ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, October 8, 1996 TAG: 9610080095
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ST. PAUL, MINN.
SOURCE: Associated Press
A tobacco company in 1980 considered acknowledging that cigarettes can cause cancer but feared losing U.S. lawsuits, according to an internal memo filed in a state lawsuit Monday.
``This is an astounding disclosure,'' said Minnesota Attorney General Hubert Humphrey III.
Ranking tobacco executives ``considered finally confessing the truth about tobacco and health for the sake of their `integrity,''' he said, but ``obviously chose instead to perpetuate their deadly cover-up.''
The 14-page internal memo is from T.W. Kidd of British-American Tobacco Co. Ltd., parent of the U.S. maker of Kools and Lucky Strikes.
It recommended admitting that smoking, combined with factors such as ``genetic predisposition, air pollution and psychological temperament,'' could cause lung cancer, emphysema and other respiratory and coronary diseases in a small minority of smokers.
Officials with the Minnesota attorney general's office said Monday that they didn't know whether the memo's author was a high-placed employee. British-American Tobacco attorneys said it wasn't clear whether the same person wrote the entire memo.
Whoever the author, the 14-page memo clearly advocated going public with the bad news about cigarette smoking and cancer.
``Our integrity is seriously in question over our position on causation,'' the memo said. ``This problem has made us seem to lack credibility in the eyes of the ordinary man in the street. Somehow we must regain this credibility.''
Admitting a link between cigarettes and disease would put the company in a more credible position to defend smoking, promote ``safer'' cigarettes, and market in developing countries, the memo said.
However, the memo said, ``If the predictions of the U.S. lawyers are correct, we could lose a cancer suit, and this could lead to a new `industry' in America and elsewhere, that of suing tobacco companies, costing a lot of money.''
The memo was filed by state prosecutors in Minnesota, one of 17 states seeking to recover Medicaid costs spent treating tobacco-related illnesses.
Attorneys for the state found the document among truckloads of paper being deposited in warehouses in Minneapolis and London as part of the court's discovery process.
LENGTH: Medium: 51 linesby CNB