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VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY MASTER RESEARCH SERVICES AGREEMENT (PDF) 

19. USE OF NAMES: Neither party shall, without the prior written approval of the other party, (i) advertise or otherwise publicize in a written manner the existence or terms of this AGREEMENT or any TASK ORDER or any other aspect of the relationship between SPONSOR and VCU . . . If at any time a third party, including without limitation any news organization, contacts VCU concerning SPONSOR, VCU shall make no comment and shall notify promptly SPONSOR of the third party. . . .

10.1 "SPONSOR PROPRIETARY INFORMATION" shall mean all material or information relating to SPONSOR's research, development, trade secrets or business operations and affairs that SPONSOR treats as confidential, including without limitation all work product or other material created by VCU and/or its PERSONNEL in connection with this AGREEMENT and all SPONSOR MATERIALS. . . . All information provided by SPONSOR or its representatives shall be presumed to be SPONSOR PROPRIETARY INFORMATION . . .

8.2 . . .

VCU shall remove from the proposed publication that material which SPONSOR identifies as SPONSOR PROPRIETARY INFORMATION and/or further delay such publication for an additional sixty (60) days to allow SPONSOR to file patent applications and/or take such other steps as SPONSOR deems necessary to protect SPONSOR's rights.

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Tobacco companies hide hazard 

While communities around the country prepare for more tobacco-free measures, new research has shown that the tobacco industry has not only manipulated menthol to enhance addiction but also hidden what it knew about tobacco smoke containing radioactive polonium-210.

Mayo Clinic and Stanford University research has revealed recently that tobacco companies knew tobacco smoke actually exposed smokers and those around them to 300 times the radiation from an annual chest X-ray.

Published in the American Journal of Public Health, the study shows that tobacco companies suppressed their own internal research finding significant levels of Polonium-210 in tobacco. . . .

Federal legislation passed the U.S. House of Representatives recently to allow the FDA limited authority over tobacco. . . .

Area Representative John Boozman voted for the bill. Senators Lincoln and Pryor have yet to vote on the Senate's version.

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• Tobacco firms kept quiet on polonium role in cigarettes  

Some of the world's biggest tobacco firms researched the lethal radioactive substance polonium - present in cigarettes - over a 40-year period but never published the results, according to a new scientific article.

Experts have examined more than 1,500 internal documents from tobacco companies.

Polonium 210 is known to cause lung cancers in animals and studies suggest it is responsible for 1 per cent of all lung cancers - equivalent to 11,700 deaths globally - each year in the US.

It is also the substance that poisoned the Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.

Yet tobacco companies, while attempting but failing to remove the substance from their products, have kept quiet about their research, experts say.

One of the documents - all of which were made public through legal actions - said publication would be "waking a sleeping giant". The authors of the article, published in the September edition of American Journal of Public Health, also say tobacco companies feared possible litigation.

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The World Health Organisation is trying to determine which constituents of tobacco smoke are most important in diseases including lung cancer, but as yet have not concluded polonium 210 is a priority constituent.
Unidentified spokeswoman for British American Tobacco.

[Publication of the tobacco industry's polonium 210 research] has the potential to wake a sleeping giant.
Unidentified 1978 tobacco industry internal document.

Tobacco Industry Control of Menthol in Cigarettes and Targeting of Adolescents and Young Adults 

Conclusions. Tobacco companies manipulate the sensory characteristics of cigarettes, including menthol content, thereby facilitating smoking initiation and nicotine dependence. Menthol brands that have used this strategy have been the most successful in attracting youth and young adult smokers and have grown in popularity.

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• Waking a Sleeping Giant: The Tobacco Industry's Response to the Polonium-210 Issue  

The major tobacco manufacturers discovered that polonium was part of tobacco and tobacco smoke more than 40 years ago and attempted, but failed, to remove this radioactive substance from their products. Internal tobacco industry documents reveal that the companies suppressed publication of their own internal research to avoid heightening the public's awareness of radioactivity in cigarettes. Tobacco companies continue to minimize their knowledge about polonium-210 in cigarettes in smoking and health litigation. Cigarette packs should carry a radiation-exposure warning label.

