Brown & Williamson
Encyclopedia
Brown & Williamson was an American
tobacco company and subsidiary of the giant British American Tobacco
, that produced several popular cigarette
brand
s. It became infamous as the focus of investigations for chemically enhancing the addictiveness of cigarettes. Its former vice-president of research and development, Jeffrey Wigand
, was the whistleblower
in an investigation conducted by CBS
news program 60 Minutes
, an event that was dramatized in the film The Insider
. Wigand claimed that B&W had introduced chemicals such as ammonia
into cigarettes to increase nicotine
delivery and increase addictiveness
.
Brown & Williamson had its headquarters at Louisville, Kentucky
until July 30, 2004, when the U.S. operations of Brown & Williamson merged with R.J. Reynolds
, creating a new publicly traded parent company, Reynolds American Inc.
B&W was also involved in genetically modifying tobacco (notably the controversial Y1
strain).
), North Carolina, as a partnership of George T. Brown and his brother-in-law Robert Lynn Williamson, whose father was already operating two chewing tobacco
manufacturing facilities. Initially, the new partnership took over one of the elder Williamson's factories. In February 1894 the new company, calling itself Brown & Williamson, hired 30 workers and began manufacturing in a leased facility.
In 1927 the Brown and Williamson families sold the business to London-based British American Tobacco
. The business was reorganized as the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation. Manufacturing and distribution were expanded, and work on a new B&W factory in Louisville was begun.
, a doctor of biochemistry with a career focus on health issues who became the Vice President of Research & Development at Brown & Williamson in 1989. He was hired to research safer means of delivering nicotine by reducing the harm of other tobacco compounds. At the time, both the addictiveness of nicotine and the health hazards of cigarettes were well known by the company and the industry, but kept a fiercely guarded secret. Wigand soon found his research and recommendations discouraged, ignored and censored, leading to confrontations with the CEO, Thomas Sandefur. Thwarted and frustrated, Wigand turned his attention to improving tobacco additives, some of which were designed for "impact boosting", using chemicals like ammonia to enhance absorption of nicotine in the lungs and affect the brain and central nervous system faster. Wigand believed this process was a deliberate attempt to increase addiction to cigarettes.
Wigand's disagreements with Sandefur reached a breaking point over a flavor enhancer called Coumarin
, which had been proven to be a lung-specific carcinogen
that the company continued to use in pipe tobacco. Wigand demanded its removal, but a successful substitute could not be developed and Sandefur refused on the grounds that sales would drop. This argument led Sandefur to fire Wigand in 1993 and to force him to sign an extended confidentiality agreement forbidding him to speak of anything related to his work or the company. The penalty for violating confidentiality was loss of his severance pay, potential lawsuit, and loss of medical coverage. At the time, his daughter suffered from a chronic illness, which required continuous medical attention.
Soon after this incident, the seven executives of "Big Tobacco
" testified during congressional hearings that they believed "nicotine is not addictive".
, producer of 60 Minutes, Wigand claimed he and his family were anonymously stalked, intimidated and threatened with death should he talk. At the time it was thought that Brown & Wiliamson were behind these intimidation attempts, but just before the movie The Insider was released the FBI published a search warrant served on Wigand's home strongly suggesting he fabricated the threats against himself. Bergman provided him with armed bodyguards and, after legal consultation, urged him to testify for the State of Mississippi in a lawsuit against Big Tobacco brought by Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore, a tactic designed to nullify his confidentiality agreement before revealing the truth in an interview with Mike Wallace
for 60 Minutes. The tobacco interests responded by getting a Kentucky judge to issue a gag order that subjected Wigand to arrest upon returning to his home state.
Wigand's best hope remained in Bergman's pledge to air his story on 60 Minutes. Brown & Williamson threatened CBS with a lawsuit for tortious interference
, which could spoil an imminent merger plan with Westinghouse. Instead of the original interview, CBS aired an edited version which did not disclose the crucial details. Bergman bitterly opposed the breaking of his word to Wigand, which eventually led to his resignation from 60 Minutes after 14 successful years.
Brown & Williamson still tried to sue Wigand for theft, fraud, and breach of contract after the sanitized interview was aired, and launched a 500-page smear campaign against him. Fortunately for Wigand, his depositions at the Mississippi and Kentucky state courts were leaked, and were published by the Wall Street Journal as part of an investigative rebuttal to the attacks. CBS news, embarrassed, finally aired the full, original Wigand interview on 60 Minutes, leaving much of the nation in shock.
