Tobacco Cooperated With Candy Cig Makers

L O N D O N, Aug. 4 -- Internal tobacco industry documents recently madepublic confirm that tobacco companies cooperated with the makers ofcandy cigarettes in designing snacks that promoted smoking tochildren, according to new research.

The study of the documents by researchers at the University ofRochester School of Medicine in New York found that some tobaccocompanies tolerated trademark infringement and grantedconfectioners permission to sell candy that used cigarette packdesigns.

Industry documents made public in 1998 as part of a lawsuitsettlement with the state of Minnesota form the basis of threereports published this week in the British Medical Journal.

Part of a Tradition

Experts say the studies confirm common knowledge and long-heldsuspicions among some organizations working to curtail smoking.

“While not earth-shattering to people who have observed thetobacco industry over the years, the fact that these conclusionsare based on the industry’s own words makes them compelling topolicy-makers, the public and … the courts,” Stanton Glantz, aprofessor at the Institute of Health Policy Studies at theUniversity of California, San Francisco, wrote in a critique of thethree studies.

Glantz, who was not connected with any of the studies, tracksthe practices of the tobacco industry and the health effects ofsmoking.

A second study in the journal reported that executives of sevenmajor tobacco companies met in England in 1977 to coordinate aworldwide “defensive strategy” on smoking issues. They agreed notto acknowledge the dangers of smoking, the study said.

The third study said the documents show the industry knewadvertising does more than encourage smokers to switch brands, asthey frequently claim. The papers show tobacco companies knewadvertising also recruited new smokers, it said.

Confectioners Suppressed Knowledge

The University of Rochester study on candy cigarettes said thedocuments also show confectioners suppressed and altered a 1991candy industry study indicating candy cigarettes could promotesmoking to children.