Lambro explained why--unconscious heart attack victims cannot give the "informed consent" necessary for the use of experimental medical devices. • After two years of the Amertcanswith Disabilities Act- cui bono? The usual Latin-loving suspects: lawyers, according to former Delaware Governor Pete du Pont. Even someone who wears eyeglasses, like himself, has a "known physical limitation," and could sue, he said. In fact, the largest category of complainants under the ADA are people suffer- ing from bad backs, du Pont found. • Everybody knows that elec- tric cars are pollution-free. On the highway they might be, but not when you take into account the environmental cost of gener- ating the electricity that powers them, according to John Yoder of the Energy Report. Yoder ana- lyzed a new EPA study that found that electrics rival gasoline-pow- ered cars as polluters, only from the smokestack, not the tailpipe. • Paul Farhi, who covers tele- communications for the Wash- ington Post, reported on the col- lision between FCC Chairman Reed Hundt and the nation's cable operators: Pleasing the customer by lowering rates may mean big delays in building the data super- highway. -ITCHP;O['OE.tTICS per- __fomis an invai~i~le service for those iriteresteci In h voveari= 3cience paiicy errvi=' onrrter-tal regulation -affect' eifcans' da~1y ~res. Tfieyglve Te viewer an honest and up- - iose: look at how nciiicYr ~ e roln~tFt~sr~."_ ----Rep. John r~ge Ch~ T~ ~c~. 1 loiise :aJ ,~d Cbn~ Cominittee "Ifyou want to know about _cutting edge advances in bla- „edical researth, and tli-eir pa- llficaLimplications, watch ` 1ECFINOPOL.FiTCS." Robert Gallo 7Co-d1scaverer of H.i.V i s Futwist Georgt f~Ider's Billy Tauzin continued gered Species Act or wetiands laws," said Tauzin. "It simply says that when [regulation] goes so far as to remove from me the use and predietions of thebright future of nevvspapers in the d3gital info• bazaar made news in Natlonal Review and Media Cndustry Newsletter. •' APr Force SecretaEy Sheb Widnall's comments on the fir tuneofthecontroversWG] 7trans- port aircTafft made news in De- kine rtrr*aoe Dedranlcx. • TectinoPolitics: miere was highlighted in news- papers across the ccnntiy, in- ciuding the Washington 1'osz EPA whistleblower Hugh Kaufman's canatid critique of his own boss, Administrator Carol Browner, was picked up by Creenwire, the enviroi tai news service. enj oyment ofmy property by more than 50 percent---when the gov- emment has a bigger right in my property than I have-then it's taken my property just as surely as if it showed up with a bulldozer and built a road through it." The Vanguard of the Information Revolution ... Newspapers Futurist George Gilder is author of the landmark books Wealth and Poverty and Micro- cosm. On "TechnoPolittcs, " he looked at the role ofnewspapers in our high-tech information fu- ture and came to some surpris- ing conclusions. "Newspapers will be the big winner from the information su- perhighway, as advances in dis- play technology make computer displays competitive with pa- per.... Newspapers will move onto news panels." "Adigital newspaperwould look a lot like your current news- paper. You'll have a front page with headlines-you can click on a headline and the story will fill up the page; then you can click on a picture or chart and it will fill the page ... sound will be a later development." "We will have 10,000 news- papers. But still, in a digital high- way with just floods of informa- tion, floods of bytes, people will still want to go to a familiar place to organize their entries into the digital highway, and it seems to me the branded newspapers will retain an advantage as a com- fortable place to go in this great info-sphere." "This Is a golden age of text. The Internet, for example, is just flooded with text, E-mail and newsletters of every descrip- tion. I think the people who imag- ine they can supplant text with pictures alone are going to be deeply disappointed. That's the problem with the current televi- sion screen. It's terrible at deliv- ering text ... so it seems to me that newspapers are going to be better at selling products than our ordinary television." "But you won't be able to put the digitized newspaper in a bird cage." Watch "TechnoPolitics" In Connecticut WEDH 24 Hartford t~+ Cs WEDY 65 New Haven WEDN 53 Norwich CL~ ~• WEDH 12 Waterbury WEDW 49 Bridgeport Q^ F-i Sunday 12:30 p.m. 1

