Daily Doc: PM, Feb 17, 1988: PM's Global ETS Conspiracy
Daily Doc: PM's Global ETS Conspiracy
Title: NOTE ON A SPECIAL MEETING OF THE UK INDUSTRY ON ENVIRONMENTAL TOBACCO SMOKE LONDON,
PM, Feb 17, 1988
Bates #: 2063791193/1198
August 23, 2000
This amazing document reveals Philip Morris (PM) as the ringleader in a global conspiracy to create and maintain a controversy about the health effects of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). The project, (conceived by Philip Morris and later named "The Whitecoat Project" after the white coats that scientists wear) proved to be a tremendously expensive undertaking, even for PM. To this end, PM arranged this 1988 meeting to describe their plan to their British counterparts and then to solicit financial support for their activities:
"Philip Morris presented to the UK industry their global strategy on environmental tobacco smoke. In every major international area (USA, Europe, Australia, Far East, South America, Central American and Spain) they are proposing, in key countries, to set up a team of scientists organized by one national coordinating scientist and American lawyers, to review scientific literature or carry out work on ETS to keep the controversy alive..."(emphasis added).
"...Because of the heavy financial burden, Philip Morris are inviting other companies to join them in these activities to whatever extent individual companies deem to be appropriate. "
PM's clandestine method of recruiting scientific consultants for the project is laid out:
"...The [scientific] consultants should, ideally, according to Philip Morris, be European scientists who have had no previous connections with tobacco companies and who have no previous record on the primary [health] issue which might, according to Remes, lead to problems of attribution. The mechanism by which they identify their consultants is as follows: they ask a couple of scientists in each country...to produce a list of potential consultants. The scientists are then contacted by these coordinators or by the lawyers and asked if they are interested in problems of Indoor Air Quality: tobacco is not mentioned at this stage. CV's are obtained and obvious "anti-smokers" or those with "unsuitable backgrounds" are filtered out..."The activities of the scientists who were successfully recruited were then carefully controlled and their research results "filtered":
"Philip Morris then expect the group of scientists to operate within the confines of decisions taken by PM scientists to determine the general direction of research, which apparently would then be 'filtered' by lawyers to eliminate areas of sensitivity."This document, and others discovered by ASH UK that prove that PM actually carried out these plans, vindicate public health workers who have so long been working to warn the world's populace about the dangers of secondhand tobacco smoke. When up against the clandestine global effort of the Philip Morris Tobacco to obscure the truth, however, it has been nothing short of an epic battle. The efforts of Philip Morris have left the world's people decades behind where they should be in eliminating people's exposure to ETS.
CITATION
Title: NOTE ON A SPECIAL MEETING OF THE UK INDUSTRY ON ENVIRONMENTAL TOBACCO SMOKE LONDON, 880217
Type of Document: Report (actually these are minutes of a meeting)
Author Dr. Sharon Boyse, British American Tobacco Company (BAT)
Recipient: N/A
Date: 19880217/E
Site: Philip Morris Tobacco Company Document Site http://www.pmdocs.com/
Page Count 6
Bates No. 2063791181/1187
URL: (of entire document) http://www.pmdocs.com/getallimg.asp?DOCID=2063791193/1198
URL of first page: (clicking this URL preserves the ability to magnify the document, which you will need to do) http://www.pmdocs.com/getimg.asp?pgno=0&start=0&bool=Note%20on%20a%20Special%20Meeting%20of%20&docid=2063791182/1187&docnum=2
Litigation Usage: N/A
Thanks to: ASH of the UK for posting information on this, and other documents, it that prove Philip Morris actually carried out this plan.
QUOTES
Notes on a Special Meeting of the UK Industry on Environmental Tobacco Smoke London, February 17th, 1988.
