Tobacco history - headlines

The Nineties
The Millenia Approaches Copyright 1993-2001 Gene Borio

1990: 22nd Surgeon General's Report: Health Benefits of Smoking Cessation, A Report of the Surgeon General

1990: BUSINESS: BRAND CONSUMPTION:

RANK	BRAND	BILLIONS SOLD
1	Marlboro	134.43 billion(?)
2	Winston	45.81 billion
3	Salem	32.01 billion
4	Kool	25.67 billion
5	Newport	24.09 billion

1990: CONSUMPTION: Americans smoke fewer than 3 billion cigars annually.

1990: REGULATION: Dr. David Kessler comes to the FDA. He will stay till 1997, his tenure marked by the attempt, invalidated by the Supreme Court in 1999, to regulate cigarettes as nicotine delivery devices.

1990: LITIGATION: Mississippi jury rules that cigarettes killed Nathan Horton, but does not award damages, finding both Horton and American Tobacco shared culpability equally.

1990: Ben and Jerry's ice cream boycott by dropping Oreo cookies from its ice cream.

1990: USA: Ellis Milan, president of the Retail Tobacco Distributors of America said, "President George Bush often talks of 1,000 points of light. I'd like to think those points of light are coming from the glowing ends of cigars, cigarettes and pipes across the country, and symbolize the cornerstone of this nation -- tobacco"(LB)

1990: BUSINESS: Philip Morris acquires Jacobs Suchard AG, a Swiss-based coffee and confectionery company, for $4.1 billion.

1990: BUSINESS: Philip Morris' revenues reach $51 billion; operating companies income reaches $3.5 billion.

1990: INDIA: A tobacco trade journal reports that India is selling its first cigarette specifically aimed at women, MS Special Filters, "the sort of market targeting that can get you pilloried in the US." (World Tobacco, March 1990, p. 11). (LB)

1990: PEOPLE: Philip Morris CEO Hamish Maxwell, a heavy smoker, undergoes quadruple bypass surgery.

1990: REGULATION: NYC Passes Tobacco Sampling Law. Prohibits giveaway or discounted distribution of tobacco products in public places and at public events. Exempts tobacco retailers in their stores and wholesalers or manufacturers.

1990: REGULATION: San Luis Obispo, California becomes the first city in the world to ban smoking in all public buildings including bars and restaurants.

1990: BUSINESS: The Uptown Fiasco. RJR begins test-marketing "Uptown" cigarettes targetting blacks. Health and Human Services secretary Louis Sullivan, along with many black civic and religious leaders denounce the cigarette. RJR cancels the cigarette. The success of the campaign leads to the founding of the National Association of African Americans for Positive Imagery (NAAAPI) in 1991.

1990: BUSINESS: Los Angeles, CA, restaurant Remi holds its first cigar night for women, the "George Sands Society Night."

1990-01-01: The smoking ban on all domestic flights of less than 6 hours, except to Alaska or Hawaii, takes effect. Smoking is also banned on interstate buses.

1990-02: BUSINESS: Marketing firm Spector M. Marketors, under contract for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company developed plans to promote "Dakota" brand cigarettes to the "virile female," including 18- through 20-year-old women

1990-05-31: World No-Tobacco Day. Slogan: Childhood and youth without tobacco

1990-08-22: RUSSIA: Scores of angry smokers block street near Moscow's Red Square for hours in protest of summer-long cigarette shortage

1991: LITIGATION: Mildred Wiley, a nonsmoker, dies of lung cancer at 56. Her husband, Philip of Marion, Indiana, will bring a suit that in December, 1995 will be the first to establish second hand smoke as a workplace injury eligible for workers' compensation.

1991: LITIGATION: Grady Carter is diagnosed with lung cancer.

1991: ADVERTISING: Joe Camel's own line of merchandise is touted by RJR as bringing in $40 Million/year in advertising billings.

1991: ADVERTISING: JAMA publishes 2 noted studies of Joe Camel and kids:

One finds that 91% of 6 year olds can match Joe Camel to his product (cigarettes), and is as recognized by preschoolers as Mickey Mouse
The other study, by Joe DiFranza, finds that since the inception of the Joe Camel campaign in 1987, Camel's share of the under-18 market had risen from 0.5% to 32.8%.

1991: ADVERTISING: Saatchi and Saatchi unit Campbell Mithun tests a campaign for Kool that featured a cartoon smoking penguin wearing shades, a buzzcut and Day-Glo sneakers.

1991: BRITAIN: The British government will no longer provide financial aid to tobacco companies in developing countries. (AP, 9 Feb 1991). (LB)

1991: BUSINESS: Johns Hopkins University announces that it will sell all its $5.3 million worth of tobacco stock. (LB)

1991: BUSINESS: Marlboro Medium is introduced

1991: BUSINESS: PM Chairman Hamish Maxwell (1981-1991) retires. Michael A. Miles (1991-1994) becomes chairman & CEO, the first non-tobacco man to do so.

1991: BUSINESS: PMI's volume tops 400 billion units.

1991: SPORTS: Health and Human Services Secretary Louis W. Sullivan asks sports fans to boycott events sponsored by tobacco companies, and urges promotors to shun tobacco money. His plea is ignored.

1991-02-07: AUSTRALIA: The AFCO Case: Federal court examines ETS studies, finds data valid

1991-05-31: World No-Tobacco Day. Slogan: Public places and transport: better be tobacco-free

1991-06: BUSINESS: Domini Social Equity Fund is created by Amy Domini to exclude war-related, alcohol and tobacco stocks.

1991-07: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: Consumers' Research Magazine publishes "Passive Smoking: How Great a Hazard?" by Huber, Gary L; Brockie, Robert E; Mahajan, Vijay K. "ETS is so highly diluted that it is not even appropriate to call it smoke."

1992: CONSUMPTION: Among smokers age 12 to 17 years, a 1992 Gallup survey found that 70% said if they had to do it over again, they would not start smoking, and 66% said that they want to quit. Fifty-one percent of the teen smokers surveyed had made a serious effort to stop smoking--but had failed.

1992: 23rd Surgeon General's Report: Smokmg and Health in the Amencas: A 1992 Report of the Surgeon General, in Collaboration with the Pan Amencan Health Organization

1992: STATISTICS: Per-capita consumption of cigarettes stands at 7 per day among adult Americans

1992: CESSATION: Nicotine patch is introduced.

1992: LITIGATION: Supreme Court rules that the 1965 warning label law does not shield tobacco companies from suits accusing them of deceiving the public about the health effects of smoking.

1992: LEGISLATION: NYC passes Vending Machine Law. Bans distribution of tobacco products through vending machines except those placed at least 25 feet from the door of a tavern.

1992: LEGISLATION: NY State passes Adolescent Tobacco Use Prevention Act. Prohibits free distribution of tobacco products to the public, tobacco sales through vending machines or to minors. Requires merchants to post signs saying no sales to minors and to ask for age identification of anyone under 25. Allows parent of a minor who purchased tobacco to bring a complaint against the vendor.

