[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 17 (Wednesday, February 7, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1154-S1158]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
OPEN TOBACCO HEARINGS ARE NEEDED
Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I rise to make a few comments about
Sunday's ``60 Minutes'' program on Dr. Jeffrey Wigand and his
statements about what went on inside the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co.
Mr. President, for those who did not see this interview, Dr. Wigand
told the Nation that Brown & Williamson acknowledged that cigarettes
are a ``nicotine delivery'' device and that senior management rejected
his efforts to make their tobacco products safer.
Dr. Wigand also claimed that Brown & Williamson knowingly used
carcinogens in their tobacco products.
Mr. President, if these allegations were found to be true--if Brown &
Williamson knew that nicotine was addictive, if the company knew that
its products contained carcinogens, if it withheld this information
from the public and this resulted in unnecessary death and disease--it
would be absolutely unconscionable.
Mr. President, I ask that a transcript of this interview be printed
in the Record following my remarks.
Mr. President, these accusations made by Dr. Wigand are extremely
serious and I believe that Congress and the American people should
fully understand the real dangers of tobacco products and all of the
recent allegations involving the tobacco industry.
Mr. President, there is so much activity and confusion about tobacco
these days.
Let me tell my colleagues about some of the legal matters that are
currently pending:
Five States are actively suing the tobacco companies for Medicaid
costs associated with tobacco related illnesses of their residents.
Other States are seriously considering similar action, including my
home State.
On the Federal level, I have introduced legislation to recoup all
Medicare and Medicaid costs spent on tobacco related illnesses, some
$20 billion a year, directly from the tobacco companies.
There is a multibillion-dollar class action suit against the tobacco
companies going on in New Orleans. It is commonly referred to as the
Castano case. The plaintiffs are former smokers and survivors who claim
that the tobacco companies knew that nicotine was addictive and
dangerous but never told their customers.
There is a Justice Department probe underway to investigate whether
the seven tobacco companies' CEO's perjured themselves before
Congressman Waxman's subcommittee when they testified they did not
believe nicotine was addictive.
Because of all of these current legal activities, there have been
numerous leaks about the dangers of tobacco in the print and television
media. However, Congress and the American people are only getting bits
and pieces of the entire story because of the intense legal climate
surrounding this entire issue.
This is why I wrote a letter to Senators Kassebaum and Kennedy asking
them to hold hearings in the Labor and Human Resources Committee about
the entire tobacco issue. I have spoken personally to Senator Kassebaum
and she assured me that she would seriously consider this request. I
also spoke with Senator Kennedy who is deeply interested in all health
issues including the health effects of tobacco and would like to set up
hearings on this subject.
Mr. President, I ask that a copy of this letter be printed in the
Record following my remarks.
Mr. President, the Congress, on behalf of the American people, needs
to find out the truth about the addictive nature of nicotine, the
health effects of tobacco use and all of the recent allegations
involving the tobacco industry. We need this information so that we can
evaluate the need for legislation regulating the tobacco industry and
trying to recoup the cost of tobacco related illnesses.
It is clear that the only way for Congress and the American people to
get all of this information is to have open hearings in the Senate--so
that we can secure for the record as much information as possible.
On the House side, unfortunately, there is little chance of hearings.
Congressman Bliley, from Richmond, VA, chairman of the Commerce
Committee, has indicated that his committee will not permit these
issues to be aired.
I hope that things will be different in the Senate. I hope that both
Democrats and Republicans will see the value in holding hearings on
this critical issue. Only then, will the Congress and the public be
fully informed about the dangers of a product that takes over 400,000
lives per year.
Mr. President, we cannot sit idly by and listen to these types of
allegations and do nothing.
The material follows:
Transcript From 60 Minutes, February 4, 1966
Mike Wallace. A story we set out to report six months ago
has now turned into two stories: how cigarettes can destroy
people's lives; and how one cigarette company is trying to
destroy the reputation of a man who refused to keep quiet
about what he says he learned when he worked for them. The
Company is Brown & Williamson, America's third-largest
tobacco company. The man they've set out to destroy is Dr.
Jeffrey Wigand, their former $300,000 a year director of
research.
They employed prestigious law firms to sue him, a high-
powered investigation firm to probe every nook and cranny of
his life. And they hired a big-time public relations
consultant to help them plant damaging stories about him in
The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and others. But
the Journal reported the story for what they though it was.
``Scant evidence'' was just one of their comments.
