"Certain scientists and medical authorities have claimed for many years that the use of tobacco contributes to cancer development in susceptible people," the letter said.
"Just enough evidence has been presented to justify the possibility of such a presumption," it added.
The writer was not a tobacco industry critic, but a tobacco company chemist. The year was 1946 and the chemist, Harris B. Parmele, who worked for Lorillard and wrote that letter to a Lorillard official, would go on to become the company's vice president for research and a member of its board of directors.
The Parmele letter--written 18 years before the U.S. surgeon general's report and 20 years before warning labels appeared on cigarette packs--is among a flurry of intriguing documents to surface in a history-making cigarette liability trial in Newark, N.J., now in its third month.
Internal Documents Revealed
For the first time in a smoker-death case, jurors have been exposed to a blizzard of confidential letters, reports and strategy memos, culled from more than 100,000 internal documents that have been obtained by plaintiff lawyers through hard-fought discovery battles. These documents also will be available in other cigarette lawsuits, of which about 120 are pending across the country.
The trial, expected to end in May, stems from the lung cancer death of Rose Cipollone, 58, a smoker for 40 years. Her husband, Antonio, is seeking unspecified damages from Philip Morris, Lorillard, and Liggett & Myers--producers of the brands she smoked.
According to the surgeon general, smoking causes 350,000 premature deaths a year in the U.S. from cancer, heart and lung disease. Cigarette firms, which so far have not lost a lawsuit, are unwavering in their claim that smoking hasn't been proven to cause any human ailment.
But documents in this case appear to suggest that the cigarette makers knew early on about the risks of smoking; sponsored research knowing it was good public relations and secretly worked on, but failed to introduce, less hazardous types of cigarettes--all the while denying a need for them.
"We're dealing with bad actors," said Richard Daynard, a Boston law professor who heads a research and support group for lawyers who sue the tobacco industry.
Gleeful foes see tobacco nearing the same day of reckoning as the asbestos industry, which also beat back the first wave of suits until a series of "smoking guns"--damning internal documents--led to courtroom defeats, stiffer asbestos regulation and finally the tidal wave of suits that dragged the industry down.
Some experts reject the parallel, however, pointing to the $35-billion-a-year cigarette industry's vast financial strength and the difficulty of proving in each case that smoking caused a specific person's disease. More to the point, industry officials say, the internal documents are no real threat. They say snippets have been misinterpreted and taken out of context to create an impression of sinister intent.
"I do not believe there is damning evidence in those documents," said Chuck Wall, an attorney acting as spokesman for industry leader Philip Morris and Lorillard. "There are no smoking guns."
"I think that the jury will see at the end of the trial that the companies acted responsibly," said Liggett spokesman Alan Hilburg.
But some disclosures are bound to prove embarrassing.
In a 1952 list of research goals, a Philip Morris scientist gave a low priority to research "to determine the effect of smoke as an etiologic (causal) factor in carcinoma (cancer)."
In a 1954 memo, a scientific consultant to Liggett discussed a massive American Cancer Society study on smoking and health. "The findings demonstrated unequivocally that deaths from coronary heart disease were about double in cigarette smokers vs. nonsmokers." The memo went on: "Figures for lung cancer should settle the argument for a long time."
Other Hazards Considered
A 1956 memo from the Philip Morris research department to top executives at the company discussed the value of lowering carbon monoxide yield. "Decreased carbon monoxide and nicotine are related to decreased harm to the circulatory system as a result of smoking," the memo said. "Decreased irritation is desirable not only from the subjective viewpoint but also as a partial elimination of a potential cancer hazard."
A memo the following year from Philip Morris scientists described ventilated cigarettes as having "many demonstrated and potential health advantages relating to cancer and heart."
In October, 1963--three months before the surgeon general's landmark report on smoking and lung cancer--Philip Morris' vice president for research warned that cancer might not be the worst of it. In a letter to a top executive outlining "areas where the cigarette industry might be most subject to criticism," Dr. Helmut Wakeham described emphysema and chronic bronchitis as "serious diseases involving millions of people.