Forty-six states ultimately filed a Medicaid
suit against the tobacco industry which led to a $368 billion settlement in health-related damages by the tobacco companies.
for promoting B&W products in five of Stallone's films. B&W sought to permanently remove the disputed material from the library with a suit filed in San Francisco Superior Court. The University of California contended that all of the documents were in the public domain and should be available to scholars and other interested parties. On 25 May 1995 the Superior Court ruled that these documents should be made available for public review. B&W appealed that decision, and on 23 June 1995 the Court of Appeals refused a temporary restraining order preventing release of the documents. On 29 June the California Supreme Court rejected the company's appeal, allowing UCSF to release the documents.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
tobacco company and subsidiary of the giant British American Tobacco
British American Tobacco
British American Tobacco p.l.c. is a global tobacco company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s second largest quoted tobacco company by global market share , with a leading position in more than 50 countries and a presence in more than 180 countries...
, that produced several popular cigarette
Cigarette
A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...
brand
Brand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
s. It became infamous as the focus of investigations for chemically enhancing the addictiveness of cigarettes. Its former vice-president of research and development, Jeffrey Wigand
Jeffrey Wigand
Jeffrey S. Wigand is a former vice president of research and development at Brown & Williamson in Louisville, Kentucky, who worked on the development of reduced-harm cigarettes...
, was the whistleblower
Whistleblower
A whistleblower is a person who tells the public or someone in authority about alleged dishonest or illegal activities occurring in a government department, a public or private organization, or a company...
in an investigation conducted by CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
news program 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
, an event that was dramatized in the film The Insider
The Insider (film)
The Insider is a 1999 film based on the true story of a 60 Minutes television series segment, as seen through the eyes of a real tobacco executive, Jeffrey Wigand. The 60 Minutes story originally aired in November 1995 in an altered form because of objections by CBS’ then-owner, Laurence Tisch, who...
. Wigand claimed that B&W had introduced chemicals such as ammonia
Ammonia
Ammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . It is a colourless gas with a characteristic pungent odour. Ammonia contributes significantly to the nutritional needs of terrestrial organisms by serving as a precursor to food and fertilizers. Ammonia, either directly or...
into cigarettes to increase nicotine
Nicotine
Nicotine is an alkaloid found in the nightshade family of plants that constitutes approximately 0.6–3.0% of the dry weight of tobacco, with biosynthesis taking place in the roots and accumulation occurring in the leaves...
delivery and increase addictiveness
Substance use disorder
Substance use disorders include substance abuse and substance dependence. In DSM-IV, the conditions are formally diagnosed as one or the other, but it has been proposed that DSM-5 combine the two into a single condition called "Substance-use disorder"....
.
Brown & Williamson had its headquarters at Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
until July 30, 2004, when the U.S. operations of Brown & Williamson merged with R.J. Reynolds
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
The R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company , based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and founded by R. J. Reynolds in 1875, is the second-largest tobacco company in the U.S. . RJR is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Reynolds American Inc...
, creating a new publicly traded parent company, Reynolds American Inc.
B&W was also involved in genetically modifying tobacco (notably the controversial Y1
Y1 (tobacco)
Y1 is a strain of tobacco that was cross-bred by Brown & Williamson to obtain an unusually high nicotine content. It became controversial in the 1990s when the United States Food and Drug Administration used it as evidence that tobacco companies were intentionally manipulating the nicotine content...
strain).
History
Brown & Williamson was founded in Winston (today's Winston-SalemWinston-Salem, North Carolina
Winston-Salem is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina, with a 2010 population of 229,617. Winston-Salem is the county seat and largest city of Forsyth County and the fourth-largest city in the state. Winston-Salem is the second largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region and is home to...
), North Carolina, as a partnership of George T. Brown and his brother-in-law Robert Lynn Williamson, whose father was already operating two chewing tobacco
Chewing tobacco
Chewing tobacco Chewing tobacco Chewing tobacco (also known colloquially as hoobastank, backy, tobac, doogooos,Hogleg, chewpoos, chits, chewsky, chawsky, dip, flab, chowers, guy, or a wad, as well as referred to as dipsky, snuff, a pinch, a yopper, a Packing a bomb, a tobbackey or packing a...
manufacturing facilities. Initially, the new partnership took over one of the elder Williamson's factories. In February 1894 the new company, calling itself Brown & Williamson, hired 30 workers and began manufacturing in a leased facility.