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Cigarette packs should carry a radiation-exposure warning label.

Study: Tobacco companies use menthol to hook smokers 

Tobacco companies have manipulated menthol levels to attract young cigarette smokers and keep older ones, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health reported Wednesday.

Their finding, with which industry spokesmen disagree, is based on a review of more than 500 internal tobacco-industry documents dated from 1985 through 2007.

The documents showed, according to the researchers, that tobacco companies studied how controlling levels of menthol could increase brand sales. They concluded that new and young smokers liked mild menthol that masked the harshness of tobacco smoke. Veteran smokers, the companies are said to have concluded, favored stronger doses of menthol for its cooling effects on their throats. . . .

The bottom line: While overall U.S. cigarette sales declined 22 percent from 2000 through 2005, menthol sales remained stable.

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Big Tobacco Lures Young Smokers With Menthol Cigarettes: Study  

Tobacco companies are manipulating menthol levels in cigarettes to appeal to newer, younger smokers, part of a deliberate strategy to get younger people, particularly African-Americans, hooked, a new study contends.

Menthol makes cigarettes more palatable to the novice smoker.

"If anything, menthol is being used as a candy to help the toxin go down," said Dr. Gregory Connolly, senior author of a paper being published in the September issue of the American Journal of Public Health. "If we let the industry go ahead and willy-nilly design the product the way they want to, it's going to lead to the premature death of millions and millions of Americans. Our research says we have to go after this."

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• New Studies on Menthol and Polonium-210 in Cigarettes Show Need for FDA Regulation of Tobacco Products (Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids) 

Two new studies published online today in the American Journal of Public Health demonstrate the critical need for Congress to enact pending legislation granting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory authority over tobacco products. One study found that tobacco companies deliberately manipulate levels of menthol in cigarettes in ways the authors conclude recruit new, young smokers and satisfy long-term smokers. The second study found that tobacco companies, because of public relations and litigation concerns, suppressed their own internal research about the presence of polonium-210, a radioactive, cancer-causing chemical, in cigarettes and cigarette smoke.

These studies demonstrate how the current lack of regulation allows tobacco companies to manipulate their products in ways harmful to health and to control what is in their products and what they disclose about them. Currently, no government agency has the authority to regulate menthol, polonium-210 or any of the more than 4,000 chemicals in a cigarette. The legislation before Congress would fundamentally change this harmful status quo by granting the FDA authority over the manufacturing and marketing of tobacco products. For the first time, decisions about tobacco products would be made to protect public health rather than to maximize the profits of the tobacco industry.

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Cigarette cos manipulate menthol levels to lure young smokers 

Tobacco companies manipulate menthol levels in cigarettes to hook young smokers, a new study says.

"The tobacco industry has carefully manipulated menthol content not only to lure youth but also to lock in lifelong adult customers," said Howard Koh, professor and associate dean for public health practice at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and co-author of the study.

HSPH reviewed internal tobacco industry documents on menthol product development, conducted laboratory tests to measure menthol content in US brands, examined market research reports and drew data from the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

"Menthol cigarette brands have been rising in popularity with adolescents, and the highest use has been among younger, newer smokers. Menthol masks the harshness and irritation of cigarettes, allowing delivery of an effective dose of nicotine, the addictive chemical in cigarettes," Koh said.

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• CABINET MINUTES 

7. Smoking and Lung Cancer. [Enter R.T.

R.T. Advice of Med. Adv. Cttee. – tht. I shd. constantly inform public of facts.

Facts – as in memo. Statistical picture is clear : scientific no progress.

Draft statement is restrained.

Won’t satisfy all. Will be much criticism. Pressure for a warning campaign. Don’t advise this because of lack of scientific “proof”.

P.M. Doesn’t give Govt. view. Shall be pressed for a view. Time is arrived when we shd. decide wtr we have a line.

Public opinion will now expect more than a progress report.

S. M.R. Council : repns. askg. for considered assessment. Wd. be diff. to resist that pressure, if Govt. fail to give a line. Para. 4 will be regarded as unduly cautious in some quarters.

