We except an interest in people’s health as a basic responsibility paramount to every other consideration in our business. And that’s where we stand today. Timothy Hartnett, Tobacco Industry Research Committee, 1950s televised propaganda
In 1998 the Master Settlement Agreement was signed. The industry agreed to pay $206 billion to avoid a verdict. It also promised to cease marketing to young people but only in the US. Nadia Collot, The Tobacco Conspiracy
It is an epidemic that has been built on unparalleled corporate deceit, negligence – I believe it’s criminal negligence. Garfield Mahood, Non-Smokers Rights Association Canada
There have been infamous meetings throughout history. One took place in the Plaza Hotel in New York City in 1953 when senior executives from American tobacco companies got together with John Hill of the public relations firm Hill-Knowlton. That meeting led directly to hundreds of millions of deaths. Garfield Mahood
The tobacco industry is one of the respectable American industries that make up American commerce. It acts responsibly in its business practices and it produces a product recognised world-wide for its quality. Edward Horrigan, CEO Liggett Group Inc
Nicotine is addictive: we are in the business of selling an addictive drug. R J Reynolds, 1975
Happily for the tobacco industry ... nicotine is both habituating and unique in its variety of physiological actions. R J Reynolds, 1975
Cigarette smoking is the most significant public health problem facing our people. Bill Clinton
It is important to know as much as possible about teenage smoking patterns and attitudes. Today’s teenager is tomorrow’s potential regular customer. Philip Morris, 1981
There is no functional difference between an organised crime family that sells cocaine or heroin that kills people – they’re racketeers – and a cigarette industry that sells a product which use as directed kills. Robert Blakey
Every day 1,200 people die from tobacco. The Truth Campaign
He [Thomas Edison] chewed tobacco and spat on the floor. Horizon: The Wizard Who Spat on the Floor, BBC 1972
There is one romance that has outlived all others. Forget Romeo and Juliet. Our passion for the cigarette is the greatest love affair the planet has ever seen. More popular than sex. More addictive than religion. And more deadly than warfare. Horizon: We Love Cigarettes, BBC 2000
Today [Allen] Carr is confident of his technique he is attempting to convince every smoker watching to quit by debunking four great smoking myths: smokers need willpower to quit; smokers choose to smoke; nicotine gum and patches work; giving up is hard. ibid.
It’s long been known that nicotine affects a sensitive system in the brain. ibid.
The last drag lingers like a kiss. ibid.
It all began back in the 1950s when a strange new disease began sweeping the nation: lung cancer. ibid.
A Congressional Hearing investigating tobacco changed everything. ibid.
The drug Zyban doubles your chances of quitting. ibid.
‘I think they have a great potential to save millions of lives in the next twenty-thirty years.’ Horizon, E-Cigarettes, Miracles or Menace? expert, BBC 2016
cf.
‘We really don’t know what the long-term effects will be.’ ibid. expert
The big tobacco companies are now major players in the business of making e-cigarettes. ibid.
There’s to be a total ban on smoking in all public places in England. BBC News
We travelled to Australia where the industry fought a ferocious battle against plain packaging. Peter Taylor, Burning Desire: The Seduction of Smoking I, BBC 2014
Girls are now just as likely to smoke as boys. ibid.
Tobacco remains the darling of the City. ibid.
Every anti-smoking measure has been implacably opposed by the industry. ibid.
Tobacco companies have seduced generations with the allure of their deadly product, and use any device they can to attract new customers. Peter Taylor, Burning Desire: The Seduction of Smoking II
Now there’s a new product – electronic or e-cigarrettes that the industry hopes will rebrand its image. ibid.
‘A weapon of mass distraction.’ ibid. doctor
What happens in East Timor’s schools is scandalous. ibid.
After some time he felt for his pipe. It was not broken, and that was something. Then he felt for his pouch, and there was some tobacco in it, and that was something more. Then he felt for matches and he could not find any at all, and that shattered his hopes completely. J R R Tolkien, The Hobbit
New York City ... There’s a battle going on here. Between smokers and those who hate them. The New York City Council has passed legislation to make smoking illegal in almost every bar and restaurant ... This is bullshit! Penn & Teller, Bullshit! s1e5: Second Hand Smoke/Baby Bullshit, Showtime 2003
Neither do thou lust after that tawny weed tobacco. Ben Jonson, Bartholomew Fair 1614
The Dangers of Tobacco: A Lecture by Ivan Ivanovich Nyukhin. Chekhov: Comedy Shorts: The Dangers of Tobacco, starring Steve Coogan, Sky Arts 2010
An IoS Investigation: The Unstoppable March of the Tobacco Giants. How the industry exploits the developing world – it’s young, poor and uneducated. The Independent on Sunday headline 29th May 2011
We are against a wall, a tyranny, who has a lot of money, who can do anything with their money. Ita Rahman, tobacco control activist
The true face of smoking is disease, death and horror – not the glamour and sophistication the pushers in the tobacco industry try to portray. David Byrne
Never slap a man who chews tobacco. Willard Scott
Tobacco is America’s greatest gift to the world! David Hockney
Tobacco is my favourite vegetable. Frank Zappa
I’ll tell you why I like the cigarette business. It cost a penny to make. Sell it for a dollar. It’s addictive. And there’s a fantastic brand loyalty. Warren Buffett, Where Should I Invest My Savings?
Sublime tobacco! which from east to west,
Cheers the tar's labour or the Turkman’s rest;
Which on the Moslem’s ottoman divides
His hours, and rivals opium and his brides;
Magnificent in Stamboul, but less grand,
Though not less loved, in Wapping or the Strand:
Divine in hookas, glorious in a pipe,
When tipp’d with amber, mellow, rich, and ripe;
Like other charmers wooing the caress,
More dazzlingly when daring in full dress;
Yet thy true lovers more admire by far
Thy naked beauties – Give me a cigar! Lord Byron, The Island II:19
According to these estimates, over 99 percent of deaths from substance abuse are attributable to tobacco and alcohol. Noam Chomsky, Deterring Democracy
Unconscionable for the mighty transnational tobacco companies – and three of them are in the United States – to be peddling their poison abroad, particularly because their main targets are less-developed countries. Dr James Mason, US assistant secretary for health
Nothing reflects on Washington's fundamental hypocrisy on [the drug] issue as the fact that while it rails against the adverse effects of cocaine in the United States, the number of Colombians dying each year from subsidized North American tobacco products is significantly larger than the number of North Americans felled by Colombian cocaine. Peter Bourne, director of drug abuse office for Jimmy Carter
Tobacco is an extremely labour-intensive crop. It requires constant care and attention. And each leaf is picked by hand. At first these fields were worked by endured servants … But there was never enough labour to satisfy demand. David Olusoga, Black and British: A Forgotten History II: Freedom ***** BBC 2016