CBS management wouldn't let us broadcast our original story
and our interview with Jeffrey Wigand because they were
worried about the possibility of a multibillion dollar
lawsuit against us for ``tortions'' interference--that is,
interfering with Wigand's confidentiality agreement with
Brown & Williamson. But now things have changed. Last week
The Wall Street Journal got hold of and published a
confidential deposition Wigand gave in a Mississippi case, a
November deposition that repeated many of the charges he made
to us last August. And while a lawsuit is still a
possibility, not putting Jeffrey Wigand's story on 60 minutes
no longer is.
[Footage of Wigand; Brown & Williamson Tower; cigarettes on
machine; of tobacco on conveyor belt; tobacco executives
testifying before Congress.]
Wallace (Voiceover). What Dr. Wigand told us in that
original interview was that his former colleagues, executives
of Brown & Williamson tobacco, knew all along that their
tobacco products, their cigarettes and pipe tobacco,
contained additives that increased the danger of disease; and
further, that they had long known that the nicotine in
tobacco is an addictive drug, despite their public statement
to the countrary, like the testimony before Congress of Dr.
Wigand's former boss, B&W chief executive officer Thomas
Sandefur.
Mr. Thomas Sandefur (Chief Executive Officer, Brown &
Williamson). I believe that nicotine is not addictive.
Dr. Jeffrey Wigand (Testifying Against Brown & Williamson).
I believe he perjured himself because----
[[Page S1155]]
[Footage of congressional hearing.]
Dr. Wigand (Voiceover). I watched those testimonies very
carefully.
Wallace (Voiceover). All of us did. There was the whole
line of people-the-the whole line of CEOs up there, all
swearing that----
Dr. Wigand: And part of the reason I'm here is I felt that
their representation, clearly--at least within Brown &
Williamson's representation, clearly, misstated what they
commonly knew as language within the company: that we're in a
nicotine-delivery business.
Wallace. And that's what cigarettes are for.
Dr. Wigand. Most certainly. It's a delivery device for
nicotine.
Wallace. A delivery device for nicotine.
Dr. Wigand. Nicotine.
Wallace. Put it in your mouth, light it up and you're going
to get your fix.
Dr. Wigand. You'll get your fix.
Wallace. Dr. Wigand says that Brown & Williamson
manipulates and adjusts that nicotine fix, not by
artificially adding nicotine, but by enhancing the effect of
the nicotine through the use of chemical additive like
ammonia. This process is know in the tobacco industry as
``impact boosting.
Dr. Wigand. While not spiking nicotine, they clearly
manipulate it.
[Footage of Brown & Williamson Root Technology handbook.]
Wallace (Voiceover). The process is described in Brown &
Williamson's leaf blender's manual and in other B&W
documents.
Dr. Wigand. There's extensive use of this technology, which
is called ammonia chemistry, that allows for nicotine to be
more rapidly absorbed in the lungs and, therefore, affect the
brain and central nervous system.
[Footage of documents in file cabinet; computer screen;
Williams walking; Glantz; Journal of the American Medical
Association.]
Wallace (Voiceover). And then there are these documents,
thousands of pages of confidential scientific reports and
legal memoranda from B&W's secret files, which experts say
support Dr. Wigand's claim that Brown & Williamson's
executives have had strong reason to believe all along that
nicotine is addictive and that their tobacco products cause
cancer and other diseases. Most of these documents had been
locked away in B&W's lawyers' confidential files in
Louisville, Kentucky, until this man, the paralegal in that
law office, Merrill Williams, walked off with them. The
documents found their way to Dr. Stanton Glantz, a professor
of medicine at the University of California Medical Center in
San Francisco. It was Dr. Glantz and a team of scientists
from the university who wrote about the documents this past
summer in a series of articles in the Journal of the American
Medical Association.
What is the story that the documents told you?
Dr. Stanton Glantz (University of California Medical
Center). They told me that 30 years ago Brown & Williamson
and British-American Tobacco, its parent, knew nicotine was
an addictive drug, and they knew smoking caused cancer and
other diseases.
[Footage of Glantz.]
Wallace (Voiceover). And Dr. Glantz says these documents
reveal how Brown & Williamson was keeping that knowledge from
the public.
Dr. Glantz. And they also developed very sophisticated
legal strategies to keep this information away from the
public, to keep this information away from public health
authorities.
Wallace. Dr. Wigand said that the cigarette is basically a
nicotine delivery instrument. That's what it's really all
about.
Dr. Glantz. Yes, absolutely. And they--in the documents,
they say that over and over and over again.
[Footage of smokers.]
