Tobacco On Trial

Dan Webb continued his cross of Dr. Farone by asking about an RJR ad for Premier–”The Cleaner Smoke,” and the resulting calls by the Surgeon General and some public health people for FDA regulation.

Webb questioned Farone on the safer cigarette work by DHHS’ Tobacco Working Group, which was disbanded in 1978 when HEW Secretary Joe Califano declared “War on Tobacco.”

The court was introduced to Philip Morris’ new Accord cigarette device (unsmoked).

Webb tried to find major discrepancies between Farone’s previous testimonies on the harmfulness of Marlboro vs. Marlboro lights, on the significance of the Ames Test on mutagenicity and, again, on the Gentlemen’s Agreement–this time concerning its ban on animal testing.

Here is Farone’s Direct Testimony on Marlboro/Marlboro Lights, the subject of much of Webb’s cross:

Q: How much ventilation is used in commercial cigarette products?

A: Brands vary.

For example, Marlboro Reds – the regular, full-flavor Marlboro – have one row of ventilation holes, so it is on the order of 10% dilution.

Marlboro Lights have two rows of ventilation holes, causing about 30-40% dilution.

In 1980, I helped with the design of the Cambridge “lowest tar” cigarette, which was introduced with over 95% dilution.

Q: How does the mutagenicity of the smoke from Marlboro Reds compare to that of Marlboro Lights?

A: Marlboro Lights have more mutagenic smoke on a per milligram of tar basis.

Q: Is it generally true that “light” cigarettes have more mutagenic tar than their full-flavor counterparts?

A: Again, brands vary.

However, where a “light” cigarette is largely identical to its full flavor counterpart – as is the case for Marlboro and Marlboro Lights, except that the “light” has dilution levels in that middle 30-40% range – the tar from that light cigarette is likely more mutagenic.

Farone was quite good at putting other, seemingly discordant testimonies on this subject into the context of the questioning at the time.

Webb continued to hit on the fact that Farone was not at “some room, some time back in the fifties,” and only knew of the Gentlemen’s Agreement secondhand. He tried to show that documents which talked of violations of the agreement were evidence the agreement didn’t exist(!)

As far as biological, or animal testing, Webb discussed Philip Morris’ INBIFO lab in Cologne, Germany. Webb showed it was not unusual for American companies to use INBIFO, and in fact the FDA had visited the lab to make sure it was adhering to GLP–”Good Laboratory Practices.”

Yes, said Farone, but that was only about products the FDA regulates. . .

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 7th, 2004 at 1:39 pm and is filed under Notes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.