Theodore H. Blau

Theodore H. Blau, Ph.D. is an addiction psychologist with the U.S. Government, and is considered an Industry Expert for the Defense in cases against the tobacco industry. He has testified repeatedly on behalf of the tobacco industry.

= Biography =

Theodore H. Blau was born March 3, 1928 in Huntington, West Virginia. He received his M.S. in psychology in 1949 from Pennsylvania State University and his Ph.D in psychology in 1951, also from Pennsylvania State University. He was a Post-Doctoral Trainee in Clinical Psychology from 1951-1952 at U.S. Veteran's Administration Hospital at Perry Point, Maryland.

Dr. Blau is considered an expert on "addiction." On January 2, 1988, he gave a deposition for the Cipollone v. Liggett et al case that was 318 pages long.(PMI's Revised Initial Disclosure, June 27, 1996) Blau is a tobacco industry consultant who has testified repeatedly before the U.S. Congress that "the smoking of tobacco is a habit not an addiction."(Tobacco Control 1992). On July 29, 1988 he appeared on behalf of the Tobacco Institute before the House Subcommittee on Health and the Environment about the Health Consequences of Smoking: Nicotine Addiction, regarding regulation of R.J. Reynolds's "smokeless" cigarette. In 1991, Dr. Blau told a Senate committee that while an addictive drug causes intoxication, smokers "are always able to reason without interference from their habit." He also testified that "people who believe that smoking is an addiction are less likely to quit than people who believe that smoking is a habit."

Blau was a Council for Tobacco Research Special Projects Researcher.(N.M. Tobacco Companies Personnel List)

Dr. Blau specializes in clinical child psychology and is a past president of the American Psychological Association. In early 1980s, he received tobacco industry funding to analyze and evaluate literature on the "tobacco habit," according to internal documents from British American Tobacco Industries, PLC's Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp.

Dr. Blau, 67, has run smoking-cessation classes for the Manatee County Sheriff's Office. He has testified that when he quit smoking after 24 years, he didn't suffer the kinds of cravings seen in alcohol rehabilitation.(Tobacco Dream Team: Expert Who Insist Nicotine Isn't Addictive, WSJ 3/23/95)

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