1992: LEGISLATION: Australia: Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act

1992: LITIGATION: U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, N.Y., begins criminal probe of industry.

1992: ENTERTAINMENT: Pinkerton Tobacco Co., under pressure from the FTC, agrees to cease advertising its products on TV during the "Red Man Pulling Series.".

1992-Fall: MEDIA: Marvin Shanken publishes first issue of Cigar Aficionado

1992: BUSINESS: Philip Morris Magazine folds

1992: BUSINESS: Philip Morris Cos. revenues approach the $60 billion mark; net earnings fall just short of $5 billion. Operating companies income tops $5 billion at PM U.S.A.; $2 billion at both PMI and KGF; and $1 billion at the international food business.

1992: BUSINESS: Marlboro Adventure Team contest is introduced. Philip Morris has called the MAT one of the most successful advertising campaigns in history.

1992: BUSINESS: Financial World ranks Marlboro the world's No. 1 most valuable brand (value: $31.2 billion)

1992: BUSINESS: HUNGARY: BAT acquires Pcsi Dohnygyr, Hungary's largest cigarette manufacturer.

1992-04: INDUSTRY RESEARCH: Consumers' Research Magazine publishes "Passive Smoking And Your Heart" by Huber, Gary L; Brockie, Robert E; Mahajan, Vijay K.

1992-04: "Marlbor Man" Wayne McLaren asks Philip Morris to limit its advertising. Dying of lung cancer, McLaren appears at PM's annual shareholders meeting in Richmond, VA, and asks the company to voluntarily limit its advertsing. Chairman Michael Miles responds: We're certainly sorry to hear about your medical problem. Without knowing your medical history, I don't think I can comment any further.

1992-05: AUSTRALIA: LITIGATION: ETS: Leisel Sholem wins $50,000 in second-hand smoke suit, based on knowledge about ETS between 1975 and 1986.

1992-05-31: World No-Tobacco Day. Slogan: Tobacco-free workplaces: safer and healthier

1992-07-22: "Marlboro Man" Wayne McLaren, 51, dies of lung cancer.

1993: CONSUMPTION: 70% of adults who smoke wanted to quit completely; Smoking prevalence among U.S. adults (18 years of age and older) is estimated to be 25%, compared with 26.3% for 1992. Forty-six million adults currently smoke (24 million men, 22 million women). Thirty-two million American smokers (70% of all adult smokers) report that they want to quit smoking completely. Women (73%) are more likely to want to quit smoking than men (67%). By 1993, an estimated 38.2% of high school dropouts who had ever smoked had quit, compared with 45.3% of high school graduates and 65.4% of college graduates. --"Cigarette smoking among adults--United States, 1993," CDC, December 23, 1994, issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)

1993: CONSUMPTION: About 3 million Americans smoke cigars.

1993: Incoming President Bill CLINTON bans smoking in the White House.

1993: BUSINESS: US Tobacco introduces Cherry-flavored Skoal long-cut.

1993: BUSINESS: Separation of Richemont's tobacco and luxury goods operations into Rothmans International BV/PLC and Vendôme luxury goods SA/PLC

1993: VERMONT is the first state in the nation to ban indoor smoking.

1993: US POST OFFICE bans smoking in its facilities.

1993: BUSINESS: Philip Morris is the nation's #2 advertiser, behind Proctor and Gamble.

1993: BUSINESS: Cigarette promotional expenditures reach $6.03 billion, an increase of 15.4 percent over 1992.

1993: BUSINESS: Financial World ranks Marlboro the world's No. 1 most valuable brand (value: $39.5 billion)

1993: BUSINESS: Philip Morris buys RJR Nabisco's North American cold cereal operation.

1993: BUSINESS: Philip Morris' revenues reach nearly $61 billion.

1993: BUSINESS: Con-Agra's Charles Harper becomes CEO of RJR

1993: BUSINESS: UST introduces low-nicotine, cherry-flavored Skoal Long Cut

1993: "Allies: The ACLU and the Tobacco Industry" reveals an otherwise undisclosed $500,000 given by Philip Morris to the ACLU between 1987 and 1992, along with additional sums from RJR Nabisco and the Tobacco Institute.. The report was written by Morton Mintz in cooperation with Public Citizen, the Advocacy Institute, the American Heart Association and Ralph Nader.

1993: CANADA: LEGISLATION: Federal law is enacted to raise the legal age for buying tobacco to 18. (NCTH)

1993: Major League Baseball institutes a tobacco prohibition policy for all minor-league teams, coaches and staff.

1993-01 FRANCE: LEGISLATION: Tobacco advertising is banned; Grand Prix auto race canceled because of tobacco advertising. In February, Grand Prix is re-instated, without direct tobacco advertising; drivers still allowed to wear sponsors' colors.

1993: SOUTH AFRICA: First tobacco control law passed--bans sale of cigarettes to those under 16; largely ignored

1993-01: HEALTH: Environmental Protection Agency declares cigarette smoke a Class-A carcinogen.

1993-04-02: BUSINESS: "Marlboro Friday"--PM Slashes Marlboro Prices

1993-05-31: World No-Tobacco Day. Slogan: Health services: Our window to a tobacco-free world

1993-07-15: USA: Tobacco BBS goes online

1993-09-29: LITIGATION: Wyatt, Tarant files suit against Merrell Williams over "secret" tobacco papers.

1993: LEGISLATION: NYC passes Tobacco Product Regulation Act. Bans out-of-package tobacco sales. Places age restrictions on handling. Prohibits sale of tobacco products to minors. Requires one public health message for every four tobacco ads appearing on city property. Bans use of tobacco products on school property.

1994: STATISTICS: Of those who smoke, 70 percent expressed an interest in quitting. Another 28 percent said they had no desire to give up smoking. Forty-eight percent said they want to quit and have tried to do so but failed, and 22 percent want to quit but have not tried. (Source: USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll, March 1994)

1994: 24th Surgeon General's Report: Preventing Tobacco Use Among Young People: A Report of the Surgeon General

1994: OSHA proposes severe workplace smoking restrictions.

1994: Brown & Williamson tries to force Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., to hand over confidential documents that Waxman's subcommittee obtained in its investigation of the tobacco industry. B&W's case was argued in court, and lost, by Kenneth Starr.

1994: MEDIA: Frank Blethen's Seattle (Wash.) Times becomes the largest US newspaper to refuse tobacco advertising. "These ads were designed to kill our readers," said Times president H. Mason Sizemore, "so we decided to refuse them."

1994: BANS: McDonald's bans smoking in all 11,000 of its restaurants

1994: BANS: Dept. of Defense imposes restrictions on smoking at all US military bases worldwide

1994: BUSINESS: William Murray is appointed chairman of Philip Morris Cos.; Geoffrey C. Bible is named president and CEO.

