From: anne@tobaccodocuments.org
Date: Fri, 04/04/08
Current Posting Date: Friday, April 4, 2008
Original Posting Date: Friday, March 16, 2003
Anti-Smoking Zealots.
Company/Source: R.J. Reynolds
Document Date: 17 Jan 1991
Length: 29 pages
Bates No. 511384849/-4877
URL of Original Posting: http://tobaccodocuments.org/landman/
511384849-4877.html
Document Images: http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/vyy43d00
In this 1991 presentation, (presumably before an audience of tobacco
allies) R.J. Reynolds (RJR) executive Herbert E. 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.
--------------------------------------------------
Company:
R.J. Reynolds
Author:
Osmon, Herbert E.
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
Subject:
industry influence
Industry surveillance (Intelligence-gathering on public health forces)
health advocacy group
health belief
government activity
government agency
government employee
government organization
governmental spending
Region:
United States
Named Organization:
STAT (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 (Environmental Protection Agency)
National Cancer Institute NCI
Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, National Cancer Institute
located in Rockville, MD
American Heart Association
Voluntary health organization that focuses on cardiac health and stroke,
American Lung Association
Voluntary 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, US
Plaintiff
Named Person:
Warner, Kenneth E., Ph.D (Plaintiff's expert, health care costs)
Blum, Alan, M.D.
Tye, Joe (Antismoking activist (1994) (WSJ 5/16/94).)
Started STAT
Johnston, James W. (CEO of RJR c. 1989-91)
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 A. (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. (Professor of Medicine, UCSD; Plaintiff's
witness)
Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego,
School of Medicine. He was the Coordinator of Developmental Pulmonary
Clinical Research Laboratory.
Kennedy, Ted Senator (U.S. Senator from MA)
U.S. Senator from Massachusetts who advocates 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 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)
Ernster, Virginia (Staff member, National Cancer Institute Div. of
Cancer Prev.)
This tobacco document information is provided by www.smokefree.net
and the Center for Media and Democracy,
Anne Landman
TobaccoWiki Editor
Center for Media and Democracy
anneATsourcewatch.org (Substitute an @ sign for the word "AT)
(970) 263-9199 Office
(970) 216-9842 Cell
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