About The Cigarette Papers

On May 12, 1994, a package containing 4,000 pages of secret internal tobacco industry documents arrived at the office of Professor Stanton Glantz at the University of California, San Francisco. The anonymous source of these "cigarette papers" was identified in the return address only as "Mr. Butts" -- presumably a reference to the Doonesbury cartoon character. These documents provide a shocking inside account of the activities of one tobacco company, Brown & Williamson, and its multinational parent, British American Tobacco, over more than thirty years. Since their disclosure, they have been the subject of headlines around the world. They are also reported to have influenced President Clinton's decision to direct the federal Food and Drug Administration to regulate cigarettes as a nicotine delivery device.

Now The Cigarette Papers provides the definitive examination of these striking documents, combined with other material subpoenaed by Congress and obtained by Professor Glantz. Quoting extensively from the papers and adding needed background and context, this book offers a keyhole view of the tobacco industry, promising to fundamentally change the public's perception of the industry, of tobacco litigation, and of public policy making.

Written by experts with the scientific and legal knowledge to understand the meaning of the documents and explain their importance, The Cigarette Papers show that the tobacco industry's conduct has been more cynical and devious than even its harshest critics had suspected. For more than three decades the industry has internally acknowledged that smoking is addictive and that use of tobacco products causes disease and death. Despite this acknowledgment, the industry has engaged in a variety of tactics to deny its own findings and to convince the public that there is still doubt about the harmful effects of tobacco or that the effects have been exaggerated. These campaigns of disinformation have been designed to maintain company profits, to block government regulation, and to defeat lawsuits filed by individuals with tobacco-caused illnesses. The government and general public, as well as cigarette customers themselves, have been duped.

The Cigarette Papers finally brings the deception to an end by allowing the public to hear the tobacco industry speak in its own words when it thinks no one is listening.