Tobacco Working Group TWG

The Tobacco Working Group or TWG, was a federally funded project in the United States to create a safer cigarette. The project was launched by the National Cancer Institute, with the purpose of developing a less hazardous cigarette.

= Description =

The Tobacco Working Group was a federally-supported project launched by the National Cancer Institute, with the purpose of developing a less hazardous cigarette. The documents show that the tobacco companies participated in the meetings of the TWG and attempted to influence the group's work. At first, the tobacco industry attempted to convince members of the TWG that cigarettes are not dangerous. When this strategy failed, the industry gained unexpected assistance from Dr. Gio Batta Gori, Deputy Director of the National Cancer Institute's Division of Cancer Cause and Prevention and Chairman of the TWG.

Gori publicized the idea that less hazardous cigarettes could be created. Gori's proposal ultimately became an embarrassment for the federal government, which was focused on getting smokers to quit, but Gori's efforts were a boon for the tobacco industry. The tobacco industry took advantage of Gori's proposal and its marketing of low tar and extra low tar cigarettes. On February 8, 1973, the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare issued a charter for the TWG, which made it a formal and multi-disciplinary group consisting of researchers from academia, the government, and the tobacco companies. The group had actually begun meeting informally in 1968 to discuss generally research related to smoking and health, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory disease. The 1973 Charter specified that the purpose of the group was to "identify the criteria and prescribe methods for the development of a less hazardous cigarette, and other methods to decrease the smoking hazard." Brown & Williamson 1402.02]. (The Cigarette Papers, pg. 155)

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