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Philip Morris Hid Link to Research Facility and Knew Risks of Secondhand Smoke [11/12-6]
Excerpts from: Tobacco firm allegedly knew risks in '80s
By Judith Graham The Chicago Tribune [11/11/04]
Secret research conducted by cigarette company Philip Morris in the 1980s showed that second-hand smoke was highly toxic, yet the company suppressed the finding during the next two decades, according to an online article being published Thursday by The Lancet, a British medical journal.
The publication comes as the U.S. Justice Department pursues a $280 million fraud case against Philip Morris and five other tobacco companies in federal court in Washington, D.C. The lawsuit, which went to trial in September, is the largest civil racketeering case in history.
Philip Morris attorney John Wunderli called the claims detailed in the Lancet article "distorted and misleading" and said similar allegations had "shown up in lawsuits against the company for years that we've successfully defended against."
But several experts said the Lancet article reveals for the first time that Philip Morris' research documented health risks from second-hand smoke well before the public health community raised an alarm.
When the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. surgeon general reported in the mid-1990s that second-hand smoke could cause cancer, Philip Morris and other tobacco companies disputed that charge.
As recently as April 2002, Philip Morris rejected the claim that second-hand smoke causes disease.
"Even as Philip Morris claimed there was no evidence that second-hand smoke was harmful, its own secret laboratory had conducted literally hundreds of previously undisclosed studies that showed that second-hand smoke was potentially even more harmful than mainstream smoke," said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.
Second-hand smoke is emitted by cigarettes and smokers, and it hangs in the air hours after cigarettes have been extinguished. Public health officials estimate that second-hand smoke contributes to 35,000 to 60,000 deaths a year.
Philip Morris' research on second-hand smoke was conducted at the Institut fur Industrielle und Biologische Forschung GmbH, or INBIFO, a research facility in Germany. Little information about research done at the facility has emerged until the Lancet article.
The European authors of the Lancet article pieced together their article from thousands of documents released under legal settlements reached with the tobacco industry, and other materials. All three authors are advocates for tobacco control.
The authors concluded INBIFO produced almost 800 reports dealing with second-hand smoke between 1981 and 1989. All were based on studies conducted on animals. Most of the important results appear never to have been published, the authors said.
One study looked at the effects on rats of sidestream smoke released by burning cigarettes. It found that the smoke caused significant damage to cells and appeared to be three times more toxic than "mainstream" smoke, which is what smokers breathe in and out. "Sidestream smoke ... showed a higher toxicity in terms of body weight development, food consumptions, rectal temperature and respiratory frequency" as well as "more advanced lesions" and cellular damage, according to a write-up of results. The findings were never published.
Wunderli said Philip Morris would not comment on the scientific debate over second-hand smoke and would "defer to public health authorities and the conclusions they have reached." Whatever evidence INBIFO turned up became "known by other researchers," he said, adding that he wasn't aware that "results of any significance were not published."
That is contradicted by Bill Farone, director of applied research at Philip Morris between 1976 and 1984, who has testified in several trials, including the Justice Department case.
""They had this very elaborate system for sending products over to Europe secretly for testing, and then secretly sending the results back to [a company official] at his home, where they were destroyed," he said in an interview.
Farone said he was told by Philip Morris lawyers that "they did not want the results [of INBIFO testing] to be available here in the U.S. in case the company was sued."
In meetings at Philip Morris, Farone learned that two projects at the company's lab in Switzerland had shown that second-hand smoke leaves a key carcinogen known as NNK in the air as long as six hours after a cigarette is extinguished.
View this entire article from 'The Lancet' (PDF)
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