Wallace (Voiceover). And finding a way to deliver that
nicotine to the smoker's brain without exposing smokers to
disease-causing pollutants, like tar that come with tobacco
smoke, is one reason, says Dr. Wigand, that he was hired by
B&W on January 1st, 1989.
Dr. Wigand. They were looking to reduce the hazards within
cigarettes, reduce the carcinogenic components--or--or list
the carcinogens that were within the tobacco products.
Wallace. They talked about carcinogens to you?
Dr. Wigand. Talked about carcinogens----
Wallace. They talked about cancer and heart disease and
emphysema and all of those things----
Dr. Wigand. They talked about----
Wallace. ----and they were going to work toward making a
safer cigarette? You must have been very excited.
Dr. Wigand. I was enthusiastic and energetic in terms of
pursuing that.
[Footage of Wigand; a smoker.]
Wallace. Dr. Jeffrey Wigand, with a doctorate in
biochemistry, had spent nearly 20 years working in the
health-care and biotechnology industries. He says his goal at
B&W was to make a cigarette that would be less likely to
cause disease.
Dr. Wigand (Voiceover). People will continue to smoke no
matter what, no matter what kind of regulations.
If you can provide for those who are smoking and who need
to smoke something that produces less risk for them--I
thought I was going to be making a difference.
[Footage of newspaper story of Wigand.]
Wallace (Voiceover). Brown & Williamson made Jeff Wigand
vice president for R&D, paying him more than $300,000 a year
in salary and perks.
Dr. Wigand. And I was very inquisitive when I came on.
``Have you ever done any nicotine studies? Have you done any
pharmacology studies? Have you done any biological studies?
Have you looked at the effect of nicotine on the central
nervous system?'' And they always, general categorically,
``No, we don't do that kind of work.''
[Footage of Brown & Williamson Tower; Wigand.]
Wallace (Voiceover). But according to those thousands of
pages from B&W and its parent, British-American tobacco's,
confidential files, the company had, in fact, done exactly
those kinds of studies. Dr. Wigand says he did not suspect
there was anything wrong until he attended a meeting of
scientists who worked for British-American tobacco companies
from around the world. Dr. Wigand says that his colleagues
talked about working together to develop a safer, a less-
hazardous cigarette, a cigarette less likely to cause
disease. But when it came time to write up their ideas, to
create a documentary record of their discussion, B&W's
lawyers intervened.
Dr. Wigand. The minutes that came in were roughly about 18
pages long describ--the co--I knew what was in the content.
The--they were rewritten by Kendrick Wells. They were--
Wallace. Who's he?
Dr. Wigand. Kendrick Wells was the--one of the staff
attorneys at B&W.
Wallace. And he rewrote the minutes of the meeting?
Dr. Wigand. He rewrote the minutes of the meeting. He
edited out the discussions on safer cigarette and, basically,
toned the meeting down.
Wallace. You're saying that one of the staff attornyes from
B&W, here in the United States, whose name was----
Dr. Wigand. Kendrick Wells.
Wallace. ----an attorney----
Dr. Wigand. Mm-hmm.
Wallace. ----rewrote the minutes of this research meeting
with all of the research heads of BAT Industries----
Dr. Wigand. That's correct.
Wallace. ----in order to sanitize it, in a sense.
Dr. Wigand. Sanitize it, as well as reduce any type of
exposure associated with discussing a safer cigarette. When
you say you're going to have a safer cigarette----
Wallace. Mm-hmm.
Dr. Wigand. ----but that now takes everything else that you
have available and say it--it's unsafe, and that from a
products liability point of view, gave the lawyers great
concern.
[Footage of Wells; files; cigarettes on conveyor belt;
files.]
Wallace (Voiceover). Kendrick Wells, the lawyer Dr. Wigand
says deleted materials from the minutes of the scientific
meeting, is now the assistant general counsel of B&W. Why
would B&W lawyers like Kendrick Wells be so concerned?
According to B&W's own confidential files, any evidence, any
documents that show any B&W tobacco product, like Kools or
Viceroys, might be unsafe, those documents would have to be
produced in court as part of any lawsuit filed by a smoker or
his surviving family. And according to the lawyers, those
documents could be disastrous for B&W. So the lawyers took
over.
Dr. Wigand (Voiceover). The lawyers intervened.
And then they purged documents every time there was a
reference to a word ``less hazardous'' or ``safer.''
[Footage of Wigand.]
Wallace (Voiceover). But Dr. Wigand says the lawyers'
interference, their editing and review of his reports, did
not stop him.
Dr. Wigand. And I started asking more probing questions and
I started digging deeper and deeper. As I dug deeper and
deeper, I started getting a bodyguard.
