CLICK ON BIG TOBACCO

THE tobacco industry's dissembling herd of lawyers and publicists has been
its own worst enemy. The truth-telling Internet may soon run a close second.

Earlier this week, a flood of previously withheld tobacco company records
was unleashed over the global computer network. Thanks to the legal battle
being waged by Minnesota Attorney General Hubert Humphrey III, some 200,000
pages of reports, research and memos are now publicly available at the
touch of a button.

The industry fought tooth and nail to keep the papers secret, claiming
attorney-client privilege. But four courts rebuked the cigarette-makers.
And now anyone - not just skilled investigators, state legal eagles, or
congressional aides - can judge the evidence of possible crime and fraud
for themselves.

Among the mountain of newly disclosed records is a memo from a Brown &
Williamson Tobacco Corp. lawyer advising the firm to skirt discovery rules
and avoid producing internal documents for use in trials as long as
possible. Of special interest to the scientific community are papers noting
that R.J. Reynolds regularly suppressed the publication of research on the
most dangerous chemical parts of tobacco smoke.

And, as if the public needed any more indication of the industry's
faltering credibility on the issue of addiction, there are revelations
aplenty about the use of ammonia compounds and consideration of another
narcotic additive "10,000 times more addictive than morphine."

For decades, Big Tobacco has benefited from the best smokescreen-makers
money could buy. Thanks to technology and tenacity, clearing the air about
what the industry knew - and didn't want the public to find out - is just a
mouse click away.

The tobacco documents are posted at: http://www.house.gov/commerce/

Other trial documents are available at:
http://www.mnbluecrosstobacco.com/toblit/trialnews/docs/