Volume 1
The tobacco industry and the health risks of smoking : second report / Health Committee.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Health Committee
- Date:
- 2000
Licence: Open Government Licence
Credit: The tobacco industry and the health risks of smoking : second report / Health Committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![Continued substance use despite knowledge or __Persisting in use despite harmful consequences having a persistent or recurrent social, psychological or physical problem that is caused or exacerbated by the use of the substance Tolerance: need for markedly increased Increased tolerance amounts of the substance to achieve intoxication or desired effect or markedly diminished effect with continued use of the same amount Withdrawal: the characteristic withdrawal Sometimes, a physical withdrawal state syndrome or the same (or a closely related) substance is taken to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms The RCP concluded that smoking particularly met the criteria for “difficulty in controlling use” “continued use despite harmful consequences” “tolerance” and “withdrawal”.*® Overall, the RCP drew the following main conclusion: “Cigarette smoking should be understood as a manifestation of nicotine addiction ... the extent to which smokers are addicted to nicotine is comparable with addiction to ‘hard’ drugs such as heroin and cocaine.” We endorse this conclusion, which underlies many of the recommendations in our report and is, we believe, of fundamental importance to policy makers in the UK and elsewhere. The response of the tobacco companies to evidence of the health risks of smoking 34. Evidence from internal company memoranda, many of which have come to light as a result of the Minnesota litigation, suggests that tobacco companies have been aware of the dangers of smoking for decades. Mr Martyn Day, a solicitor in the firm of Leigh, Day and Co., which represented hundreds of claimants in unsuccessful actions against the tobacco companies between 1992-98 and had access to “hundreds of thousands of pages” of internal tobacco company documents under the discovery process, suggested “in 1958 Dr Bentley, a leading research scientist for Imperial, accompanied two other British tobacco experts on a trip to meet a number of scientists from the US tobacco industry and other independent experts. In their report of the meeting to Imperial they said: ‘with one exception ... the individuals whom we met believed that smoking causes lung cancer’.’’*' The joint memorandum from ASH and the RCN quoted a number of other examples: - “the sum total of scientific evidence establishes beyond reasonable doubt that cigarette smoke is acausal factor in the rapidly increasing incidence of human epidermiod cancer of the lung....[this is] a view with which we concur” (Paul Kotin, a pathologist at the Tobacco Industry Research Committee, 1957).” - “the results of the research would appear to us to remove the controversy regarding the causation of the majority of human lung cancer.... to sum up we are of the opinion that the Auerbach work proves beyond reasonable doubt the causation of lung cancer by smoke.” (The Research Manager, Gallaher, 1970. In 1998, Gallaher stated that this memorandum was an initial reaction and that its views were later discounted.).°° Nicotine Addiction in Britain, pp.86-87. Nicotine Addiction in Britain, p.183. Ev., p.80. 6! By., p.90. 62 By., p.6l. ® Ey., pp.61-62.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32221083_0001_0025.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