In 1927 the Brown and Williamson families sold the business to London-based British American Tobacco
British American Tobacco
British American Tobacco p.l.c. is a global tobacco company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s second largest quoted tobacco company by global market share , with a leading position in more than 50 countries and a presence in more than 180 countries...
. The business was reorganized as the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation. Manufacturing and distribution were expanded, and work on a new B&W factory in Louisville was begun.
Controversy
A crucial and historic battle in the war between the tobacco industry and smokers began with Jeffrey WigandJeffrey Wigand
Jeffrey S. Wigand is a former vice president of research and development at Brown & Williamson in Louisville, Kentucky, who worked on the development of reduced-harm cigarettes...
, a doctor of biochemistry with a career focus on health issues who became the Vice President of Research & Development at Brown & Williamson in 1989. He was hired to research safer means of delivering nicotine by reducing the harm of other tobacco compounds. At the time, both the addictiveness of nicotine and the health hazards of cigarettes were well known by the company and the industry, but kept a fiercely guarded secret. Wigand soon found his research and recommendations discouraged, ignored and censored, leading to confrontations with the CEO, Thomas Sandefur. Thwarted and frustrated, Wigand turned his attention to improving tobacco additives, some of which were designed for "impact boosting", using chemicals like ammonia to enhance absorption of nicotine in the lungs and affect the brain and central nervous system faster. Wigand believed this process was a deliberate attempt to increase addiction to cigarettes.
Wigand's disagreements with Sandefur reached a breaking point over a flavor enhancer called Coumarin
Coumarin
Coumarin is a fragrant chemical compound in the benzopyrone chemical class, found in many plants, notably in high concentration in the tonka bean , vanilla grass , sweet woodruff , mullein , sweet grass , cassia cinnamon and sweet clover...
, which had been proven to be a lung-specific carcinogen
Carcinogen
A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that is an agent directly involved in causing cancer. This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes...
that the company continued to use in pipe tobacco. Wigand demanded its removal, but a successful substitute could not be developed and Sandefur refused on the grounds that sales would drop. This argument led Sandefur to fire Wigand in 1993 and to force him to sign an extended confidentiality agreement forbidding him to speak of anything related to his work or the company. The penalty for violating confidentiality was loss of his severance pay, potential lawsuit, and loss of medical coverage. At the time, his daughter suffered from a chronic illness, which required continuous medical attention.
Soon after this incident, the seven executives of "Big Tobacco
Big Tobacco
Big Tobacco is a pejorative term often applied to the tobacco industry in general, or more particularly to the "big three" tobacco corporations in the United States: Philip Morris , Reynolds American and Lorillard...
" testified during congressional hearings that they believed "nicotine is not addictive".
60 Minutes
Despite Jeffrey Wigand's commitment to honor the confidentiality agreement and his initial refusal to talk to Lowell BergmanLowell Bergman
Lowell A. Bergman is an American investigative reporter with The New York Times and a producer/correspondent for the PBS documentary series Frontline...
, producer of 60 Minutes, Wigand claimed he and his family were anonymously stalked, intimidated and threatened with death should he talk. At the time it was thought that Brown & Wiliamson were behind these intimidation attempts, but just before the movie The Insider was released the FBI published a search warrant served on Wigand's home strongly suggesting he fabricated the threats against himself. Bergman provided him with armed bodyguards and, after legal consultation, urged him to testify for the State of Mississippi in a lawsuit against Big Tobacco brought by Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore, a tactic designed to nullify his confidentiality agreement before revealing the truth in an interview with Mike Wallace
Mike Wallace (journalist)
Myron Leon "Mike" Wallace is an American journalist, former game show host, actor and media personality. During his 60+ year career, he has interviewed a wide range of prominent newsmakers....
for 60 Minutes. The tobacco interests responded by getting a Kentucky judge to issue a gag order that subjected Wigand to arrest upon returning to his home state.
