Smokeless Tobacco Council

The Smokeless Tobacco Council (STC) was the chewing and snuff tobacco equivalent of the Tobacco Institute, with a touch of the Council for Tobacco Research. It developed good relationships with each, and eventually the functions virtually merged. There was a resurgence of interest in chewing tobacco in the 1980s, partly due to the teenage "rebel/tough-man" image boosted by the movies.

In this period the STC was reasonably independent, but the cigarette manufacturers progressively bought up smokeless tobacco companies, and so their interests tended to merge. Eventually the STC was treated as a sub-section of the Tobacco Institute for the purposes of political lobbying, working to defeat ballot measures and other activities, being billed for one-thirtieth of all costs.

Key Characters
People involved in the Council included:
 * Mary Pottorff, who served as Executive director (in what was then a one-person office) during 1980 and 1984 before moving over to become the deputy to Andrew Whist at Philip Morris Corporate Affairs department.


 * David L. Simpson II - the Secretary and General Counsel of the Conwood Company, which was formerly the American Snuff Corporation.


 * Jeff Schlagenhauf who was an administrative assistant to Congressman Thomas Bliley, a supporter of the tobacco industry in Congress. He became the president of the Council in 1994.

External articles
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