1994: BUSINESS: Financial World ranks Marlboro the world's No. 2 most valuable brand behind Coca-Cola (value: $33 billion)

1994: BUSINESS: Philip Morris sends out an estimated 19 million Marlboro promotional items; briefly becomes #3 mail order house in the US

1994: CANADA: LEGISLATION: Bigger and stronger warning messages are required on cigarette packs: (NCTH)

"Cigarettes are addictive;"
"Tobacco smoke can harm your children;"
"Cigarettes cause fatal lung disease;"
"Cigarettes cause cancer;"
"Cigarettes cause strokes and heart disease;"
"Smoking during pregnancy can harm your baby;"
"Smoking can kill you;"
"Tobacco smoke causes fatal lung disease in non-smokers."

1994: First International Quit & Win (IQW) competition

1994-02: CANADA: Tobacco taxes are slashed to curb runaway bootlegging from the US.

1994-02-22: SCIENCE: Scientists from Canada reported finding evidence of cigarette smoke in fetal hair, the first biochemical proof that the offspring of non-smoking mothers can be affected by passive cigarette smoke.

1994-02: LEGISLATION: FDA commissioner David Kessler announces plans to consider regulation of tobacco as a drug.

1994: LEGISLATION: NY State passes PRO-KIDS Law. Prohibits smoking on school grounds in all schools, kindergarten through 12th grade. Bans out-of-package cigarette sales. Prohibits smoking in child-care centers, youth centers, group homes, public institutions or residential treatment facilities that serve young people.

1994-03: ADVERTISING: Brown & Williamson Tobacco yanks cigarette accounts from Saatchi unit Campbell Mithun. Gives Kool account to Grey Advertising.

1994-02-28 & 03-07: TV: ABC airs "Day One" segments "Smokescreen" and "The List" concerning tobacco industry manipulation of nicotine

1994-03-24: LITIGATION: Philip Morris sues ABC for $10 billion over the 2 "Day One" segments. (Two other events were occurring this year: ABC was in the process of being sold to Disney, and the huge communications bill was going through Congress. Lobbyists swarmed Congress, especially the powerful chairman of the House Commerce Committee, VA Republican Tom Bliley, often dubbed"The Congressman from Philip Morris.")

1994-03-29: LITIGATION: New Orleans, LA. Castano case begins; a 60-attorney coalition files what will become the nation's largest class-action lawsuit plaintiffs charge tobacco companies hid their knowledge of the addicting qualities of tobacco.

1994-04: IRAN:

1994-04: BUSINESS: BAT Industries agrees to buy American Tobacco from American Brands for $1 billion.

1994-04-13: Tobacco Industry releases "The List" of 599 cigarette additives

1994-04-14: Seven Tobacco Company executives begin testimony in Congressional hearings

1994-04-28: ex-Philip Morris scientist Victor J. DeNoble testifies on his research into nicotine and addiction in rats; claims PM suppresed his findings.

1994-04: MEDIA: Time and US News and World Report each run cover stories on tobacco; as with the June 6, 1983 Newsweek, neither has a single tobacco advertisement.

1994-05-07: New York TImes front-page article reviews "secret" Brown & Williamson tobacco papers.

1994-05-12: Stanton Glantz at UCSF receives a box of "secret" Brown & Williamson tobacco papers from "Mr. Butts."

1994-05-23: LITIGATION: MISSISSIPPI becomes the first state to sue tobacco companies to recoup health care costs associated with smoking. (The State of Mississippi v. American Tobacco et. al., filed in the Chancery Court of Jackson County, Mississippi (Case No. 94-1429). Case brought by Miss. A-G Michael Moore.

1994-05-31: LITIGATION: David Burton, who lost both legs due to peripheral vascular disease (PVD) files suit in Federal Court in Manhattan, KS, against RJR and American Tobacco Co.

1994-05-31: FTC Clears Joe Camel

1994-05-31: World No-Tobacco Day. Slogan: The media and tobacco: Getting the health message across

1994-06-02: LITIGATION: West Virginia sues tobacco companies to recoup smokers' Medicaid costs.

1994-07: Ex-tobacco lobbyist Victor Crawford makes first national appearance for tobacco control. Dying of cancer, Crawford is featured with ex-surgeon general C. Everett Koop in a Coalition on Smoking and Health radio spot which urges a $2 federal cigarette tax to help fund health care reform.

1994-08-17: LITIGATION: Minnesota and Blue Cross/Blue Shield sue tobacco companie for violating anti-trust laws by failing to disclose addictive qualities of tobacco..

1994-11: California: Prop. 188 is overwhelmingly defeated. The tobacco industry spent $18 M to pass a measure sponsored by "Californians for Statewide Smoking Restrictions" that would have pre-empted stronger local laws, along with the coming 1995 statewide ban on smoking in restaurants.

1994-12: SOUTH AFRICA: Health Minister Nkosazana Zumaout mandates health warnings on cigarette packs and advertising.

1994-12: POLITICS: FDA gets letters from Congress. 124 members of the House sent a sharply worded letter to the FDA, claiming the agency's tobacco proposal would put 10,000 jobs at risk and "trample First Amendment rights to advertise legal products to adults." Two weeks later, 32 senators signed a virtually identical letter. (According to Common Cause, those senators who signed the letter had received an average of $31,368 from tobacco, compared to $11,819 for those senators who did not sign. Similarly, the House signatories received an average of $19,446, in contrast to $6,728 for other Congress members.)--Mother Jones, 4/96

1995: BUSINESS: MARKET SHARE BY COMPANY:

1. PM 43%
2. RJR 28%
3. Brown & Williamson 11%
5. American Tobacco Co. 7%
3. Lorillard 7%
3. Liggett & Myers 2%

1995: GOVERNMENT: Tobacco companies give the GOP $2.4 million in "soft" dollars. The top two soft money contributors to the GOP this year are Philip Morris ($975,149) and RJR Nabisco ($696,450). Tobacco industry PACs gave $841,120 to Republican members of Congress.

1995: LEGISLATION: New York City passes Smoke-Free Air Act. Strengthens Clean Indoor Air Act (1988) by banning smoking in the dining areas of all restaurants with more than 35 seats. Limits smoking to the bar area of restaurants, with certain specifications, and to a maximum of 25 percent of a restaurant's outdoor seats. Bans smoking in outdoor seating areas, such as in sports stadiums and recreational areas. Limits smoking in the workplace to a separately enclosed and ventilated room and to private offices as long as the door is kept closed and no more than three people are present, each of whom agrees to allow smoking. Prohibits smoking at all times in both indoor and outdoor areas of day-care centers. Exempts restaurants seating 35 people or less. Allows smoking in stand-alone bars. Allows smoking in sports arenas in separate smoking rooms, with some limitations.

1995: BUSINESS: Financial World ranks Marlboro the world's No. 2 most valuable brand behind Coca-Cola (value: $38.7 billion). The brand also has 29% of the US market--the highest market share it has ever had.

1995: BUSINESS: Geoffrey C. Bible becomes chairman and CEO of Philip Morris Cos.

1995: BUSINESS: KGF is reorganized into one operating company with category-based divisions, and the name changes to Kraft Foods, Inc.

1995: BUSINESS: For the first time, revenues from Philip Morris' international businesses ($32 billion) exceed those from North America ($31.4 billion).

