B&W's Internal Research Program

Before the 1950s the tobacco companies, or at least Brown and Williamson, apparently had conducted very little research on the health effects of smoking, even though they discussed the purported health benefits long before that in their advertisements. Beginning in the early 1950s, however, the industry began to conduct more scientific research to determine the health effects of its products.

The history of B&W's research program is described in a document that chronologically lists all the smoking and health research conducted by B&W from 1906 to 1986 {1006.01}. The entry for 1946 states:

Prior to 1946, the only research done at Brown & Williamson was performed in a laboratory established under the control of the Manufacturing Department. In 1946, the Technical Research Department was formed with Dr. R. C. Ernst as the Director of Research on a consulting basis. ... The majority of research conducted at this time was still in the form of technical support. {1006.01, p. 1}

This entry suggests that, until 1946, B&W had only studied technical issues related to cigarette marketing and development. By 1948, however, B&W had begun developing a cellulose acetate filter. In 1950 the company began work to "eliminate the harsh, irritating smoke in a cigarette that comes from the paper wrapper" {1006.01, p. 2}.

The entry for 1952 suggests that B&W was becoming more concerned about the health effects of its products with each passing year. It also indicates that B&W was particularly concerned about the tar and nicotine content of its cigarettes.

The Tennessee Eastman cellulose acetate filter known as the "Health Guard Tip" is reported to be in production. Cigarettes with this filter produce 42–46% less tar and 19–35% less nicotine than the non-filtered competitors. A review of the scientific literature on arsenic and cancer and the presence of arsenic in smoke and insecticides is conducted. Cancer is "investigated from a literature standpoint" in light of "frightening testimony" from epidemiology studies. A carcinogenic hydrocarbon, benzo(a)pyrene, is partially isolated from tobacco leaf and smoke. {1006.01, p. 2}

By 1952 early epidemiological studies in the United States and the United Kingdom were showing substantial risks for lung cancer related to cigarette smoking. At the time, arsenic and benzo(a)pyrene (or benzpyrene) were the only two known carcinogenic materials suspected of being in tobacco smoke (11). As of 1952, only a single, unconfirmed report, published in 1939, had indicated that benzo(a)pyrene could be found in tobacco smoke. The next published report of similar findings appeared in 1954 (11). Therefore, the unpublished work B&W scientists were doing in 1952, achieving a "partial isolation" of benzo(a)pyrene from tobacco leaf and tobacco smoke, was at the leading edge of the field at the time.

By 1953 B&W had begun a more intensive effort to study tobacco and its effects. Dr. I. W. Tucker was appointed as the first full-time director of B&W's Technical Research Department. In his departmental report at the end of 1953, according to the B&W chronology {1006.01, p. 2}, Dr. Tucker said that the smoking and health situation "will be an important factor in establishing the direction which our research department will take." A few months later, at an industry conference in Bristol, England, Dr. Tucker stated that "tobacco companies' research departments must now conduct work on smoke constituents not only for technological improvements but also for better understanding of their products as a result of the smoking and health controversy" {1006.01, p. 3}.

Unfortunately for the tobacco industry, the results of these early studies were discouraging. As we discuss in the following chapters, by the 1960s BAT scientists had concluded that nicotine is addictive and company-sponsored laboratory tests showed that components of tobacco smoke cause cancer in animals. The company responded to these findings at first by attempting to create a "safe" cigarette, although it publicly maintained that cigarettes had not been proven dangerous to health. When the scientists had concluded that they would not be able to create a "safe" cigarette, the company retreated behind a stone wall of denial, where it remains to this day.