H.M. V. serious issue. Revenue = 3/6d. on income tax : not easy to see how to replace it.

Expectation of life 73 for smoker & 74 for non-smoker. Ty. think revenue interest outweighs this. Negligible compared with risk of crossing a street.

200

S. Necessary to expose facts?

H.M. But in reln. to other facts?

J.S. M’while quote medical views, not Govt. views.

R.A.B. Report (Doll & Hill) in June – may show this statement as not sufficiently grave. Wise therefore to take more time to consider.

Agreed : Cab. Cttee. to enquire. L.P.S., L.P., H.M., R.T., J.S.

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Smoking revenue outweighed risks, Macmillan told Cabinet  

Harold Macmillan dismissed the dangers of smoking to the nation's health, saying that the financial benefits to the Treasury far outweighed the health risks, according to newly released records.

He claimed the threat posed by smoking was "negligible, compared with the risk of crossing a street".

Macmillan, an enthusiastic pipe and cigar smoker, urged against warning the public of the risks. He made his remarks while chancellor of the exchequer in Sir Anthony Eden's government.

Robert Turton, the health minister, had just told the 1956 Cabinet that medical advice was to "constantly inform the public of the facts" about the link between smoking and lung cancer.

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Why Macmillan refused to tell us smoking was harmful 

Harold Macmillan claimed smoking was no more dangerous than 'crossing a street' and argued against issuing a Government health warning, Cabinet papers released yesterday reveal.

The then Chancellor, a keen pipe and cigar smoker, had another reason for ignoring evidence of a link between cigarettes and lung cancer - he was afraid of losing tax revenue.

There was already growing concern that smoking caused the disease when in 1956 the Cabinet was given a scientific report showing clear statistical evidence of a connection.

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Tobacco industry targets youth: expert 

The tobacco industry is launching products to specifically target the youth, according to a senior health expert.

Quoting details from 'secret' papers, Professor Gerard Dubois, Head of the Department of Public Health at the State University of Amiens in France, while addressing a seminar for journalists in Dubai on Tuesday, said the main target of the tobacco companies were youth aged between 14-24.

According to the 'secret' papers belonging to a well reputed international tobacco company, the youth were termed as a potential market since they were good "learners".

However, this year, the World Health Organisation will launch the 'Tobacco Free Youth' campaign

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• Smoking? It's seriously good for the Treasury, Macmillan told Eden 

Puffing away on his briar, Harold Macmillan appeared every inch the avuncular, dependable politician of the age. Indeed, from Winston Churchill to Harold Wilson, smoking, whether it be cigar or pipe (though rarely cigarette) was seen as an invaluable prop for leading political figures emerging into the television era.

So when, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, "Supermac" was asked by senior colleagues whether it was time the British public should be the target of a hard-hitting campaign warning about the iniquities of nicotine, it was perhaps inevitable he was willing to downplay the threat.

According to formerly classified government records released today by the National Archives, in 1956 Macmillan dismissed the health risks posed by smoking as "negligible, compared with the risk of crossing a street".

The enthusiastic pipe, cigar and cigarette smoker, it seems, was unconvinced over the scientific data emerging from the pioneering work of the epidemiologist Richard Doll, which had already established a firm link between smoking and cancer.

The view from No 11 Downing Street was quite clearly that the tax revenues generated by tobacco easily outweighed the possible danger to public health. . . .

For his part, Macmillan continued to smoke, and apparently suffered no ill effects. He was forced to stand down as prime minister in 1963 when he was wrongly diagnosed with prostate cancer. Macmillan lived another two decades - eventually dying a month short of his 93rd birthday.

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Smoking fears dismissed by Macmillan 

Harold Macmillan, an enthusiastic pipe and cigar smoker, considered smoking far less dangerous than crossing the road and claimed that there was no scientific proof that it was a health hazard.

As Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1956, Macmillan urged the Cabinet against warning the public of the risks of smoking. In shortened notes written by Sir Norman Brook, the Cabinet Secretary, Macmillan was quoted as saying: "Expectation of life 73 for smoker and 74 for non-smoker. Treasury think revenue interest outweighs this. Negligible compared with risk of crossing a street."

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