[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book II)]
[July 17, 1998]
[Pages 1263-1264]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Memorandum on Public Availability of Tobacco Documents
July 17, 1998

Memorandum for the Secretary of Health and Human Services

Subject: Public Availability of Tobacco Documents

    For decades, the tobacco industry sought to hide from the American 
people critically important information about the health hazards of 
tobacco and the industry's efforts to induce children to smoke. 
Recently, court cases and congressional subpoenas have forced the 
tobacco companies to make many of their documents public.
    These documents confirm that for decades the tobacco companies did 
intensive research on the smoking habits of children, knew tobacco 
products were addictive and deadly, understood that a price increase 
would drive down the number of young people who smoke, and deliberately 
marketed their products to young people and minorities.
    Because they provide new information about which types of 
advertising appeal to children, these documents can help public health 
experts design counter-advertising campaigns and other strategies to 
protect children. These documents also can assist scientists in 
understanding more about the addictive nature of nicotine, the health 
consequences of tobacco use, and the effects of certain tobacco product 
designs and ingredients. It is therefore critical to the fight against 
youth smoking that the Nation's scientists and public health experts 
carefully examine and analyze these documents.
    Although many tobacco industry documents are now public, most are 
not readily accessible. While many public health leaders have found and 
highlighted important documents, there is no comprehensive public index 
to help researchers locate information contained in the documents. Only 
a small percentage of the documents are posted on the Internet and it is 
difficult to search through them in their current format.
    The State of Minnesota is currently involved in litigation to obtain 
the public release of a computerized index (the so-called 4-A Index), 
created by the tobacco industry for use during litigation. The tobacco 
industry has fought to prevent the release of this index. It is the 
industry's road map to its own documents and could improve significantly 
the ability of public health experts, scientists, State and Federal 
officials,

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and the public to search through industry documents. The bipartisan 
comprehensive tobacco legislation recently considered in the Senate 
contained strong provisions for public disclosure of tobacco industry 
documents. While I will continue to fight to enact comprehensive tobacco 
legislation, I am determined to move forward to protect America's 
children from tobacco.
    Therefore, I hereby direct you, working with the Attorney General, 
the States, public health professionals, librarians, and other concerned 
Americans, to report back to me in 90 days with a plan to make the 
tobacco industry documents more readily accessible to the public health 
community, the scientific community, the States, and the public at 
large. This plan should:
    (1) Propose a method for coordinating review of the documents and 
making available an easily searchable index and/or digest of the 
reviewed documents.
    (2) Propose a plan to disseminate widely the index and/or digest as 
well as the documents themselves, including expanded use of the 
Internet.
    (3) Provide a strategy for coordinating a broad public and private 
review and analysis of the documents to gain critical public health 
information. Issues to be considered as part of this analysis include: 
nicotine addiction and pharmacology; biomedical research, including 
ingredient safety; product design; and youth marketing strategies.
    To help ensure greater access to these documents, the Department of 
Justice plans to file an amicus brief in the trial court in support of 
the State of Minnesota's motion to unseal the industry-created 4-A 
index.
    I remain committed to using every power of my office to protect 
children from the dangers of tobacco. Through these actions, we can use 
the industry's darkest secrets to save a new generation of children from 
this deadly habit.

                                                      William J. Clinton