Conclusions

Conclusions

¶3859. Scientists have been concerned about the health effects of environmental tobacco smoke since at least the late 1960s, after the issuance of the Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health. However, no scientific consensus about the hazards of ETS to non-smokers (particularly to babies and young children), as well as to smokers who also inhale the sidestream smoke which is a component of ETS, was reached until 1986. That year the Surgeon General issued his Report concluding that ETS is a cause of disease and that children of smoking parents have a higher frequency of respiratory infections and symptoms; the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences issued its report on "Environmental Tobacco Smoke, Measuring Exposures and Assessing Health Effects," concluding that ETS increases the incidence of lung cancer in nonsmokers and that children of smoking parents suffer greater respiratory problems; and the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) issued its Monograph concluding that tobacco smoke is carcinogenic to humans.

¶3860. Significantly, Defendants were well aware of, and worried about, this issue as early as 1961 when a Philip Morris scientist presented a paper showing that 84% of cigarette smoke was composed of sidestream smoke, and that sidestream smoke contained carcinogens. In addition to understanding, early on, that there was a strong possibility that ETS posed a serious health danger to smokers, Defendants also understood the financial ramifications of such a conclusion. In 1974, the Tobacco Institute's president Horace Kornegay acknowledged that indoor air restrictions designed to defuse the passive smoking issue "could lead to the virtual elimination of cigarette smoking." In 1980, the CEO of R.J. Reynolds, Ed Horrigan, stated that "We all know that probably the biggest threat to our industry is the issue of passive smoking." In the 1990s, a Philip Morris report identified "the social acceptability of smoking practices [as] the most critical issue that our industry is facing today . . . Attacks on acceptability are almost exclusively based on claims that ETS can cause diseases in the exposed population."

¶3861. Despite the fact that Defendants' own scientists were increasingly persuaded of the strength of the research showing the dangers of ETS to nonsmokers, Defendants mounted a comprehensive, coordinated, international effort to undermine and discredit this research. Defendants poured money and resources into establishing a network of interlocking organizations. They identified, trained, and subsidized "friendly" scientists through their Global Consultancy Program, and sponsored symposia all over the world from Vienna to Tokyo to Bermuda to Canada featuring those "friendly" scientists, without revealing their substantial financial ties to Defendants. They conducted a mammoth national and international public relations campaign to criticize and trivialize scientific reports demonstrating the health hazards of ETS to nonsmokers and smokers.

¶3862. Defendants still continue to deny the full extent to which ETS can harm nonsmokers and smokers. Some Defendants, such as BATCo, R. J. Reynolds, and Lorillard, flatly deny that secondhand smoke causes disease and other adverse health effects; some, such as Brown & Williamson, claim it's still "an open question"; and others, such as Philip Morris, say that they don't take a position and that the public should follow the recommendations of the public health authorities. To this day, no Defendant fully acknowledges that the danger exists.

At Various Times, Defendants Attempted to and Did Suppress and Conceal Scientific Research and Destroy Documents Relevant to Their Public and Litigation Positions

¶3863. Defendants attempted to and, at times, did prevent/stop ongoing research, hide existing research, and destroy sensitive documents in order to protect their public positions on smoking and health, avoid or limit liability for smoking and health related claims in litigation, and prevent regulatory limitations on the cigarette industry.

¶3864. The evidence of Defendants' suppression of research and destruction of documents consists of events which often seem to be unrelated and to lack a unifying thread. Defendants claim these facts, most of which are undisputed, amount to no more than a string of isolated instances which prove nothing. This explanation misses the point. The evidence is clear that on a significant number of occasions, Defendants did in fact suppress research and destroy documents to protect themselves and the industry. The fact that much additional evidence may be lacking because Defendants were successful in their efforts to suppress, conceal, and destroy materials that would have reflected adversely on their corporate interests is hardly a justification for ignoring the evidence that does exist. Moreover, in those instances where Defendants did successfully suppress, conceal, and destroy materials, it is most unlikely that there would be any evidence to reflect that since it would no longer exist. By destroying evidence, Defendants make it virtually impossible to know what materials existed prior to their destruction.