Scientist Victor DeNoble was tasked in the 1980s by a major tobacco company to invent a safer form of nicotine – one that would decrease its harmful effects but will still be addictive (i.e. smokers can live longer and smoke way more cigarettes – a win win situation). Guess what – DeNoble succeeded in doing exactly that. But, in doing so, he inadvertently created indisputable evidence that nicotine was addictive, something the tobacco companies had long denied. His position was terminated, his lab was closed, and both his research and the “safer cigarette” were buried in the vaults and kept from the public…until he broke his confidentiality agreement and became the ultimate whistleblower. In 1994, scientist Victor DeNoble became the first whistleblower to reveal the tobacco industry’s efforts to manufacture “a maximally addictive” product. After testifying before Congressional committees, the FDA and Al Gore’s Tobacco Settlement Committee, DeNoble has become America’s peripatetic anti-smoking advocate par excellence.
ADDICTION INCORPORATED, Charles Evans Jr.’s taut, journalistic exposé made over the course of 15 years, tells the riveting story of DeNoble’s journey from research scientist to star informant. For more information visit: http://www.addictionincorporated.com/
Cigarette packing gets graphic (Abc News)
The story continues to unfold as provisions of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act begin to go into effect, empowering the FDA to require that cigarette packages display disturbing photographs of rotting teeth and blackened lungs, ban sweetened cigarettes targeted to children, and prohibit “light” and “low tar” labeling by fall 2012. The new law also allows the FDA to reduce nicotine in cigarettes to near nil, a prospect that could put big tobacco out of business. With new restrictions fast approaching, the tobacco companies are rolling up their sleeves and arming themselves for litigation — again.
ADDICTION INCORPORATED has unprecedented access to vital and previously undisclosed information from key players behind the scenes (interviewees include Steven C. Parrish, the former Senior VP and General Counsel for External Affairs at Philip Morris). The film also reveals exactly how the tobacco industry achieved behemoth power through scientific secrecy…and what their next move may be.
It plays on the big screen starting Dec 2011 at select venues in United States. For more info about dates and venues: http://www.addictionincorporated.com/see-the-film/
