Daily Doc: TI, Apr 10, 1985: TI Issue Strategy: Deflect, Redefine, Broaden
Daily Doc: TI Issue Strategy: Deflect, Redefine, Broaden
Title: REPORT ON PUBLIC SMOKING ISSUE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE APRIL 10, 1985
TI, Apr 10, 1985
Bates #: TIMN0013710-3723
October 16, 2000
This is a confidential speech given by the president of the Tobacco Institute to his Executive Committee in 1985 about the the difficulties the industry faces from the environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) issue. It is valuable to anti-tobacco forces for many reasons. First of all, it says clearly that the most effective way to reduce smoking overall is to enact smoking bans:
"...The logical appeal of smoke-free air is irresistible to politicians, commentators, even some smokers. It is the most effective way to reduce smoking."If WE say smoke-free laws are effective at reducing the overall smoking rate, and the INDUSTRY confirms this same thing (as the Tobacco Institute does in this document) then there is no longer any disagreement that smoke-free laws are entirely beneficial to public health. Legislators should take note that both anti-tobacco advocates and the industry are in complete agreement on this point.
[emphasis added]
Also, in this document the president of the Tobacco Institute admits that few people (or entities) other than the tobacco industry itself are motivated to oppose smoking restrictions:
"...We seem to be trying to protect a population without a popular will to join the resistance...."Thirdly, the document reveals the industry's acknowledgment that secondhand smoke exposure will never be proven safe:
"We need to be candid with ourselves in recognizing that it will never be established that there are no effects [from ETS exposure]."And lastly, Mr. Kloepfer's speech lays out the tobacco industry's game-plan for dealing not only with the ETS issue, but with most of the other damaging issues they have faced:
"To summarize, the direction we are headed will be to deflect this [ETS] issue, to redefine it, to broaden it, to demonstrate as we have in the case of accidental fires and youth behavior that we are contributing to the solution rather than to the problem...."Indeed, the industry has re-defined the youth issue as being one of retail clerk behavior and lack of parental control instead of overly-easy access to their products and the resultant widespread pediatric addiction, they have re-defined the issue of cigarette-caused fatal fires into one of fire-department support and flammable fabrics instead of cigarette paper that is chemically treated to assure that cigarettes burn like fuses when left unattended, they have re-defined the issue of secondhand smoke into being one of "problem ventilation," in the process coercing untold numbers of businesses to incur unnecessary expense from installing new ventilation systems to accommodate smokers....
The triple-strategy of 1) deflecting the issue, 2) broadening the issue and 3) appearing to contribute to a solution is seen repeatedly in the documents and it is how the tobacco industry deals with issues that are damaging.
This document will definitely be important to quote from at public hearings for smoke-free laws.
CITATION
Title: REPORT ON PUBLIC SMOKING ISSUE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE APRIL 10, 1985
Type of Document: Report/speech/presentation (confidential)
Author Kloepfer, William of the Tobacco Institute Recipient: Tobacco Institute Executive Committee
Date: 19850410
Site: Tobacco Institute document site http://www.tobaccoinstitute.com/
Page Count 14
Bates No. TIMN0013710-3723
URL: http://my.tobaccodocuments.org/tdo/view.cfm?CitID=9&GetListArrayIdx=2&ShowImages=yes
Litigation Usage: MN Request
Found Using Search Criteria: "Speech and confidential" (on TDO)
QUOTES
The nonsmoker battle for smoke-free air -- more complicated than fire safety, more damaging than restrictions and a greater bottom line threat than excises...The logical appeal of smoke-free air is irresistible to politicians, commentators, even some smokers. It is the most effective way to reduce smoking....The focus is dangerously narrow: ambient smoke. Some of our retaliation is working....We have only begun, however, to take the decisions, make the commitments and exploit the opportunities that can win this battle over the basic social acceptability of smoking.
...We seem to be trying to protect a population without a popular will to join the resistance....
...First, they argue, restrictions save money. To that we have developed effective rejoinders...
....The anti-smokers' second argument is the right to breathe smoke-free air. A number of our initiatives have helped to neutralize its effect. In litigation, we gave the anti-smokers a public relations and legal beating when they tried to force a 19-year employee of the Wisconsin Department of Revenue to stop smoking a pipe of face termination...
...[Businesses] are under pressure. The trend is toward restrictions. The bandwagon is not yet rolling down tobacco road. But at least we are slowing it down with these implementations of our plan. That is not yet the case with the other half of the issue: health.
The anti-smokers have just one argument: cigarette smoke is dangerous. It's a physical assault. We say no one knows if cigarette smoke is dangerous to the smoker, much less to the nonsmoker. ...
...The quickest way to put a dent in the conventional wisdom, of course, is critiquing other peoples' work...
...There have been other times, on other issues, when our immediate future looked no more promising. The fire safety issue and legislation and the Civil Aeronautics Board struggle are examples...
As obvious as it may seem, our objective is to contain and redefine the environmental smoke issue in order to decrease the pressures for safety measures. But, increasingly, we are conscious that we are pursuing it too narrowly, trapped in a battleground designed by adversaries, and wholly defensive.
Our thinking is guided by these conclusions:
1. The opinion is shared by a large public majority and influentials that ambient smoke is probably hazardous can be deflected, not by direct and obviously self-service activities of the Tobacco Institute, but with its generalship in guiding others already interested, and who can become interested, in more fundamental air quality questions.
2. At worse, without specific prompting, the public sees ambient smoke as a relatively minor part of the problem compared with indoor air pollution generally. The trend toward solving the problem simply with a no-smoking sign can be stopped.
3. Respectable scientists know the effects of indoor air substances including cigarette smoke are unknown...Our job is to provide the incentives to get them out of the closet. We need to be candid with ourselves in recognizing that it will never be established that there are no effects.
...So far, our industry is seen as part of the problem, promoting a "dangerous" custom, successfully resisting protective measures, doing nothing to satisfy public expectations....Some aspects of our fight on this issue have contributed to the anti's greater exposure and credibility.
To summarize, the direction we are headed will be to deflect this issue, to redefine it, to broaden it, to demonstrate as we have in the case of accidental fires and youth behavior that we are contributing to the solution rather than to the problem....
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Anne Landman, Regional Program Coordinator
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