Wallace. What do you mean a bodyguard?
Dr. Wigand. I went to a meeting; I now was accompanied by a
lawyer. My bodyguard was Kendrick Wells.
[Footage of Wigand; photo of Sandefur.]
Wallace (Voiceover). Frustrated by the lawyers'
intervention and presence at major scientific meetings, Dr.
Wigand says he took his complaints to Thomas Sandefur, then
the president of B&W.
What'd he say to you?
Dr. Wigand. ``I don't want to hear any more discussion
about a safer cigarette.''
[Still shot of B&W executive.]
Wallace (Voiceover). And he says Thomas Sandefur went on to
tell him----
Dr. Wigand. ``We pursue a safer cigarette, it would put us
at extreme exposure with every other product. I don't want to
hear about it anymore.''
Wallace. All the people who were dying from cigarettes.
Dr. Wigand. Essentially, yes.
Wallace. Cancer----
Dr. Wigand. Cancer.
Wallace. ----heart disease, things of that nature.
Dr. Wigand. Emphysema.
[Still shot of Sandefur; footage of Wigand.]
Wallace. (Voiceover). Lawyers representing B&W and Thomas
Sandefur have said that all this, as well as other accounts
of conversations with Thomas Sandefur, are absolutely false.
We asked Dr. Wigand what his reaction was to what he says was
Sandefur's decision to abandon a safer cigarette.
Dr. Wigand. I would say I got angry.
Wallace. He was your boss.
Dr. Wigand. I bit my tongue. I had just transitioned from
another--one company to another. I was paid well. It was
comfortable.
[[Page S1156]]
And for me to do anything precipitous would put my family at risk.
Wallace. You were happy to take down the 300,000 bucks a
year.
Dr. Wigand. I, essentially, yeah, took the money. I did my
job.
Wallace. So Dr. Wigand abandoned his idea of trying to
develop a new and safer cigarette. He turned his attention to
investigating the additives, the flavorings, the other
compounds in B&W tobacco products. Many, like glycerol, which
is used to keep the tobacco in cigarettes moist, are normally
harmless. But when glycerol is burned in a cigarette, its
chemistry changes.
Dr. Wigand. Glycerol, when it's burnt, forms a--a very
specific substance called acrolein.
[Footage of book; excerpt from book; smokers.]
Wallace. (Voiceover). According to the American Council on
Science and Health, acrolin, or acrolEIN, is extremely
irritating and has been shown to interfere with the normal
clearing of the lungs. Recent research shows that acrolein
acts like a carcinogen, though not yet classified as such.
And Dr. Wigand says that B&W continues to add glycerol to
their product. But it was another additive that Dr. Wigand
says led to the end of his career at B&W.
Dr. Wigand. The straw that broke the c--the camel's back
for me and really put me in trouble with Sandefur was a
compound called coumarin.
[Footage of smoker; medical record on mice experiment; B&W
documents.]
Wallace. (Voiceover). Coumarin is a flavoring that provides
a sweet taste to tobacco products, but is known to cause
tumors in the livers of mice. It was removed from B&W
cigarettes, but according to these documents, B&W continued
to use it in its Sir Walter Raleigh aromatic pipe tobacco
until at least 1992.
Dr. Wigand. And when I came on board at B&W, they had tried
to tend--transition from coumarin to another similar flavor
that would give the same taste. And it was unsuccessful.
[Footage of Wigand and Wallace; report.]
Wallace. (Voiceover). Dr. Wigand says the news about
coumarin and cancer got worse. This report by independent
researchers, part of a national toxic safety program,
presented evidence that coumarin is a carcinogen that causes
various cancers.
Dr. Wigand. I wanted it out immediately. And I was told
that it would affect sales and I was to mind my own business.
And then I constructed a memo to Mr. Sandefur indicating that
I could not, in conscience, continue with coumarin, a product
that we now knowingly have documentation that is lung-
specific, carcinogen.
Wallace. Right. Sent the document forward to Sandefur?
Dr. Wigand. I sent the document forward to Sandefur. I was
told that--that we would continue working on a substitute,
and we weren't going to remove it because it would impact
sales. And that's--that was his decision.
Wallace. In other words, what you're charging Sandefur with
and Brown & Williamson with is, ``ignoring health
considerations consciously''.
Dr. Wigand. Most certainly.
[Footage of Wigand].
Wallace (Voiceover). After his confrontations over
coumarin, Dr. Wigand says he was not surprised when, on March
the 24th, 1993, Thomas Sandefur, newly promoted to chief
executive officer, CEO of B&W, had him fired.
