Tobacco.org

Smokescreen, by Phil Hilts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Tracey George 212/463-8591
Jennifer Prost 212/463-8496

PUBLICATION DATE:
May 20, 1996

April 2, 1996--Addison-Wesley announced today that it will accelerate the publication of an expose of the tobacco industry by New York Times writer Philip J. Hilts. The decision was made in response to the sudden ground swell of national outrage over the tobacco industry cover-up, and to the forthcoming publication of an historical overview of the industry by another publisher. Originally scheduled for Fall 1996, the new publication date for SMOKESCREEN: The Truth Behind the Tobacco Industry Cover-up will be May 20th.

"The American public has a right to know the full depth of the tobacco industry's deceit and cover-up," said Addison-Wesley Vice President and Publisher David Goehring." SMOKESCREEN presents those facts in a way that will make any reader's blood boil. It will rock the tobacco industry and will make readers think hard about how well Congress is looking after the best interests of American citizens. Most of all, SMOKESCREEN will keep them up all night reading to find out how industry leaders have gotten away with so much for so long."

Philip Hilts is the reporter who broke the first of the now infamous internal documents--the Brown and Williamson Papers--in 1994. "Hilts is obviously the right man to write this book, since he was a key player in exposing the cover-up in the first place," said Addison-Wesley Senior Editor Henning Gutmann, who signed the book. "His 80-plus articles for The Times, including more than 20 on the front page, successfully pushed the issue to the top of the national agenda. There is no one better equipped to bring this story to life, sorting out all the late-breaking details (into April 1996) concerning the major industry players, the numerous class action and government lawsuits, and the imminent regulation of cigarettes by the FDA."

SMOKESCREEN is the most current and accessible of the books scheduled to be published on the subject of tobacco this spring. It includes inside information from 1953, when the public first learned about the link between cigarette smoke and cancer, up to the latest newsbreaks from the current Congressional hearings. In contrast, a book by Richard Kluger to be published by Knopf, Ashes to Ashes: America¹s Hundred-Year Cigarette War, the Public Health, and the Unabashed Triumph of Philip Morris, is an eight-hundred-page history of tobacco from the colonial period through the rise of Philip Morris. Its coverage does not fully document the tobacco wars of the past five years.

SMOKESCREEN cuts right to the heart of what has enraged the American public. It contains:

• A detailed picture of how one company markets cigarettes to children as young as twelve years old, along with its surveys of these youngsters to determine what they want. Also included is material never before published on RJR's marketing to what they euphemistically call "young adults."
• Fresh documents that are not in any other book--including the deposition of Brown & Williamson (B&W) researcher Jeffrey Wigand, the statements of the three Philip Morris executives who broke ranks recently, and details from inside the ABC-Philip Morris lawsuit that have not been published anywhere.
• The first inside picture of what is going on at the Food and Drug Administration, which is planning to regulate cigarettes as a drug for the first time. The FDA is expected to release its final plan to regulate cigarettes this summer.
• An inside look at politics in Washington and why Congress has voted with tobacco interests year after year, including dollar figures on how much money key Congressmen take from them.
• A chapter on the fakery used to make modern cigarettes (only about half of a modern cigarette is tobacco leaf; the rest includes everything from scraps off the floor to ammonia).
• A profile of the most important whistle-blower, Merrell Williams, with new material never before published about his life and his motives in taking the B&W papers.
• Exclusive material on the RJR "safe" cigarette that is ready to be launched as one way out of the current wars, and how the cigarette was developed.

Not since Den of Thieves has there been a book like SMOKESCREEN . Front-page-making investigative journalism with real villains, heroes, and a roller-coaster ride of a story.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: PHILIP J. HILTS is a writer on health and science policy for The New York Times, and a three-time recipient of The New York Times Publishing Award. He is the author of Scientific Temperaments (1982), which was a National Book Award finalist and, most recently, Memory¹s Ghost (1995), about the strange life of a man who lost all but his short-term memory. Publishers Weekly proclaimed it a "stimulating, resonant, beautifully written investigation. . ." and The New York Times Book Review said of the book, "Few tales of science are more fascinating." Philip Hilts is currently a fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health. He lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.

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ABOUT THE BOOK:

SMOKESCREEN: The Truth Behind the Tobacco Industry Cover-up
by Philip J. Hilts
Hardcover/$22.00/288 pp.
ISBN: 0-201-48836-1
Publication Date: May 20, 1996

MARKETING & PUBLICITY:

Addison-Wesley will launch a $100,000 marketing campaign including a 20-city National Radio Drive Time Tour; National Author Tour; National Media Campaign; and Major National Advertising Campaign.