British American Tobacco Documents Hard to Access, Lancet Says

Source from:  Bloomberg News 05/31/2004

British American Tobacco Plc, the world's second-biggest cigarette company, is ``incapable'' of running the document depository mandated by a 1998 legal settlement and should post some 8 million pages on the Internet, researchers said in the Lancet medical journal. BAT, Philip Morris Inc. and other cigarette makers were required to make more than 33 million of pages of documents public for a decade, as part of a $6.1 billion settlement with the state of Minnesota, according to the Minnesota Smoke Free Coalition. The Minnesota Tobacco Document Depository stores more than 27 million pages of documents from cigarette makers. Research using London-based BAT's collection in Guildford, England, is ``extraordinarily more difficult,'' Mayo Clinic researchers said in the Lancet. A request for 1 million pages took more than a year to fill, lead researcher Richard Hurt said in a telephone interview. A similar request takes about a month at the Minnesota depository, the study said. ``The contrast between the two depositories is striking,'' said Hurt, the state's first witness in the Minnesota tobacco trial. At BAT, ``their modus is not to be cooperative and not live up to the letter or spirit of the Minnesota settlement. They don't play by the rules. We'll never know some of the things they're concealing.'' BAT, which makes Lucky Strike, Pall Mall and Kool cigarettes, said is considering publishing the documents on its Web site, spokeswoman Ann Tradigo said in an e-mail. ``I doubt that this collection of old documents will contribute much fresh insight into the subject of smoking and health,'' Michael Prideaux, the company's corporate and regulatory affairs director, said in an e-mailed statement. ``If there was a `smoking gun,' presumably someone would have found it by now.'' Tobacco Research Researchers use tobacco industry documents to study nicotine addiction, cigarette marketing to children and other issues, Hurt said. More than 100 studies using data from industry papers have been published, he said. In the BAT archives, documents are indexed by file, making searches more difficult, the study said. An electronic index of files contains 181 fewer documents than listed when the archive opened in 1999, the study said. References to ``illiterate low- income 16-year-olds'' in the Middle East were changed to ``18- year-olds'' in one document, according to the study. One side of an audio tape, containing a reference to ``dirt poor little black farmers,'' was gone when researchers requested the tape for a second time, they said. Research Monitored The depository also monitored search terms used by one researcher and used video cameras and two-way mirror windows to watch visitors, the Lancet study said. ``We have not altered or tampered with the contents of Guildford,'' Tradigo said in the e-mail. Closed-circuit TV ``is in place and a liaison officer works with researchers. We've had one or two letters over the years, and have dealt with them on an individual basis.'' About 41 million pages of papers released by companies including BAT's Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris can be accessed through the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library at the University of California, San Francisco, according to the library's Web site. UCSF, Mayo Clinic and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine are working to add BAT documents from Guildford, Hurt said. ``The document collection should be made available via an independent internet site,'' researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said in a Lancet commentary. Tobacco industry ``documents have served as a catalyst for dramatic improvements in policy,'' they said. 5 Million Deaths Tobacco use kills about 5 million people a year, a figure that may rise to 10 million by 2025, according to the World Health Organization. In the U.S., diseases linked to smoking -- including 87 percent of lung-cancer cases and most cases of emphysema and chronic bronchitis -- kill 440,000 people each year, the American Lung Association says on its Web site. Japan Tobacco Inc., the world's third-biggest cigarette company, has collaborated with Philip Morris Inc. on public statements about smoking and health since the 1980s, another Lancet study said. The Tokyo-based maker of Mild Seven cigarettes allowed Philip Morris lawyers to review materials before releasing them to the public, researchers from Pennsylvania State University said. High readings of second-hand smoke were deleted from a study in 1984, according to the study. ``Japan Tobacco has long known about the potential health risks involved in smoking and has sought to obstruct effective tobacco control,'' the study said. The researchers said they used online archives from U.S. cigarette companies, because internal company papers can't be subpoenaed in Japan. Enditem