And the reason for firing that he gave you?
Dr. Wigand. Poor communication skills, just not cutting it,
poor performance.
[Footage of Wigand and his family at dinner table.]
Wallace (Voiceover). When Dr. Wigand, who has a wife and
two young daughters, was fired by Brown & Williamson tobacco,
his contract provided severance pay and critical health
benefits for his family, critical because one of his children
requires expensive daily health care. Several months after he
was fired, B&W decided to sue their former head of R&D and
they cut off his severance and those vital health benefits.
Dr. Wigand. They said I violated my confidentiality
agreement by discussing my severance package.
[Footage of Wigand and Lucretia walking.]
Wallace (Voiceover). Lucretia Wigand says that the firing
and B&W's suspension of benefits was devastating.
Mrs. Lucretia Wigand (Dr. Jeffrey Wigand's Wife). We almost
lost our family as a unit. Jeff and I almost separated.
Wallace. Why?
Mrs. Wigand. Because he was under so much stress and sto--
so much pressure that it was something that we needed help
dealing with. We went to counseling and we worked through it.
Wallace. And this was, you think, started--triggered by the
business with B&W?
Mrs. Wigand. Yes. I know it was.
[Footage of Wigand in his kitchen; document.]
Wallace (Voiceover). B&W settled that lawsuit we mentioned
and reinstated those critical health benefits, only after Dr.
Wigand agreed to sign a new, stricter, lifelong
confidentiality agreement.
Nontheless, word of Dr. Wigand's battles with Brown &
Williamson attracted attention in Washington, where, in the
spring of 1994, Democratic Congress and the FDA, the Food &
Drug Administration, were investigating the tobacco industry.
Dr. Wigand was contacted by their investigators, and after
notifying Brown & Williamson, he talked with those
investigators. Shortly afterward, he was stunned by a couple
of anonymous telephone calls.
Dr. Wigand. And in April 1994, on two separate occasions, I
had life threats on my kids.
Wallace. What?
Dr. Wigand. We had life threats on my kids.
[Footage of Wigand and Wallace.]
Wallace (Voiceover). Dr. Wigand told us he doesn't know
where they came from, but that, understandably, they
frightened him. He described the threats by referring to his
diary.
Dr. Wigand. ``A male voice that was on the phone that said,
`Don't mess with tobacco anymore. How are your kids?' '' Then
on April 28th, around 3:00 in the afternoon, relative the
same voice--he says, ``Leave tobacco alone or else you'll
find your kids hurt. They're pretty girls now.'' So I got
scared. I started carrying a gun.
Wallace. Really?
Dr. Wigand. Yep. Started carrying a handgun.
Mrs. Wigand. Someone called and threatened to--to kill him
and to hurt the family if he messed with the tobacco
industry.
Wallace. That was last August. Now in February, Lucretia
Wigand has filed for divorce, citing spousal abuse, just one
of the accusations Brown & Williamson is using in their full-
throated campaign to discredit Jeffrey Wigand. That report
when we return.
[Commercial break.]
Wallace. Today, three years after he was fired by Brown &
Williamson, Dr. Jeffrey Wigand is the star witness in a US
Justice Department criminal investigation into the tobacco
industry, which includes the question of whether B&W's former
CEO lied to the US Congress when he said that he believed
that nicotine was not addictive. But Dr. Wigand is paying a
heavy price for his decision to testify, as well as for
breaking his confidentiality agreement by talking to us. His
family life has been shattered, his reputation has been
tarnished because of B&W's massive campaign designed to
silence him and to discredit this former research chief
turned whistle-blower.
They're trying to do what they can to paint you as
irresponsible, a liar----
Dr. Wigand. Well, I think the word they've used, Mike, is a
``master of deceit.''
Wallace. You wish you hadn't come forward? You wish you
hadn't blown the whistle?
Dr. Wigand. There are times I wish I hadn't done it, but
there are times that I feel compelled to do it. I--if you ask
me if I would do it again or if it--do I think it's worth it,
yeah, I think it's worth it. I think in the end people will
see the truth.
[Footage of state attorneys general of Florida, Minnesota
and Mississippi.]
Wallace (Voiceover). Well, these three men have seen the
same truth as Wigand. They are the state attorney's general
of Florida, Minnesota and Mississippi, where Dr. Wigand is
testifying in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the
tobacco industry. Mike Moore is attorney general of
Mississippi.
Mr. Moore. Jeffrey's testimony is going to be devastating,
Mike, to the tobacco industry, so devastating that I fear for
his life. I think----
Wallace. Are you serious?
