TY - JOUR T1 - ‘A brave but vital initiative’: reining in corporate harm JF - Tobacco Control JO - Tob Control SP - 217 LP - 217 DO - 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2013-051153 VL - 22 IS - 4 AU - Ruth E Malone Y1 - 2013/07/01 UR - http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/22/4/217.abstract N2 - Sometime in the 1950s, tobacco companies learned that their cigarettes were causing lung cancer and killing their best customers. Rather than admit the truth and pull their deadly products from the market, we know now that they engaged in multiple elaborate and expensive campaigns aimed at the creation of controversy and confusion.1 Subsequently, they fought virtually every important tobacco control measure ever introduced, either overtly or covertly (and sometimes both) to protect shareholder profits. Meanwhile, they continued business as usual. Even after their deceptions were finally exposed, no government has ever stopped them from continuing to sell cigarettes—not even for a single day. In some ways, they set the precedent that other industries have followed. After the latest American mass shooting (this time at an elementary school), many federal legislators stoutly called for new gun control measures. But in the end, the US Senate defeated gun control measures that were … ER -