1995: BUSINESS: Richemont buys out Rothmans International minority shareholders

1995: CANADA: LEGISLATION: The Supreme Court of Canada strikes down the federal ban on tobacco advertising. Tobacco companies launch an aggressive advertising campaign, using billboards, newspaper ads and event sponsorships. Ottawa releases A Blueprint to Protect the Health of Canadians, an outline of proposed legislation to reinstate the advertising ban, but no bill has yet been introduced in Parliament. (NCTH)

1995-01: BUSINESS: BAT completes purchase of American Tobacco Co. for $1 Billion.

1995-02-17: LITIGATION: CASTANO: US DIstrict Judge Okla B. Jones rules class action case may proceed.

1995-02-22: LITIGATION: Florida sues tobacco companies to recoup health care costs .

1995-03-19: CBS' "60 Minutes" airs segment featuring ex-tobacco lobbyist Victor Crawford

1995-05: USA: First appearance of Tobacco BBS on the internet.

1995-05-26: BUSINESS: Philip Morris announces unprecedented recall of 8 billion cigarettes due to a suspected chemical contaminant.

1995-05-31: World No-Tobacco Day. Slogan: Tobacco costs more than you think

1995-06-09: BATF Searches 1500 Brown & Williamson Tower, B&W's US HQ, investigating possible complicity in smuggling.

1995-06-27: Philip Morris announces "Action Against Access," a voluntary program aimed at preventing youth access to cigarettes. Philip Morris this year also instituted the"Ask first" and "Responsible Retailer Program"

1995-06-30: "Secret" B&W papers become available on Internet one day after the California Supreme Court rejects B&W's attempts to suppress the information.

1995-07-12: AMA excoriates tobacco industry over "secret" B&W papers. AMA devotes entire July 19, 1995 issue of JAMA to a study of the papers, finds The evidence is unequivocal -- the US public has been duped by the tobacco industry. No right-thinking individual can ignore the evidence. We should all be outraged, and we should force the removal of this scourge from our nation . . .

1995-07-13: FDA declares nicotine a drug

1995-07-21: US under-age smoking found rising.

1995-08-10: President Clinton declares nicotine an addictive drug; FDA sends President Clinton proposals for regulating the sale and marketing of tobacco products to minors

1995-08-10: LITIGATION: The 5 largest tobacco companies file suit in a North Carolina court challenging the FDA's authority to regulate tobacco and advertising.. The advertising industry files in North Carolina within days. Smokeless tobacco manufacturers U.S. Tobacco Co. and Conwood Co file suit in Tennessee.

1995-08-21:LITIGATION: ABC apologizes to Philip Morris for "Day One" program, pays PM an estimated $16 million in legal fees.

1995-08-31: LITIGATION: $1.9 million awarded plaintiff Milton Horowitz in Kent Micronite filter case; only the 2nd time an award has been given in a liability case against a tobacco company. However, the suit concerned asbestos, not tobacco

1995-09-04: "Winston Man" Alan Landers, 54, joins anti-smoking movement.

1995-09: RJR's faux-micro-smokery, Moonlight Tobacco Co., introduces its artsy brands to New York, Chicago and Seattle: Politix, Sedona, Jumbos, North Star.

1995-10-12: "Marlboro Man" David McLean dies of lung cancer at 73 [Original "Marlboro Man" William Thourlby is still alive as of 5/2002, living in NYC.]

1995-10-20: ART: Hans Haacke and 11 other artists hang their works with protests against their New York art show's sponsor, Philip Morris

1995-11-09: The NY Times reports that CBS has killed broadcast of a 60 Minutes interview with a former tobacco executive (soon revealed as Jeffrey Wigand). That day, a CBS affiliate in Los Angeles, KCBS, killed an anti-tobacco ad that had been running for weeks. Meanwhile, CBS was in in the process of being sold to Westinghouse.

1995-11-29: Ex-B&W research executive Jeffrey Wigand testifies to federal and state prosecutors in Pascagoula, Miss.

1995-12-19: LITIGATION: Massachusettes sues tobacco companies for conspiring to "mislead, deceive and confuse" citizens on the hazardous effects of smoking.

1996: New Teen Smokers: 1.23 million

1996: BUSINESS: PMI takes a stake in Poland's largest tobacco company, Zaklady Przemyslu Tytoniowego w Krakowie S.A., and in Brazil's leading chocolate company, Industrias de Chocolate Lacta S.A.

1996: BUSINESS: Merger of Richemont's tobacco interests with those of Rembrandt Group Limited

1996-01-08: LITIGATION: Supreme Court refuses to hear an ACLU challenge to the city of North Miami's 1990 ban on hiring smokers. Lower insurance costs outweighed the privacy issue, the Florida Supreme Court had ruled in 1995. The argument was made that three members of the court -- Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas -- could not be hired in North Miami because they smoke. (Kurtz vs. North Miami, No. 95-545)

1996-01-31: LITIGATION: Florida state appeals panel allows Engle suit to proceed, but limits case to Florida residents.

1996-02: TOBACCO CONTROL: National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids given $30 M launch. Will incorporate previous group, "Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids," when it begins operation in June, 1996.

1996-02-04: CBS airs Wigand Interview on 60 Minutes. Wigand claims B&W Chief Sandefur lied when telling Waxman's committed he believed nicotine was not addictive.

1996-02-05: POLITICS: Geoffrey Bible, CEO of Philip Morris Cos. Inc., chairs a dinner underwritten by Philip Morris for the Republican Governors Association, and speaks to the governors about tobacco's benefits to the economy. The gala dinner pulls in an unprecedented $2.6 million.

1996-02-16: LITIGATION: : Gov. Kirk Fordice (R-Miss.) sues his own attorney general, Mike Moore, in order to block Moore's "Medicaid" lawsuit.

1996-03-02: Victor Crawford, tobacco lobbyist-turned-tobacco-control-advocate, dies.

1996-03-09: USA: Tobacco BBS registers tobacco.org as its domain name.

1996-03-13: LITIGATION: Liggett Group makes dramatic break with industry, offers to settle Medicaid and addiction-based lawsuits. .

1996-03-15: LITIGATION: Liggett settles with 5 states over Medicaid lawsuits, agreeing to pay over $10 million in Medicaid bills for the treatment of smokers.

1996-03-18: FDA releases statements of 3 more tobacco industry insiders (Dr. Ian L. Uydess, Dr. William A. Farone and Jerome K. Rivers) who claim Philip Morris carefully controls nicotine levels in cigarettes. FDA reopens comment period.

1996-05: LITIGATION: 44 Liquormart v. Rhode Island. Supreme Court strikes down liquor advertising ban as violating First Amendment

1996-05: MEDIA: The May Vanity Fair contains a massive, 22-page article by Marie Brenner on the inside story of the CBS/Wigand story. The issue contains no tobacco ads. Michael Mann will use this article to make the movie, "The Insider."

1996-05-15: BUSINESS: Philip Morris and United States Tobacco Co. offer their own plan to stop youth access, in order to avoid FDA control..

1996-05-20: MEDIA: The May 20, 1996 People Weekly carries 2 tobacco articles, a profile of Stanton Glantz, and an excerpt from Grisham's The Runaway Jury. The issue contains no tobacco ads..