Wigand's best hope remained in Bergman's pledge to air his story on 60 Minutes. Brown & Williamson threatened CBS with a lawsuit for tortious interference
Tortious interference
Tortious interference, also known as intentional interference with contractual relations, in the common law of tort, occurs when a person intentionally damages the plaintiff's contractual or other business relationships...
, which could spoil an imminent merger plan with Westinghouse. Instead of the original interview, CBS aired an edited version which did not disclose the crucial details. Bergman bitterly opposed the breaking of his word to Wigand, which eventually led to his resignation from 60 Minutes after 14 successful years.
Brown & Williamson still tried to sue Wigand for theft, fraud, and breach of contract after the sanitized interview was aired, and launched a 500-page smear campaign against him. Fortunately for Wigand, his depositions at the Mississippi and Kentucky state courts were leaked, and were published by the Wall Street Journal as part of an investigative rebuttal to the attacks. CBS news, embarrassed, finally aired the full, original Wigand interview on 60 Minutes, leaving much of the nation in shock.
Forty-six states ultimately filed a Medicaid
Medicaid
Medicaid is the United States health program for certain people and families with low incomes and resources. It is a means-tested program that is jointly funded by the state and federal governments, and is managed by the states. People served by Medicaid are U.S. citizens or legal permanent...
suit against the tobacco industry which led to a $368 billion settlement in health-related damages by the tobacco companies.
Brown & Williamson v. Regents of the University of California
Thousands of pages of the B&W documents were donated unsolicited to the UCSF Tobacco Control Archives in 1994. These documents consist primarily of scientific studies on the addictive nature of nicotine and other health effects of tobacco smoke. Also included is documentation of $500,000 in payments to Sylvester StalloneSylvester Stallone
Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone , commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed...
for promoting B&W products in five of Stallone's films. B&W sought to permanently remove the disputed material from the library with a suit filed in San Francisco Superior Court. The University of California contended that all of the documents were in the public domain and should be available to scholars and other interested parties. On 25 May 1995 the Superior Court ruled that these documents should be made available for public review. B&W appealed that decision, and on 23 June 1995 the Court of Appeals refused a temporary restraining order preventing release of the documents. On 29 June the California Supreme Court rejected the company's appeal, allowing UCSF to release the documents.
Brands
- Barclay
- Belair
- CapriCapri (cigarette) Capri is a brand of cigarette manufactured by R.J. Reynolds. Introduced in 1987, it is the first widely-available cigarette having an extremely slim shape, at 17 mm in circumference and 100 mm in length, specifically marketed towards women as a way to increase or enhance their sexual...
- Carlton
- GPC
- KoolKOOL (cigarette)KOOL is a brand of menthol cigarette currently produced by the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, introduced in 1933, that has marketed itself towards the "sophisticated man". Originally introduced as an unfiltered "regular" size cigarette, filtered 85 mm king-size versions were later added to...
- LaredoLaredo (cigarette)Laredo was a tobacco kit introduced by Brown & Williamson in the early 1970s. It was sold with the slogan "If you want something done right, do it yourself". The kit consisted of a tin of tobacco, a plastic cigarette-making device, and loose cigarette papers and filters...
- Lucky StrikeLucky StrikeLucky Strike is a brand of cigarette owned by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and British American Tobacco groups. Often referred to as "Luckies", Lucky Strike was the top selling cigarette in the United States during the 1930s.- History :...
-export and non-USA markets only - Misty
- North State
- Pall MallPall Mall (cigarette)Pall Mall cigarettes are a brand of cigarettes produced by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and internationally by British American Tobacco at multiple sites.- History :...
- export and non-US markets only - Private Stock
- Raleigh
- TareytonTareytonTareyton is a brand of cigarettes originally manufactured by the American Tobacco Company. It began as a variation of Herbert Tareyton cork-tipped non-filter cigarettes . As filters gained in popularity in the late 1950s, Tareyton was created in 1954 as the filtered version of Herbert Tareyton,...
- non-US markets - ViceroyViceroy (cigarette)Viceroy cigarettes are made by Brown & Williamson, which was owned by British American Tobacco, and, since 2004, by Reynolds American Inc., a joint venture between the U.S. branch of British American Tobacco and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company....
- WingsWings (cigarette)Wings is a brand of the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation. It was first introduced to American smokers in 1929 as a popular ten-cent economy brand. Later, the original dark brown label gave way to white in 1940 due to wartime ink restrictions...