Quotes of the Day

["The Insider"] is a movie, fiction, but it may deal with some of the issues we are discussing here. . . Please do me a favor and don't go see it.

Judge Robert Kaye, to the Engle jurors. Quoted in Class Action Tobacco Jury Warned Against Seeing `The Insider' Bloomberg News, 11/4/99

a total lack of progress

Michael Eriksen, director of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health, on the latest smoking rates data. Quoted in Little Progress In Reducing U.S. Smoking -US Study Reuters, 11/4/99

Mississippi AG Michael Moore, on seeing the shirt worn by Michael Tacelosky at DC's "Insider" premiere.

How can we as teachers tell our kids not to smoke and to respect human rights when we as teachers are investing our own retirement moneys in these tobacco companies?

United Teachers-Los Angeles human rights committee Chairwoman Karen Erlich. the powerful UTLA has voted to urge the California State Teachers Retirement System to drop 19 tobacco companies from its portfolio. Quoted in L.A. Teachers Want Pension Fund to Dump Tobacco Stocks Los Angeles Times, 11/3/99

We attribute [the fire] to smoking in the nest.

Clifton, NJ, Deputy Fire Chief Thomas Lyons, on the fire started by an animal who brought a lit cigarette to its nest. Quoted in Cigarette in animal's nest causes Clifton plant blaze The Bergen (NJ) Record, 11/3/99

I have probably handled more benzopyrene than all of the anti-tobacco people put together. . . Then you'd go through a whole step of reactions, and every compound I made was tumorigenic (tumor-producing) in an animal in some way or another, and I've still got all of my fingers and I'm still here.

RJR researcher Alan Rodgman. RJR researcher in Lost Empire: Chapter 5, Part 3: Selling Smoke Winston-Salem Journal, 11/3/99

While I know that it was lawsuits and public outcry and the rest that brought them [Philip Morris] to the decisions they made, I must say that we do applaud their efforts.

The Rev. Edward Branch, president of the Council of Baptist Pastors of Detroit and Vicinity. Quoted in Philip Morris, pastors meet Detroit Free Press, 11/3/99

[T]hese lawsuits [against tobacco, gun and other industries] raise the issue of whether the courts and the trial attorneys, or the democratically elected legislatures of this country, should set policy for the American people.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. Quoted in GOP Questions Government Lawsuits AP, 11/2/99

The blend used for many gray market cigarettes is materially different from the blend used for the same brand style manufactured for U.S. smokers. . . If you sell such product to smokers in the U.S., you violate RJR's trademark rights and also violate your contractual agreement with RJR.

Jan. 20, 1999 RJR form letter received by Duluth Tobacco and Gifts. Tobacco companies get tough on retailers over gray market cigs; could they be as tough over sales to minors? Quoted in Gray market cigarettes causing controversy Pioneer Press, 11/2/99

They are going after the facts. . . If there is anything harmful in tobacco or cigarettes, we want to know about it quicker than anyone else.

RJR President Edward A. Darr, speaking in 1954 on the newly-formed Tobacco Industry Research Committee. Quoted in Lost Empire: Chapter 5, Part 1: Guilt by Association / RJR puts chemists on the case and a leash on the chemists Winston-Salem Journal, 11/1/99

This one jury has the ability and appears to have the desire to completely dismantle the tobacco industry as we know it. . . These are very much uncharted waters. . . No one really knows what will happen with Engle because there has never been a case like this before.

Tobacco litigation consultant Mary Aronson. Quoted in Tobacco suit could bankrupt firms Raleigh News & Observer, 11/1/99