1996-05-23: LITIGATION: Castano case is de-certified by Appeals Court..

1996-05-31: World No-Tobacco Day. Slogan: Sports and arts without tobacco: Play it tobacco-free

1996-06: CDC adds prevalence of cigarette smoking as a nationally notifiable condition, bringing to 56 the number of diseases and conditions designated by Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) as reportable by states. This marks the first time a behavior, rather than a disease or illness, has been considered nationally reportable.(LB)

1996-07-19: LITIGATION: Massachusetts becomes the 10th state to sue tobacco companies..

1996-08-09: LITIGATION: FL: Brown & Williamson is ordered to pay the Grady Carters $750,000 in only the second financial judgement ever in a strictly-tobacco-oriented liability lawsuit. Carter Atty: Norwood S. Wilner

1996-08-23: LEGISLATION: President Clinton approves proposed FDA regulations, giving FDA authority to regulate cigarettes as a "drug delivery device.".

1996-10-17: SCIENCE: Researchers disclose molecular link between a substance in tobacco tar and lung cancer: a benzo (a) pyrene derivative damages lung cancer-suppressor gene, p53, in the exact "hotspot" associated with lung cancer. Science magazine

1996-12: TRAVEL: St. Louis-based CLIPPER CRUISE LINE bans smoking anywhere on one of its cruise ships.

1997: STATISTICS: US: Forty-eight million Americans have quit in the 21 years since the first Smokeout in 1976; 48 million still smoke; about 34 million say they want to quit. Between 1965 and 1990, adult smoking declined from 42 percent to 25 percent. The average age of a first-time smoker is 13. More than 3 million American adolescents smoke cigarettes.

1997: CONSUMPTION: Americans spent an estimated $51.9 billion on tobacco products in 1997, or just under 1% of their disposable income. Of this amount, $48.7 billion (or 94%) was spent on cigarettes, $2.2 billion on smokeless and smoking tobacco, and $0.9 billion on cigars. (CRS)

1997: BUSINESS: PM U.S.A.'s market share tops 50 percent.

1997: BUSINESS: Philip Morris Cos. revenues reach $72 billion; operating companies income is $11.7 billion.

1997: BUSINESS: China is by far the largest producer of cigarettes in the world; the second largest producer is the United States. In 1997 China produced an estimated 1.7 trillion pieces, almost two and one half times the 720 billion pieces produced in the United States. The United States is by far the largest cigarette exporting nation in the world, with exports in 1997 estimated about 217 billion pieces, or 21% of the world total. China is the largest consumer market in the world, with over 300 million smokers consuming 1.7 trillion cigarettes in 1997. (CRS)

1997: BUSINESS: Targacept is established as a wholly owned subsidiary of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company

1997-01: UK: FORMULA 1 SCANDAL: Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone donates 1million to the Labour Party.

1997-03-20: Liggett Tobacco and 22 states settle lawsuits; Liggett admits smoking is addictive, can cause cancer, and the industry markets cigarettes to teenagers; agrees to turn over documents and to warn on every pack that smoking is addictive.

1997-03-21: Liggett issues statement: "We at Liggett know and acknowledge that, as the Surgeon General and respected medical researchers have found, cigarette smoking causes health problems, including lung cancer, heart and vascular disease and emphysema. Liggett acknowledges that the tobacco industry markets to 'youth,' which means those under 18 years of age, and not just those 18-24 years of age."

1997-04-18: Attorneys General confirm they are talking with PM and RJR about a Settlement

1997-04-25: LITIGATION: NC Federal judge WILLIAM OSTEEN rules FDA may regulate tobacco as a drug; strikes down provisions to regulate advertising.

1997-05-01: Tobacco Cos offer a Settlement that would include FDA regulation, money for anti-smoking campaigns, and bans on vending machines and outdoor advertising.

1997-05-05: Tobacco wins Connor suit. 6-member jury in Raulerson vs. RJ Reynolds Tobacco, et.al. fails to find RJR guilty of negligence in the lung cancer death of smoker Jean Connor.

1997-05-19: UK: FORMULA 1 SCANDAL: Health Secretary Frank Dobson announces that Labour plans a complete ban on tobacco advertising and sponsorship in sport.

1997-05-28: Health advocates meet in Chicago to hear of SETTLEMENT Talks.

1997-05-28: ADVERTISING: FTC acuses Joe Camel ad campaign of illegally targeting underage youth.

1997-05-31: World No-Tobacco Day. Slogan: United for a tobacco-free world

1997-06-02: LITIGATION: NORMA BROIN's airline attendants seconhand smoke trial begins jury selection in Miami.

1997-06-17: ADVERTISING: RJR Sues FTC over Joe Camel Complaint

1997-06-20: AGs, tobacco companies come to landmark settlement. Agreement provides for unprecedented restrictions on cigarettes and on tobacco makers' liability in lawsuits. Industry to spend $360 billion over 25 years, mainly on anti-smoking campaigns, use bold health warning on packs, curb advertising and face fines if youth smoking drops insufficiently. Subject to congressional approval.

1997-07-03: LITIGATION: First State Settlement: Tobacco Cos Settle Mississippi Medicaid lawsuit for $3.6 Billion.

1997-07-09: RJR kills JOE CAMEL campaign, replaces Joe with darker, sexier "What You're Looking For."

1997-07-21: LITIGATION: BROIN: For the first time ever, a tobacco co. executive, LIGGETT CEO BENNETT LEBOW, testifies that cigarettes cause cancer.

1997-08-22: LITIGATION: In a video deposition, PM CEO Geoffrey Bible says smoking "might have" killed 100,000 people; RJR CEO Steven Goldstone links smoking with cancer the next day.

1997-08-25: LITIGATION: Tobacco Cos Settle Florida Medicaid lawsuit for $11.3 Billion.

1997-09-17: REGULATION: President Clinton refuses to endorse the proposed tobacco settlement, instead suggesting Congress work on sweeping legislation that first and foremost reduces teen smoking; second, gives FDA control of nicotine; third, penalizes the industry if teen smoking doesn't go down. "The tobacco bailout deal is dead," said Minnesota AG Hubert Humphrey III, "This gives us a new chance to move forward and do the right thing."

1997-09: Former Asbestos company RAYMARK sues tobacco.

1997-10-10: Tobacco Industry Settles BROIN--First-ever Secondhand Smoke Trial--for $350 Million.

1997-10-16: UK: FORMULA 1 SCANDAL: Formula 1 chief Bernie Ecclestone, who previously had given Labour a one million pound donation, visits 10 Downing Street. The next day Tony Blair seeks an exemption for Formula One from the UK's upcoming tobacco ban.

1997-10-17: BARNES Suit--First of the "Little Castano" suits--is thrown out by Pennsylvania judge; Gives impetus to national settlement movemement.

