Defendants Made Public Promises to Support Independent Research on the Link Betwen ETS and Disease

In 1982, the Tobacco Institute ran the fifth in its series of advertisements called

¶"Answers to the most asked questions about cigarettes." The advertisements ran in major magazines nationwide, including Newsweek, People, and Sports Illustrated. The advertisement asked, "Does Cigarette Smoke Endanger Nonsmokers?" After disputing the evidence linking passive smoking to lung cancer, the advertisement stated:

Like you, we seek answers. The tobacco industry has committed more funds for independent research on smoking and health than any non-governmental group. More than the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, and the American Lung Association combined. The researchers we fund are encouraged to publish whatever they find. Whatever the outcome. If you'd like more information, write for our booklet, "Answers to the most asked questions about cigarettes."

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¶TIMN0121194-1205 at 1196 (US 85358); see also 93852922-2933 at 2931 (US 21118); TI04591849-1855 at 1853 (US 22028).

In October 1983, the Tobacco Institute ran another advertisement in the series called "Answers to the most asked questions about cigarettes," posing the question "What happens to cigarette smoke in the air?" The 1983 ad, which ran in the Wall Street Journal and other news media, also publicly reiterated Defendants' representation that the industry was funding independent research and was committed to finding scientific answers to questions about smoking and health:

The tobacco industry has committed more funds for independent research on smoking and health than any nongovernmental group. . . . Researchers funded by the tobacco industry are encouraged to publish whatever they find. Whatever the outcome.

¶TLT0601093-1095 at 1094 (US 65131); TLT0601100-1104 at 1101-1102 (US 65133).

Reynolds ran an advertisement in 1984, titled "Smoking and health: some facts you've never heard about." In the ad, Reynolds criticized the Hirayama study and stated:

No one wants to know the answers more than R.J. Reynolds. This is why we are providing major funding for scientific research. The funds are given at arms length to independent scientists who are free to publish whatever they find. We don't know where such research may lead. But this much we can promise: when we find the answers, you'll hear about it.

¶506100136 (US 50882).

In or about 1987, a Tobacco Institute brochure called "Tobacco Smoke and The Nonsmoker: Scientific Integrity at The Crossroads" asserted: "The tobacco industry is therefore devoting substantial resources to the investigation of indoor air quality generally and to the ways in which particular constituents of indoor air -- including tobacco smoke -- may affect human health." 2025364951-5007 at 4954 (US 22173).31

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These public promises were intended to deceive the American public into believing that there was no risk associated with passive smoking and that Defendants would fund objective research to find definitive answers. Instead, over the decades that followed, Defendants took steps to undermine independent research, to fund research designed and controlled to generate industry-favorable results, and to suppress adverse research results.