TY - JOUR T1 - Tobacco industry statements in the US Department of Justice lawsuit JF - Tobacco Control JO - Tob Control SP - 94 LP - 101 DO - 10.1136/tc.12.1.94 VL - 12 IS - 1 AU - H A Waxman Y1 - 2003/03/01 UR - http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/12/1/94.abstract N2 - Over the last half century, the tobacco industry has earned billions of dollars in profits by selling a deadly and addictive product while denying its harmfulness. As criticism of the industry has accelerated in recent years, and calls for product regulation have grown, tobacco companies have defended themselves by saying they are now “responsible” corporations that aim to communicate honestly about their products. A test of whether the industry has reformed is the truthfulness of company statements made under penalty of sanction in a court of law. At the request of Rep. Henry A Waxman, this report examines recently submitted filings by the five largest cigarette manufacturers in the civil suit brought by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). The report assesses the truthfulness of company positions on three critical health issues: (1) the health effects of smoking; (2) the health effects of environmental tobacco smoke; and (3) the addictiveness of nicotine. The report also examines three companies’ statements about previously controversial issues: Philip Morris’s statements on control of nicotine, RJ Reynolds’s statements on marketing to children, and British American Tobacco’s statements on document destruction. The report finds that when forced to take legally binding positions, the tobacco industry still does not accept scientific consensus about the harms of their products. Despite overwhelming agreement among experts that cigarettes cause disease in smokers, that environmental tobacco smoke causes disease in nonsmokers, and that nicotine is addictive, the report finds: Four of five major tobacco companies still question whether smoking causes disease—That smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and other diseases is universally accepted by medical and scientific authorities. Yet Lorillard, British American Tobacco, and Brown & Williamson still qualified their statements on causation, and RJ Reynolds acknowledged only that smoking “may contribute to causing . . .diseases in … ER -