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US: Efforts to bend research bared
San Jose Mercury News Friday 19 Dec 1997 tobacco industry sought to craft scientific research to support its case that smoking was not unhealthy, while influential company lawyers made control of litigation an industry obsession. The documents are among 864 internal memos and other sensitive corporate papers released after an angry Minnesota judge this week charged the tobacco firms with a ``conspiracy of silence'' and ordered the records made public within five days. House Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley, R-Va., released most of the documents, some dating back more than 40 years, on the Internet. The papers provide a glimpse into the power wielded over the years by company lawyers -- the so-called ``Committee of Counsel.'' Perhaps more important, they seem to reveal how the industry tried to shape scientific research to support its case that smoking wasn't unhealthy. ``Let's face it,'' Helmut Wakeham, head of research and development at Philip Morris, wrote to company President Joseph Cullman in 1970, ``we are interested in evidence which we believe denies the allegations that cigarette smoking causes disease.'' Industry foes believe the thousands of pages of reports, company memos, letters and minutes of long-ago strategy sessions will provide ammunition for a much tougher tobacco settlement than the $368.5 billion deal proposed by the industry and 40 states in June. Lawmakers will consider that deal when Congress reconvenes in late January. The files can be found at http://www.house.gov/commerce/welcome.htlm Rep. John H. Dingell of Michigan, ranking Democrat on the Commerce Committee, agreed with Bliley's decision to make the documents public. ``The (tobacco industry's) massive funding of `helpful' researchers will certainly astound many,'' Dingell said. One such researcher was Dr. Eleanor Macdonald, director of epidemiology at the M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston. Macdonald received hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years from the industry-backed Council for Tobacco Research to fund her work. In an Oct. 12, 1972, letter, industry attorney William Shinn recommends $46,730 in funding for Macdonald, noting that she ``has been most helpful on several occasions in helping to develop statistics for litigation.'' ``I've said all along that it is important that Congress and the American people have the facts, and today they will have them,'' said Bliley, a Virginia Republican who has been a staunch friend of tobacco for years. ``Buried inside these documents are some of the most lethal hand grenades we've ever seen the industry throw at America's children,'' said Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. ``What's so scary about the revelations is that these documents aren't even the ones that the industry is so afraid to release.'' Unless the remaining documents are released to Congress, he added, the ``tobacco industry can kiss any form of their settlement goodbye.'' The tobacco companies continue to maintain that the documents released Thursday are confidential and protected by attorney-client privilege. Indeed, some of the documents underline how the lawyers succeeded in keeping much industry research secret by wrapping it in the cloak of attorney-client privilege. Beyond that, the companies argue, the nation should focus on the multibillion-dollar settlement's potential -- not history. ``Those who believe 20- or 40-year-old documents merit continuation of legal and regulatory hostilities in lieu of a national legislative solution fail to see what is at stake,'' said a statement Thursday on behalf of Philip Morris Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. and Lorillard Tobacco Co. Ramsey County, Minn., District Judge Kenneth Fitzpatrick late Tuesday upheld the conclusions of special master Mark W. Gehan that the documents contained evidence of crime or fraud and therefore were not protected by attorney-client privilege. The 864 documents were among a larger set of papers the Liggett Group Inc. turned over under seal to Minnesota in March after settling its lawsuit with 20 states suing the tobacco industry. Gehan was appointed to review the contested papers in a much-watched case brought by Minnesota against the tobacco industry. That case is due to go to trial Jan. 20. Minnesota state Attorney General Hubert Humphrey III called the Liggett documents ``only the tip of the iceberg.'' Minnesota has amassed some 250,000 secret industry documents -- 33 million pages -- and is seeking to have all of them released. In releasing Gehan's report, Judge Fitzpatrick said the ``documents reveal a conspiracy of silence and suppression of scientific research.'' That view was echoed by William Novelli, president of the National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids, who said they highlight the industry's efforts to ``pervert scientific inquiry'' into the relationship between smoking and illness. ``This is the antithesis of scientific inquiry,'' Novelli said. ``They sought to block and distort the truth. In a way, this was the beginning of junk science.''
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