Mr. Moore. I'm--I'm very serious. The information that
Jeffrey has, I think, is the most important information that
has ever come out against the tobacco industry. This
industry, in my opinion, is an industry who has perpetrated
the biggest fraud on the American public in history. They
have lied to the American public for years and years. They
have killed millions and millions of people and made a profit
on it. So I hope that they won't continue to lie and try to
destroy Jeffrey like they destroyed the other lives of people
all over this country.
[Footage of newspaper clippings; Wigand and Wallace; The
Investigative Group Inc. sign.]
Wallace [Voiceover]. The campaign to destroy Dr. Jeffrey
Wigand began over two months ago in the midst of a media
frenzy over our failure to broadcast our August interview
with him. Brown & Williamson sued Dr. Wigand for talking to
us, despite his confidentiality agreement. And they got a
court order in Kentucky to try to silence him from speaking
out further. Then investigators hired by B&W fanned out
across the country looking for anything they could use to
discredit the whistle-blower.
Dr. Wigand. They've been going around to my family, my
friends, digging up and digging here and digging there.
Wallace. Then their lawyers--and B&W has a half-dozen major
firms working on the Jeff Wigand case--their lawyers compiled
the results of their nationwide dragnet into a summary that
alleges that, in recent years, Dr. Wigand pled guilty to
everything from wife-beating to shoplifting. Beyond that,
they charged him with a multitude of sins, from fudging his
resume to making a false claim three years ago for $95.20 for
dry cleaning.
[Footage of Scanlon.]
Wallace (Voiceover). Then Brown & Williamson retained John
Scanlon to get their story to the media. Scanlon is a fixture
of the New York media scene, who has close, personal
relationships with print and television reporters and
producers, as well as editors and publishers. We asked him to
sit down and discuss the charges he has been
[[Page S1157]]
circulating to me and other reporters, but he declined. But Scanlon did
make this statement to a CBS News camera crew.
Mr. John Scanlon (New York). He's running from cross-
examination. His victims have decided to respond and present
evidence that he is, in fact, a habitual liar.
Dr. Wigand. The smear campaign--it's been very systematic,
very organized, very well done.
(Speaking to class). My background is I have a PhD in
biochemistry.
[Footage of Wigand teaching class; news broadcast.]
Wallace (Voiceover). Today Dr. Wigand is a $30,000 a year
science teacher at a Louisville, Kentucky, public high
school. And his students, his faculty colleagues and his
family were stunned last month when a Louisville television
station broadcast some of Brown & Williamson's accusations.
Unidentified Reporter (From news broadcast). Court records
show Wigand was charged with theft by unlawful taking and
shoplifting.
[Footage of document; article in The Wall Street Journal;
Gordon Smith.]
Wallace (Voiceover). Then the Brown & Williamson 500-page
dossier on Wigand was given to The Wall Street Journal, who
investigated the charges. And last Thursday in this front-
page story, The Journal reported that, quote, ``a close look
at the file and independent research by this newspaper into
its key claims indicates that many of the serious allegations
against Dr. Wigand are backed by scanty or contradictory
evidence.'' And they continued, quote, ``Some of the charges,
including that he pleaded guilty to shoplifting, are
demonstrably untrue.'' We put that Journal statement to
Gordon Smith, an attorney designated by Brown & Williamson
to talk to us.
The Wall Street Journal went through all of that material.
It says that what--the dossier that you put together: ``scant
evidence.''
Mr. Smith. Mr. Wallace, that's dead wrong. There is not
scant evidence. The Wall Street Journal did not----
Wallace. It----
Mr. Smith. ----did not go over the scores--literally scores
of untruths told by Jeff Wigand that we showed to them.
[Footage of Smith and Wallace.]
Wallace (Voiceover). And Gordon Smith went on at some
length to say that Wigand's life, quote, ``is a pattern of
lies.''
Well, I don't understand, frankly, Mr. Smith. I really
don't understand. Brown & Williamson must be in a panic if
they are going after this man as hard as you are.
Mr. Smith. You're wrong. There are no material inaccuracies
in that book, none whatsoever.
[Footage of performance appraisal document on Wigand;
Wigand; letter.]
Wallace (Voiceover). But not included in that dossier were
Brown & Williamson's own personnel records, which showed that
Wigand had received good performance appraisals for the first
three years from B&W. In his fourth year, however, those
appraisals turned sour. But despite that, even after he was
fired, he received this letter from Brown & Williamson's
personnel director.
