Daily Doc: PM, Apr 8, 1982: PM: Chew causes cancer (1982)


Daily Doc: PM: Chew causes cancer (1982)


Title: Biological Effects of Smokeless Tobacco Products
PM, Apr 8, 1982
Bates #: http://www.pmdocs.com/getallimg.asp?DOCID=2001207640

June 12, 2000

In this personal and confidential internal Philip Morris (PM) memo from 1982, PM's highest-ranking officers reveal their complete awareness of, as they put it, the "untoward biological effects" of smokeless tobacco. In this memo the Director of Research at Philip Morris actually goes so far as to tell PM's Chief Executive Officer:
"I believe the correlation between use of [smokeless tobacco] and oral cancer is quite strong..."
Yet despite this clear acknowledgment (behind closed doors) of the correlation between chewing tobacco and the onset of oral cancer, "scientific witnesses" from the Smokeless Tobacco Council insisted in a 1985 Reader's Digest article that "no undisputed scientific evidence exists proving its product causes any human disease..." That article was entitled Sean Marsee's Smokeless Death, and described the ordeal of a high school track star from Oklahoma who died of oral cancer at age 19 after using spit tobacco from the age of 12. [Sean Marsee's Smokeless Death, October, 1985 Reader's Digest.]
CITATION
Title: Biological Effects of Smokeless Tobacco Products
Type of Document: Personal and Confidential Memo
Author T.S. Osdene, Director of Research at Philip Morris
Recipient: Mr. Hugh Cullman, CEO of Philip Morris
Date: 19820408
Company/Site: Philip Morris Tobacco Company Document Site
Bates No. 2001207640
Page Count: 1
URL: http://www.pmdocs.com/getallimg.asp?DOCID=2001207640
PDF Version: http://www.pmdocs.com/PDF/2001207640.PDF
QUOTES
In response to your request of March 29th, I have had a search made on the biological effects of smokeless tobacco which would include fine cut chewing tobacco, moist snuff and other related products.

As you will see from the attached paper, there are a number of untoward biological effects associated with these materials. I believe the correlation between use of these substances and oral cancer is quite strong...

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Anne Landman, Regional Program Coordinator
American Lung Association of Colorado, West Region Office
Grand Junction, CO
(970) 245-2120
afoxland@gj.net
This document's URL is: http://www.tobacco.org/Documents/dd/ddchewcancer.html

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