This document was used as a trial exhibit in
Minnesota's case against the tobacco industry. It is a 1954
article published in the St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press in
which Philip Morris' Vice President George Weissman promises that the
cigarette industry would "stop business tomorrow if it thought its
product was harming smokers." (The document is called "Life
on Mars" because of the headline that dominates the page above
the portion of the article where Mr. Weissman is quoted.)
This pronouncement is eerily similar to that
of Philip Morris CEO Geoffrey Bible a full 43 years later in Florida's
case against the industry. In 1997, Mr. Bible admitted
under oath in a Florida courtroom that there was a "fair
chance" that his products "might have" killed
100,000 people. When asked what he would do with his manufacturing
plants if scientists proved "that cigarettes were a cause of lung
cancer," Mr. Bible said he would "shut it down
instantly." [Doc Alert posting of 3 March 2003, http://www.smokefree.net/doc-alert/messages/246726.html]
Quote:
The cigaret industry would "stop business tomorrow"
if it thought its product was harming smokers, according to George
Weissman, vice president of Philip Morris and Co., in a speech in
Chicago Tuesday. He blames the cancer problem on "medical
propaganda...by a small number of doctors and a large number of
magazines and newspapers."
NOTES: Thanks to Chuck Tauman of Portland
for bringing this document to Doc-Alert's attention, and to the
Tobacco Products Liability Project for directing Doc-Alert to
an electronic copy of this document.
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