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Dr. Jeffrey S. Wigand (May 15, 2007)
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From The Insider (1999), starring Russell Crowe as Jeffrey Wigand
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Dr. Jeffrey S. Wigand (b. December 17, 1942) hired onto Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation on January 1, 1989, as Vice President of Research and Development. Having spent 17 years of his life employed in the health care field, it is extremely odd that this doctor would associate his occupation with that of a habit known to affect the single most preventable cause of death in the United States. In the infamous 60 Minutes interview with Mike Wallace dated February 4, 1996, Wigand, by no means perfect, admits to having been attracted to B&W's lucrative annual salary ($300,000), along with benefits that would greatly assist his eldest daughter, then suffering from acute asthma.
A secondary reason for Wigand's hiring was an alleged mutual interest on the part of both parties to develop a "safe cigarette:"
Wigand: They were looking to reduce the hazards within cigarettes, reduce the carcinogenic components or the list of the carcinogens that were within the tobacco products.
Wallace: They talked about carcinogens too?
Wigand: They talked about carcinogens.
Wallace: They talked about cancer and heart disease and emphysema and all of those things and they were going to work toward making a safer cigarette?
You must have been very excited.
Wigand: I was enthusiastic and energetic in terms of pursuing that.
Discouragement followed, when then-B&W president Thomas Sandefur ditched the effort, saying (as reported by Wigand in November 17, 1995 via New York Daily News), "If we pursue a safer cigarette, it would put us at extreme exposure with every other product. I don't want to hear about it anymore." Wigand also took issue with the lack of concern at Brown & Williamson over the health risks of tobacco on children and teenagers, having read a report by the Journal of the American Medical Association stating that "3 million Americans under the age of 18 consume one billion packs of cigarettes and 26 million containers of snuff every year," totaling to an annual profit of over $200 million a year in sales that are illegal in all fifty states.
In Dr. Wigand's final year of employment at B&W, he studied the effects of different cigarette additives, and their combustible properties:
*glycerol: an additive used to keep tobacco in cigarettes moist
*coumarin: an additive shown to have a carcinogenic property which caused tumors in rats and mice
*ammonia: referred to by Wigand as "ammonia additives," which "allows for nicotine to be more rapidly absorbed in the lung and therefore affect the brain and central nervous system" (also known as "impact boosting.")
Dr. Wigand's studies came to a direct conflict with the corporation that employed him not out of a concern for their product's impact on public health, but to loan a sliver of credence to their own Research & Development department. The laboratory at B&W was antiquated: "The place looked like a high-school chemistry lab from the 1950s with all sorts of old-fashioned smoking machines. There was no fundamental science being done." (Wigand)
On March 24, 1993, Dr. Jeffrey Wigand was fired from Brown & Williamson.
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"I believe that nicotine is not addictive."
Congressional Hearing (Rep. Henry A. Waxman, Chairman, Rep. Ron Wyden) given by CEO's of the top seven U.S. tobacco manufacturing firms, April 14, 1994. Full transcript can be found here.
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Wigand viewed the Congressional testimony on C-SPAN that morning. He was furious, and had felt while watching this that "the seven dwarfs," which included B&W president Thomas Sandefur, had perjured themselves. However, Wigand was between a rock and a hard place, having signed a confidentiality agreement with his former company that forbade him to speak of anything related to his work or the company.
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Part II will air next Friday evening. In the meantime, enjoy yourselves, play nice, and enjoy this video (an old one) by a well-known Chicago band who will be playing a street-fest in my neighborhood this Sunday. I'm not religious, and I am a nonsmoker, but I like these guys!
Smoking Popes - "Need You Around"
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