Recorded presentation

Suzaynn F. Schick, PhD, Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, University of California, San Francisco, 530 Parnassus, Ste 366, San Francisco, CA 94143-1390, 415-502-4882, zaynn@itsa.ucsf.edu and Stanton Glantz, PhD, Center for Tobacco Control, Research and Education, Univ. of California-San Francisco, Box 1390, San Francisco, CA 94143-1390.

Objective: Analyze the results of toxicology experiments on cigarette sidestream or “secondhand smoke” performed by Philip Morris Co. scientists, using animal subjects.

Methods: Searches of the tobacco documents and the open scientific literature.

Results: Between 1981 and 2000, researchers at the Institut für biologische Forschung (INBIFO), a German laboratory owned by Philip Morris Co., performed at least 36 experiments testing the effects of sidestream cigarette smoke on animal ubjects. These experiments established lethal dosages, quantified the relative toxicity of mainstream and sidestream smoke, assayed the toxicity of components of sidestream smoke and explored the health effects of chronic exposures to sidestream smoke for animals. INBIFO researchers found that secondhand smoke is substantially more toxic than mainstream smoke: 1. LD50 for dermal application of smoke condensate, in mg/kg body weight, is approximately 2.5 times higher for mainstream smoke than sidestream smoke. 2. LD50 for inhalation of smoke is approximately 4 times higher for mainstream than sidestream. 3. The toxicity of whole sidestream smoke is greater than could be predicted from the sum of known toxins in sidestream. Some of these experiments were published in the open scientific literature, but the majority of the data are available only from the tobacco document collections.

Conclusion: Philip Morris Co. knew more about the toxicity of sidestream smoke in the 1980’s than the health community does today. Despite their knowledge, they continue to oppose regulation of smoking in public places.

Learning Objectives:

• Know the research on the toxicity of secondhand smoke done at tobacco companies and never before published.
• Know the LD50 of sidestream smoke.
• Know the relative toxicity of mainstream and sidestream cigarette smoke to living animals.

Keywords: Tobacco Industry, Environmental Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation