10 Big Fat Lies and the Liars Who Told Them

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4. R.J. Reynolds on the health hazards of cigarettes

Heads of the nation's largest cigarette companies are sworn in before a House Energy subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill, April 14, 1994. From left are: Robert Sprinkle III, executive vice president for Research American Tobacco Co.; Donald Johnston, American Tobacco; Thomas Sandefur Jr., Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corp.; Edward Horrigan Jr., Liggett Group Inc.; Andrews Tisch, Lorillard Tobacco Co.; Joseph Taddeo, US Tobacco Co.; James Johnston, RJ Reynolds; and William Campbell, Phillip Morris. In what could mark a major turning point in tobacco litigation, cigarette makers Philip Morris Cos. and RJR Nabisco are negotiating a settlement that reportedly could cost as much as $300 billion, give the companies a blanket amnesty and retire the Marlboro Man, the Associated Press learned Wednesday, April 16, 1997. (AP Photo/Johnn Duricka, File)

Heads of the nation's largest cigarette companies are sworn in before a House Energy subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill, April 14, 1994. (AP Photo/Johnn Duricka, File)

“Cigarette smoking is no more ‘addictive’ than coffee, tea or Twinkies.”

James W. Johnston, CEO of RJR Nabisco, April 14, 1994

For over half a century, American cigarette manufacturers denied that their products were addictive and dangerous, and suppressed their own research that confirmed it. The quote comes from written testimony submitted in a 1994 congressional hearing during which executives from the seven largest tobacco companies admitted that there “may be” some health risks to smoking, but denied that cigarettes were addictive, and that they manipulated nicotine levels to make them more so.

A court order compels tobacco companies to apologize in a series of advertisements that will appear in major newspapers and other media if their appeals are rejected.

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