``To whom it may concern, Dr. Jeffrey Wigand was
instrumental in the development of new products, as well as
the major impetus behind a significant upgrade in our R&D
technical capabilities, both in terms of people and
equipment. During his tenure at Brown & Williamson, Dr.
Wigand demonstrated a high level of technical knowledge and
expertise.''
And this is on your own stationery, your own man saying bad
about him.
Mr. Smith. Mike, Brown & Williamson refused to be a
reference for Jeff Wigand after he left. This letter was
negotiated with his attorney, and it was the only statement
Brown & Williamson would ever make about him because Brown &
Williamson did not want to be a reference for Jeff Wigand.
[Footage of Smith and Wallace.]
Wallace (Voiceover). And Mr. Smith had this to say about
our relationship with Jeffrey Wigand.
Mr. Smith. You're being led along by a guy who's not
believable. You're getting half the story.
Wallace. Well, then why----
Mr. Smith. You--you--and you've got--you've got a--a vested
interest in making this man credible.
Wallace. Why do we have a vested interest?
Mr. Smith. CBS has--has paid this guy $12,000.
Wallace. For what?
Mr. Smith. I believe for consulting.
Wallace. Now wait just a moment. Let's get this straight.
Paid him $12,000 for what?
Mr. Smith. To consult on a story for CBS.
Wallace. For the record, as we explained to Mr. Smith, 60
Minutes did, in fact, hire Dr. Wigand two years ago to act as
our expert consultant to analyze nearly 1,000 pages of
technical documents leaked to us, not from Brown &
Williamson, but from inside Philip Morris, another tobacco
company. At that time, Dr. Wigand told us he would not talk
with us about Brown & Williamson. And he did not, until over
a year later.
Dr. Wigand. I felt an obligation to tell the truth. There
were things I saw, there were things I learned, there was
things I observed that I felt--that need to be told. The
focus continues to be on what I would call systematic and
aggressive ta--tactics to undermine my credibility and my--
some of my personal life.
Wallace. But you expected that, didn't you?
Dr. Wigand. Well, I didn't expect to the extent it would--
it's happened, OK? It's--it's disrupted not only my life--I'm
in divorce proceedings now.
[Footage of state attorneys general.]
Wallace (Voiceover). These three state attorneys general
say that no matter what B&W's accusations are, they remain
convinced that what Wigand has to say about the tobacco
industry in general, and Brown & Williamson in particular, is
thoroughly credible.
They are suing the tobacco industry for the billions of
dollars in state Medicaid costs their states have paid to
treat people who have become ill from smoking. Minnesota
Attorney General Hubert Humphrey III.
Mr. Hubert Humphrey III (Minnesota Attorney General). We
want to see the full truth come out. We want the deception
and fraud and the violations of our state laws stopped. And
we want people that are making the money on this product to
bear the full cost of the health-care burden that is there.
[Footage of state attorneys general.]
Wallace (Voiceover). Bob Butterworth is the attorney
general of Florida.
Mr. Bob Butterworth (Florida Attorney General). The issue
has been deceit.
WALLACE. Deceit.
Mr. Butterworth. Pure and simple deceit. The cigarette
companies made a decision that they would withhold valuable
information from the American public, information that the
consumer would need to make a--an intelligent decision as to
whether or not they wish to smoke or not to smoke.
[Footage of Moore.]
Wallace (Voiceover). Again, Mississippi Attorney General
Mike Moore.
Mr. Moore. I'm used to dealing with--with cocaine dealers
and--and crack dealers, and I have never seen damage done
like the tobacco company has done. There's no comparison.
Cocaine kills 10,000, 15,000 people a year in this country.
Tobacco kills 425,000 people a year.
Mr. SMITH. Mike, it's absurd to suggest that tobacco is any
way like cocaine in terms of addiction. It's absolutely
absurd to suggest that. Brown & Williamson makes a lawful
product. They sell it and make it in a lawful way.
Wallace Well, then why do 425,000 people die every year--
according to all medical and scientific evaluations, die of
smoking cigarettes? Why?
Mr. Smith. Mike, 50 million people choose to use tobacco
and smoke.
Wallace. So on a cost-benefit ratio, it's only 425,000
people who die out of the 50 million?
Mr. Smith. No, Mike.
Wallace. That's--that's a--a--a small fraction. Is that the
point you're making?
Mr. Smith. No, Mike, not at all. People choose to smoke.
People choose to stop smoking. I think you used to smoke and
you chose to stop smoking.
Wallace. That's right.
Mr. Smith. It's their choice. It's a lawful product. It's
marketed and manufactured lawfully.
[Footage of Wigand and Wallace.]
