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In this issue of Play It Again we begin with the usual potpourri of “quotes, gaffes, and immortal lines from both friends and foes of tobacco control”. This will be followed by a “best of the worst” sample of the more than 39 000 tobacco industry documents that have been placed on the public record as a part of the Minnesota trial. Gene Borio’s web site < http://www.tobacco.org/Documents/documentquotes.html > lists many more. As we go to press, the Philip Morris collection < http://www.philipmorris.com/ > remains the only one of the five industry group collections that is searchable by keyword. Even here, these keywords are only those contained in the summary information describing each document. Our experience is that there are innumerable gems to be located in innocuous sounding documents whose titles and keywords give few clues to their contents.—Simon Chapman, deputy editor; Ronald M Davis, editor
Potpourri
“We manufacture and sell cigarettes of the highest quality. We produce a legal product enjoyed by millions of adults all over the world. And although smoking is associated with adverse health consequences, those risks are widely known and its devotees find, for them, the pleasure they receive outweighs the risks.”
Paul Adams, Director of Consumer Affairs, BAT, in an address given at the 1997 Tobacco Trade Fair, Prague. In: Tuinstra T. Speaking up—BAT says tobacco industry should take the lead in smoking debate. “Tobacco Reporter” 1997;Dec:30.
“It’s a risk factor but I don’t believe it’s ever been proven that smoking causes disease.”
The old trooper Walker Merryman, director of communications for the US Tobacco Institute, singing the party line. Merryman chose to give up smoking when he had bypass surgery last year. In: “Financial Review” 1998;9 Feb:63.
“On the show I smoke these herbal cigarettes that’re actually kind of horrible-tasting. . . . The only …