1997-10-23: Philip Morris Announces "Accord" Smoking System

1997-11-04: UK: FORMULA 1 SCANDAL: It is disclosed that Health Minister Tessa Jowell has written to the European Union asking for motor-racing to be exempted from a EU-wide ban on tobacco advertising in sport. The "U-Turn" becomes the Labour party's first major scandal when it is found that Ms. Jowell's husband had been a non-executive director for an F1 company, and that Labour received a $1.7 million donation from Bernie Ecclestone in January.

1997-11-07: UK: FORMULA 1 SCANDAL: Tony Blair and Gordon Brown discuss the Ecclestone affair and decide that Labour should write a letter to the Neill Committee on Standards in Public Life seeking advice on whether they should accept a second donation from the tycoon.

1997-11-10: UK: FORMULA 1 SCANDAL: In a live interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Brown denies any knowledge of the Ecclestone donation. Sir Patrick responds to Labour's letter and says it would be sensible both to hand back the original 1million donation and not to accept the second gift.

1997-11-16: UK: FORMULA 1 SCANDAL: In a TV interview , Blair claims Labour had turned down second Ecclestone donation 'before any journalist had been in touch'.

1997-12-05: EUROPE: European Union Health Ministers vote to phase out tobacco advertising.

1997-12-01: LIGGETT begins listing the Ingredients of its cigarettes on cartons, beginning with the 26 ingredients of its L&M brand.

1997-12-18: Rep. Tom Bliley (R-VA) posts 843 sensitive Liggett documents on House Commerce Committee website.

1997-12-20: AP reporter Todd Lewan breaks story of "fumo louco," a high-nicotine variety of tobacco (Y-1) being developed by BAT in Brazil.

1997-12-30: LITIGATION: Lorillard Tobacco Co. pays over $1.5 million to the family of Milton Horowitz, the first time a U.S. cigarette maker has ever paid a smoking-related personal injury claim.

1997-12-31: LITIGATION: Asbestos fund Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust announces that it has filed a lawsuit against 7 tobacco companies, asking they pay their "fair share."

1997-12-31: LITIGATION: MINNESOTA Judge Fitzpatrick fines BROWN & WILLIAMSON $100,000 for failure to turn over American Tobacco Co. documents now held by Gallaher in Britain. This is the most severe court sanction against a tobacco company in decades.

1998: BUSINESS: Sara Lee sells its loose-tobacco business, (Amphora, Drum, etc.) to Britain's Imperial Tobacco for $1.1 billion.

1998: LEGISLATION: CA: Willie Brown's "napkin statute" -- Code of Civil Procedure 1714.45--is amended to allow lawsuits against tobacco companies.

1998-01-01: REGULATION: CALIFORNIA becomes the first state in the nation to ban smoking in bars.

1998-01-07: Justice Department files a criminal information against DNA Plant Technology Corp. of Oakland, CA accusing them of developing "Y-1" high-nicotine tobacco with an "unindicted coconspirator"

1998-01-14: SCIENCE: JAMA publishes major study that links both active and passive smoking with irreversible artery damage.

1998-01-14: LITIGATION: MANGINI Documents Released. RJR documents that appear to discuss targeting youths as young as 14 create a furor.

1998-01-16: LITIGATION: TEXAS settles its medicaid lawsuit for over $14 billion.

1998-03: PROPAGANDA: BAT leaks information to the London Telegraph on the 10-year, $2 million study by the International agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) (an affiliate of WHO). BAT's information was printed uncritically. The ET author writes that the study was buried because it found no risk. The study in fact found a 16% increase in risk in lung cancer for non-smokers, a result consistent with earlier studies. Although the results were clear and comparable to those found by others, the number of people in the study was too small to reach statistical significance (at the 95 percent level). The findings were thus supportive of earlier studies showing that passive smoking increases cancer risk, but taken alone would not have been conclusive. However, the study was described by newspapers and the tobacco industry as demonstrating no increase in risk. . . Ong and Glantz analysed industry documents released in US litigation and interviewed IARC investigators. The Philip Morris tobacco company feared that the study (and a possible IARC monograph on second-hand smoke) would lead to increased restrictions in Europe, so they spearheaded a $2 million inter-industry, three-prong strategy to subvert IARC's work. The scientific strategy attempted to undercut IARC's research and to develop industry-directed research to counter the anticipated findings; the communications strategy planned to shape opinion by manipulating the media and the public; the government strategy sought to prevent increased smoking restrictions. For full links to items from IARC, ET, BAT secret docs, etc., see the ASH-UK Roundup

1998-01-26: LITIGATION: MINNESOTA: The massive Minnesota/Blue Cross-Blue Shield trial begins in Minneapolis.

1998-01-29: SETTLEMENT: Tobacco CEOs Appear Before the House Commerce Committee Laurence A. Tisch, Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer, Loews Corporation, Geoffrey Bible, Chairman, Philip Morris Companies, Inc, Vincent A. Gierer Jr., Chief Executive Officer, UST, Inc., Steven F. Goldstone, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, RJR Nabisco and Nicholas G. Brookes, Chairman, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Companies.

1998-04-08: SETTLEMENT: Tobacco Walks Away. "> RJR's Steven Goldstone declares settlement negotiations "dead," and vows to take tobacco's case to the public. UST, PM, B&W follow.

1998-04-22: 39,000 super-secret documents are posted on the House Commerce committe web site

1998-04-27: 24th Report of the Surgeon General on Smoking and Health:Tobacco Use Among U.S. Racial/Ethnic Minority Groups

1998-05-02: LITIGATION: NEW YORK: A New York State Judge places The TOBACCO INSTITUTE and the COUNCIL FOR TOBACCO RESEARCH under temporary receivership, in response to a state suit charging the organizations abused their tax-exempt status under New York law, where they were incorporated, by acting as tobacco -funded "fronts" that serve "as propaganda arms of the industry."

1998-05-07: LITIGATION: MINNESOTA: Tobacco Trial's last day; 6 tobacco lawyers give closing arguments; Ciresi was due to argue the next day.

1998-05-08: LITIGATION: MINNESOTA: Tobacco makes $6.1B settlement with Minnesota and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. The industry agrees to the dissolution of the Council for Tobacco Research.

1998-05-27: LITIGATION: WYNN: Alabama Circuit Judge William Wynn, files suit seeking to revoke the charters of the nation's five major cigarette companies. Wynn called for the criminal enforcement of tobacco companies' misdemeanors, and upon finding that the companies have broken the law, that the state should revoke the companies' charters to do business in Alabama.

1998-05-31: World No-Tobacco Day. Slogan: Growing up without tobacco

1998-06-10: LITIGATION: WIDDICK Trial: Largest damages in tobacco litigation history are awarded. Jury finds for Widdick, orders B&W to pay almost $1 million. This is Norwood S. Wilner's 2nd win against B&W.

1998-06-17: LEGISLATION: On a procedural vote, US Senate kills McCain tobacco bill.

1998-06-22: LITIGATION: CARTER OVERTURNED. Florida's 1st District Court of Appeal votes 3-0 to overturn the Carter decision, ruling it had been filed a week too late.

1998-07-17: LITIGATION: Federal Judge William Osteen overturns 1993 EPA secondhand smoke report. Here's the decision

1998-08: TRAVEL: RENAISSANCE CRUISES claims the distinction of launching the world's first smoke-free ship: the "R1," in which only crew may smoke--in a room off limits to passengers. It tours the Mediterranean.