TP Risk DAVY JONES' LOCKER ' Annual chance of hurting yourself bathing or showering: 1 in 2,200 Annual chance of drowning in the tub: 1 in 685,000 WHY WE BUY AUTO INSURANCE Economic costs of motor- vehicle accident, 1992: Death $880,000 Non-fatal disabling injury . 29,500 Property damage/minor injuries 6,500 Comprehensive cost of 1992 auto fatality (includes estimate of value of lost quality of life): $3,040,000 THE HAZELWOOD EFFECT Total number of oil spills of 10,000+ gallons: 1983 . 79 1992 15 DANGEROUS GAMES 1992 U.S. emergency room admissions of people hurt playing: Ping pong 1,455 Horseshoes 4,423 Billiards 5,835 DOROTHY PARKER, CALL YOUR EDITOR Relative popularity of suicide methods, 1990: Drowning 408 Jumping from high places 691 Motor-vehicle exhaust 1,877 Hanging, etc. 4,444 Firearms 18,885 Killer Baby Bells? Long Distance Companies Gird Against RBOC Deregulation Every revolution kills its children-so goes the old say- ing. In the telecommunications revolution, the children, it seems, are out to kill the par- ent. The Regional Bell Operat- ing Companies (RBOCs-a.k.a. "Baby Bells") want relief from the Modified Final Judgment which broke up the AT&T mo- nopoly in 1984. One of its pro- visions was a ban on the RBOCs offering long-distance service. Today, AT&T and the other Long Distance carriers fear that the RBOCs will use their robust revenues from local service mo- nopolies to subsidize an irre- sistible marketing challenge in Long Distance. Both sides are conducting an intense lobbying and P.R. effort, the RBOCs to win de- regulation, the LD carriers to preserve as much of the status quo as they can. Eric Rabe, corporate relations director for Bell Atlantic, the most aggres- sive RBOC, and AT&T's Mike Brown brought the arguments into sharp focus for PBS' "TechnoPolitics." "Customers will benefit from wider selection, and prob- ably, better pricing," said Rabe. "The more competition you have in any business, the better off customers are generally." "Sounds great, doesn't it?" said Brown. "I don't think we disagree on the 'whether.' The question is the'when.' We think that these telephone compa- nies today enjoy a monopoly on the local service; therefore, for Long Distance companies, they're our only connection to customers. If they were allowed into Long Distance while they have that local monopoly, that might cause some pretty seri- ous damage in the Long Dis- tance industry." The RBOCs "could offer a rate and a package that we wouldn't be able to," said Brown. "In some limited local calling areas, they offer a rate to customers that is lower than the rate they charge us for ac- cess." The reason? Cross-sub- sidizing LD rates, he said. "Customers are fully pro- tected. The idea of cross-subsi- dies has been thought of and dismissed 100 years ago," said Rabe. "It's against the law and there are hundreds of regula- tors at every level of govem ment who are looking over our shoulder to make sure we don't do that, not only in Long Dis- tance, but in a variety of other things, too." On the bottom line, said Brown, "We've got an industry that has been successful in de- ploying technology and reduc- ing price to consumers. It leads the world. Manufacturing tech- nology has been stimulated, investment has been stimu- lated. We think we've got a blueprint that works." • Tobacco Wars continued Would we find that smokers actually save money for soci- ety? Forbes columnist Peter Huber said on "TechnoPolitics," "I'd be delighted if everybody quit. But if you're going to make this an economic argument, you have to say, 'Well, they're dy- ing younger, therefore they're saving the rest of us all the Social Security. They're saving us years of drawing from pri- vate pensions." To be fair to the OTA re- searchers, a footnote in the study says it did not include "offsetting costs." They also noted, "Reduction or elimina- tion of smoking would improve health and extend longevity, but may not lead to savings in health care costs. In fact, sig- nificant reductions in smoking prevalence and the attendant increase in life expectancy could lead to future increases in total medical spending, in Medicare program outlays, and in the budgets of Social Secu- rity and other government pro- grams." The part of the study routinely cited in news reports is the $68 billion figure, not the footnotes. OTA did not include off-setting costs in the study because they were instructed by Senator David Pryor to use a controversial methodology de- veloped by the Centers for Dis- ease Control. What's more, one OTA researcher told us that they may have overestimated the lost earnings figures. Bad science usually leads to bad policy. Florida's state government, for example, may sue tobacco companies for re- imbursement of the costs smok- ing imposes on the state's health programs. And so the battle is joined. The elimina- tion of tobacco products and the end of smoking may or may not be worthwhile social goals, but whose interests are served when public policy is based on junk science and feel-good eco- nomics? ft 204569i81'7