Present:
Mr. K. Williams, Mr. P. Brown, Mr. B. Prost - Rothmans Dr. H. Gaisch, Mr. D. Oxberry - Philip Morris Mr. M. Whittaker - Imperial
Mr. A.J. Helmes - Gallaher
Dr. S. Boyse - BAT
Mr. D.H. Remes - Covington Burling, USA
Dr. G.B. Leslie - Bioassay Ltd.
Summary
Philip Morris presented to the UK industry their global strategy on environmental tobacco smoke. In every major international area (USA, Europe, Australia, Far East, South America, Central American and Spain) they are proposing, in key countries, to set up a team of scientists organized by one national coordinating scientist and American lawyers, to review scientific literature or carry out work on ETS to keep the controversy alive. They are spending vast sums of money to do so, and on the European front, Covington and Burling, lawyers for the Tobacco Institute in the USA, are proposing to set up a London office from March 1988 to coordinate these activities. The countries in Europe where they have already been working are the UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and Scandinavia (via Sweden)...
Because of the heavy financial burden, Philip Morris are inviting other companies to join them in these activities to whatever extent individual companies deem to be appropriate. Presumably they expect interested companies to respond on an individual basis; it is perhaps significant that they did not hold this meeting through the Tobacco Advisory council. Although action on Environmental Tobacco Smoke is becoming vital to the industry, Philip Morris strategy is perhaps questionable in some respects e.g. involvement of lawyers at such a fundamental scientific level and disadvantages in perception of what will only be perceived as a "pro-industry" group of scientists.
Dr. Thornton had been invited to attend this meeting by Rothmans at their headquarters in Mayfair; in fact, the meeting turned out to be organised by Philip Morris...
... The aim of the meeting was for Philip Morris to present to the industry their global strategy on environmental tobacco smoke and how they propose to apply it to the UK. They apparently hoped both to inform the UK industry, out of courtesy, about what they were planning, and also if appropriate to marshall either financial or moral support for the idea.
Dr. Gaisch said that their strategy on ETS had been established in the USA at a meeting between Philip Morris and Covington and Burling, the lawyers acting for the Tobacco Institute of the USA....
The Philip Morris philosophy of ETS was presented. This appeared to revolve around the selection, in all possible countries, of a group of scientists either to critically review the scientific literature on ETS to maintain the controversy, or to carry out research on ETS. In each country a group of scientists would be carefully selected, and organised by a national coordinating scientist.
David Remes presented the approach of the U.S. lawyers, and said that he believed their function to be to act as intermediaries between the consultants and industry and also to indicate "areas of sensitivity" on ETS research. He was not prepared to elaborate on these areas of sensitivity or on the stage at which any filtering process would be carried out. He noted that in the USA, their strategy at first had been to meet short term "emergencies" by presenting teams of witnesses e.g. Witorsch, Gray Robertson. He did, however, acknowledge that this kind of roadshow would be unlikely to be acceptable in Europe...
...The [scientific] consultants should, ideally, according to Philip Morris, be European scientists who have had no previous connections with tobacco companies and who have no previous record on the primary [health] issue which might, according to Remes, lead to problems of attribution. The mechanism by which they identify their consultants is as follows: they ask a couple of scientists in each country...to produce a list of potential consultants. The scientists are then contacted by these coordinators or by the lawyers and asked if they are interested in problems of Indoor Air Quality: tobacco is not mentioned at this stage. CV's are obtained and obvious "anti-smokers" or those with "unsuitable backgrounds" are filtered out. The remaining scientists are sent a literature pack containing approximately 10 hours of reading matter including "anti-ETS" articles. They are asked for a genuine opinion as independent consultants, and if they indicate an interest in proceeding further a Philip Morris scientist makes contact.
Philip Morris then expect the group of scientists to operate within the confines of decisions taken by PM scientists to determine the general direction of research, which apparently would then be "filtered" by lawyers to eliminate areas of sensitivity.
Their idea is that the groups of scientists should be able to produce research or stimulate controversy in such a way that public affairs people in the relevant countries would be able to make use of, or market, the information...
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