1998-08-13: LITIGATION: WIDDICK: A Florida appeals court rules that the Widdick trial was held in the wrong county.

1998-08-14: LITIGATION: 4th Circuit Court of Appeals overturns the 4/25/97 Osteen ruling, throws out FDA regulations. Here's the decision

1998-10-19: LITIGATION: BROWN v. PHILIP MORRIS, et. al. filed. The national civil rights class action lawsuit on behalf of African American smokers of mentholated cigarette brands was filed in Federal District Court in Philadelphia, PA.

1998-11-16: LITIGATION: An agreement is announced between state attorneys general and tobacco companies to settle lawsuits.

1998-11-23: AG SETTLEMENT: Attorneys General of 46 states and 5 territories sign agreement with tobacco companies to settle lawsuits.

1998-12-8: MASTER SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT between the industry and AGs.

1998-12-18: AGRICULTURE: Flue-cured tobacco gets an 18 percent quota cut, shocking industry analysts.

1999: BUSINESS: MARKET SHARE: The big 3--PM, BAT and JT--hold about 40 per cent of a total world market that experts estimate to be around 5.34 trillion

Philip Morris: 16.5 per cent of the world market share
British American Tobacco: 15 per cent.
Japan Tobacco: about 8.1 per cent.

1999: CONSUMPTION:

China annual cigarette volume: around 1.6 trillion cigarettes
US: around 415 billion sticks.
Japan: 327 billion
Russia: 257 billion
Germany: 140 billion
India: just under 100 billion.
Brazil: 97 billion

1999: CONSUMPTION: About 10 million Americans smoke cigars.

1999: BUSINESS: Philip Morris Cos. revenues top $78 billion; operating companies income is $15.2 billion.

1999: BUSINESS: Merger of Rothmans International with British American Tobacco - Richemont holds 23.3% effective interest in the enlarged British American Tobacco.

1999-01: LITIGATION: BOLIVIA files suit against the tobacco industry in a Texas court.

1999-01: SETTLEMENTS: "Phase II" farmer payments established. The four largest U.S. cigarette-makers agree to establish a $5.15 billion trust fund to help compensate farmers and allotment holders for the expected drop in production resulting from the AG nationwide settlement

1999-01-21: AGRICULTURE: 4 major tobacco companies agree to set up a $5.15 billion trust fund for growers.

1999-01-27: LITIGATION: VENEZUELA files suit against the tobacco industry in a Miami court.

1999-02-04: AGRICULTURE: Tobacco companies agree to give growers $5.15 billion to compensate them for lost income because of the AG settlement.

1999-02-07: UK: Britain's royal family orders the removal of its seal of approval from Gallaher's Benson and Hedges cigarettes. The company is given till the year 2000 to remove the royal crest.

1999-02-09: LITIGATION: HENLEY V. PHILIP MORRIS: Patricia Henley wins $1.5 million from Philip Morris for medical costs, pain and suffering..

1999-02-10: LITIGATION: HENLEY V. PHILIP MORRIS: Patricia Henley wins $51.5 million in punitive damages.

1999-03-09: BUSINESS: RJ Reynolds announces that it will sell its international tobacco unit to Japan Tobacco for $8 billion and split its US tobacco and food businesses.

1999-03-30: LITIGATION: JOANN WILLIAMS-BRANCH V. PHILIP MORRIS: Oregon jury returns $81 Million verdict against PM, giving Jesse Williams' family about $800,000 in compensatory damages and $79.5 million punitive damages. The award is later cut to $32M, then reinstated in June, 2002.

1999-04-26: The Supreme Court agrees to decide whether to give the Food and Drug Administration jurisdiction over tobacco. The Court agrees to hear a Clinton administration appeal.

1999-05: WHO launches Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. World Health Organization member countries unanimously back a resolution calling for an international attempt to regulate tobacco use; a record-breaking 50 nations of 191 pledg financial and political support. WCTC is due to come into effect in 2003.

1999-05: BUSINESS: RJR Nabisco sells its international tobacco arm to Japan Tobacco for $7.8 billion; Japan Tobacco is not the world's third-largest tobacco group.

1999-05-10: LITIGATION: KARNEY VS. Philip Morris, et.al.: A jury in Memphis, TN, finds for the defense in a trial that consolidated the suits of 3 plaintiffs: Bobby Newcomb, James W. Karney and Florence Bruch (McDaniel). Jurors found RJR 30% responsible for Newcomb's lung cancer, and B&W 20% responsible, but Tennessee law requires damages only if a company is found more than 50% responsible.

1999-05-13: LITIGATION: STEELE VS. BROWN & WILLIAMSON: A federal jury in Kansas City, Mo., finds the company was not at fault in the case of Charles Steele, a smoker who died of lung cancer in 1995.

1999-05-23: ENTERTAINMENT: RUPERT MURDOCH's Fox Network runs "Independence Day," the world's most expensive cigar commercial--and popular kid favorite--in prime time. Fox also produced the film (cigar product placement by Feature This).

1999-05-27: BUSINESS: PHILIP MORRIS board member Rupert Murdoch's Fox Entertainment Group announces that it will launch a new Web-cable property called The Health Network.

1999-05-31: World No-Tobacco Day. Slogan: Leave the pack behind

1999-06-15: BUSINESS: RJR NABISCO Split is completed. The stock of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "RJR."

1999-07-07: LITIGATION: ENGLE jurors rule that smoking causes diseases such as lung cancer and that U.S. cigarette makers hid the dangers of their products from the public.

1999-09-22: LITIGATION: DOJ: US Justice Department sues the tobacco industry to recover billions of government dollars spent on smoking-related health care, accusing cigarette-makers of a "coordinated campaign of fraud and deceit."

1999-10-06: BUSINESS: Tabacalera and Seita announce plans to join forces. The new combined company will be known as Altadis.

1999-10-13: BUSINESS: Philip Morris acknowledges scientific consensus on smoking. "There is an overwhelming medical and scientific consensus that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and other serious diseases in smokers,'' its website, http://www.philipmorris.com, states. ``there is no safe cigarette . . . cigarette smoking is addictive, as that term is most commonly used today.''

1999-10-20: LITIGATION: ENGLE: 3rd District Court of Appeal clears the way for a lump-sum, punitive damage decision in the Penalty Phase.

1999-11: BUSINESS: Philip Morris begins $100 Million ad campaign touting its charitable contributions.

1999-11-12: LOBBYING: New York Lobbying Commission hits Philip Morris with the largest fine in commission history, $75,000; forbids PM's chief Albany representative Sharon Portnoy from lobbying in New York state for three years.

1999-12-01: LITIGATION: Supreme Court hears FDA arguments.

1999-12-08: LITIGATION: FRANCE: SEITA is found partly responsible for the death of smoker Richard Gourlain. This is the first time a tobacco company has been held responsible in a health liability case in France.

1999-12-10: BUSINESS: Altadis shares begin trading on Paris and Madrid exchanges.