Wallace (Voiceover). B&W has questioned Dr. Wigand's
character. But he says that's just a smoke screen, and he has
some questions for Brown & Williamson.
Dr. Wigand. Why don't they deal with the issue of whether
they can develop or--a safer cigarette? Why don't they deal
with the issue of using--and knowingly using additives that
are known to be carcinogenic in order not to influence sales?
Why don't we deal with that issue?
Wallace. Brown & Williamson did answer some of Dr. Jeffrey
Wigand's questions for us. They told us they have removed
coumarin--that's carcinogenic flavoring--from their Sir
Walter Raleigh aromatic pipe tobacco, but they insist it
never posed a health risk to smokers. B&W lawyer Kendrick
Wells declined to talk to us, but he did deny, in testimony
last week, Dr. Wigand's charge that he had altered the
minutes of that scientific meeting. And B&W says the truth
will come out in the end when they get a chance to cross-
examine Dr. Wigand under oath.
And they insist that we, CBS, cannot report on this story
objectively since we are indemnifying Dr. Wigand in B&W's
lawsuit against him. Two months ago CBS agreed to do that
after a leak resulted in the disclosure of Dr. Wigand's
identity before he was prepared to go public. Though still
unaware of where that leak had come from, CBS decided to take
financial responsibility for the impact that leak had on Dr.
Wigand because it exposed him to a lawsuit by Brown &
Williamson.
A footnote.
[Footage of That Courier-Journal headline and article.]
Wallace (Voiceover). This banner headline yesterday in the
Louisville Courier-Journal, B&W's hometown newspaper, about
charges their employees and engaged in smuggling and bribes
in Louisiana.
In that story, the US attorney in New Orleans says, ``Look
for some indictments in the very near future.''
____
[[Page S1158]]
February 5, 1996.
Hon. Nancy L. Kassebaum,
Chairwoman, Committee on Labor and Human Resources, U.S.
Senate, Washington, DC.
Hon. Edward M. Kennedy,
Ranking Member, Committee on Labor and Human Resources, U.S.
Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Senators Kassebaum and Kennedy: I am writing to urge
you to schedule hearings in your Committee on recent
disclosures about the health effects of tobacco products and
the nicotine contained in them. I believe that recent legal
tactics by the tobacco industry have led to the suppression
of vital public health information about Congress.
Consequently, Members of Congress have had to rely on leaks
and incomplete information concerning the health effects of
tobacco and nicotine. It would be an enormous service to
Congress for your Committee to hold comprehensive hearings on
this matter because there are at least 42 bills affecting the
growth, sale and promotion of tobacco products pending before
Congress.
1995 was a year full of revelations about the tobacco
industry and the content of its cigarettes. There were
various articles on allegations of nicotine manipulation by
tobacco companies. Despite this trickling out of information
on the dangers of tobacco, there were two infamous incidents
in 1995 that set dangerous precedents.
First, Philip Morris sued Capital Cities/ABC for $10
billion over its report that this tobacco giant ``spiked''
its cigarettes with nicotine. R.J. Reynolds later filed a
similar lawsuit against Capital Cities/ABC. These two
companies pressured Capital Cities/ABC to settle these suits
despite the fact that its story appeared to be factually
supported by interviews and internal company documents.
Second, the CBS news program 60 Minutes canceled an
interview with a former Brown and Williamson tobacco
executive due to fears of a lawsuit, even though its
reporters believed in the accuracy of the interview and the
reporting. While CBS has subsequently agreed to air this
piece, it apparently has done so only because of a recent
leak in the Wall Street Journal involving the same former
executive.
These two episodes have sent a chilling message to the
media about reporting new information on the health
consequences of tobacco. If these two major broadcast
networks are intimidated by these tobacco companies, then
smaller news organizations would seem to face even greater
challenges in reporting important stories on the health
effects of tobacco and nicotine. The mere threat of legal
action will likely force the suppression of critical
information on tobacco and nicotine from being reported in
the press and subsequently used by Members of Congress.
Therefore, it appears that the only way that Congress will be
able to get complete information on the health effects of
tobacco and nicotine is if your Committee holds comprehensive
hearings.
I know that you will conduct balanced hearings and I fully
expect that you would include witnesses from all points of
view, including representatives of the tobacco industry. This
will allow Congress, and the American people, to hear all
sides and be fully informed about the health effects of
tobacco and nicotine. This will also allow Congress to
consider pending legislation affecting tobacco in a well
educated manner.
Thank you for your consideration of this request. I would
be happy to work with you so that these hearings can be held
as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Frank Lautenberg.
____________________