1999-12-22: LITIGATION: CANADA: Canada sues 3 manufacturers over smuggling issues.

Year 2000: The New Millenium

2000: BUSINESS: MARKET SHARE:
World's largest tobacco companies:
1. China National Tobacco Company 31% [China has 385 million smokers]
2. Philip Morris 17%
3. British American Tobacco (BAT) 13%
4. RJR Reynolds 6%
5. Rothmans International 4%

2000: BUSINESS: US MARKET SHARE:

2000: BUSINESS: US MARKET SHARE: Top Brands:

2000: Reducing Tobacco Use: A Report of the Surgeon General

2000: JAPAN: Emperor Arkihito ends the tradition (begun by Hirohito in 1964) of giving out cigarettes to his staff on his birthday.

2000: BUSINESS: Reduction in the group's effective interest in British American Tobacco to 21 per cent through partial disposal of holding of preference shares.

2000-01-19: CANADA: Health Minister Unveils Gruesome Labels. Images of cancerous lungs, diseased mouths, and droopy cigarettes imitating limp penises are among a series of 16 new visual warnings that will have to cover half of each cigarette pack sold in Canada under regulatory reforms unveiled on Jan 19 by Health Minister Allan Rock.

2000-02-16: Farmers sue tobacco companies in a $69 billion lawsuit seeking to recover damages they say were caused by the industry's settlement with the U.S. government.

2000-02-08: Wholesalers and distributors file suit against major tobacco companies, accusing them of collusion/price fixing because they raised cigarette prices "by the exact amount" during 1997 and 1998.

2000-02-21: CANADA: B.C. Supreme Court rules province's lawsuit against tobacco companies is unconstitutional

2000-03-02: REGULATION: Philip Morris VP Steven Parrish calls for government regulation of tobacco. At a CASA conference, Parrish shared the podium and discussion with Dr. David Kessler, and said that nicotine is an addictive drug and that the Food and Drug Administration should regulate tobacco, PM said it still opposes FDA regulation of nicotine as a drug.

2000-03-20: LITIGATION: Whiteley Jurors find against Tobacco

California Superior Court jury finds that the Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds acted with malice, knew about the health hazards of smoking and deliberately misled the public about those dangers. It also found that the two companies committed fraud. Awards $1.7 M to Leslie Whiteley.

2000-03-21: REGULATION: Supreme Court Rules 5-4 against FDA Regulation of Tobacco

"No matter how important, conspicuous, and controversial the issue, and regardless of how likely the public is to hold the Executive Branch politically accountable, an administrative agency's power to regulate in the public interest must always be grounded in a valid grant of authority from Congress. "

2000-03-29: LITIGATION: Federal jury rules UST violated antitrust laws; U.S. Tobacco Co ordered to pay $1.05 billion to Conwood. The Kentucky jury awarded $350 million in damages to Conwood; U.S. District Judge Thomas Russell trebled that amount pursuant to federal law. Conwood charged that UST had engaged in anti-competitive business practices in trying to control point-of-sale advertising, including vandalizing and removing Conwood in-store display racks. After a monthlong trial, the jury deliberated for almost four hours on Tuesday before setting damages at $350 million against Greenwich, Conn.-based U.S. Tobacco. Under federal antitrust laws, the damages were automatically tripled.

2000-04-07: LITIGATION: Engle Jury Awards 3 Smokers $12.7 Million in damages; punitives yet to be decided.

2000-04-20: BUSINESS: RJR Markets "Eclipse" cigarette as healthier alternative.

2000-05-31: World No-Tobacco Day Slogan: Tobacco kills - Don't be duped

2000-06-25: BUSINESS: Philip Morris Cos. agrees to acquire Nabisco Holdings Corp. for $18.9 billion.

2000-07-14: LITIGATION: Engle Jury Awards Florida Smokers Punitive Damages of $145 Billion--the biggest judgment in U.S. history.

2000-08-20: SPORTS: CANADA: Last Du Maurier Open women's tennis tournament is held.

2000-08-27: LITIGATION: Russia Sues Tobacco in Miami-Dade County court, Florida, charging Philip Morris and other tobacco companies with causing suffering to Russian smokers, hiding the risks of cigarettes, and damaging Russia's economy.

2000-08: BUSINESS: RJR spins out Targacept. A world leader in neuronal nicotinic receptor (NNR) research and development, Targacept is dedicated to the design, discovery and development of a new class of drugs that will treat Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, ulcerative colitis and others.

2000-09-18: UK: FORMULA 1 SCANDAL: Journalist Andrew Rawnsley, in newspaper exerpts from his book, Servants Of The People, alleges that Chancellor Gordon Brown and PM Tony Blair lied in television interviews about details of Labour's 1m donation from Bernie Ecclestone.

2000-09-29: REGULATION: South Africa's Tobacco Products Control Amendment Act comes into effect, strictly regulating smoking and advertising.

2000-10-12: LITIGATION: JONES: A Florida jury decides that the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. was responsible for the death of Robert Jones' wife Suzanne M. Jones, and awards compensatory damages totaling $200,028.57 for negligence on the part of RJR and a defective cigarette design.

2000-11: LITIGATION: NORWAY: Lifelong smoker Robert Lund loses case against Tiedemanns Tobaksfabrikk A/S.

2000-11-03: LITIGATION: European Union files suit in New York against RJR, Philip Morris on RICO/smuggling claims.

2000-11-04: LITIGATION: ENGLE: U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro-Benages rules that the Engle case belongs in state, not federal court.

2000-11-05: LITIGATION: Lorillard, Liggett reach a tentative $8 Billion Settlement of individual tobacco suits, brokered by NY Judge Weinstein.

2000-11-06: LITIGATION: ENGLE: Judge Kaye affirms $145 Billion award against tobacco companies.

2000-12-03: BUSINESS: London Times reports that BAT has agreed to give Nottingham University 3.8m pounds to set up an "International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility."

2000-12-11: BUSINESS: Philip Morris Cos. completes its $18.9 billion acquisition of Nabisco Holdings Corp., creating the world's second-biggest food maker behind Switzerland's Nestle SA. Also, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. completes its purchase of Nabisco Group Holdings Corp., which held an 80.5 percent stake in Nabisco Holdings.

2001: BUSINESS: US MARKET SHARE: Top Brands:

1. Marlboro, Philip Morris, 52.4% (Source: Philip Morris 1Q, April, 2001)

2001: BUSINESS: TOP TOBACCO EXPORTERS Country / %Share of world tobacco exports

Brazil 17%
US 10%
Zimbabwe 9%
China 6%
India 5.6%

2001-01-01: CANADA: Canada mandates large, graphic cigarette pack labels.

2001-01: CANADA: Imperial begins distributing three lifestyle magazines: Real Edge, for men, The Art of Living Simple, for women, and Pursuit, an arts mag.

2001-01-11: Women and Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General (2001)

2001-01-11: BUSINESS: B&W re-launches Pall Mall nationally as the New Filtered PALL MALL

2001-01-19: George Bush is inaugurated as United States President. His cabinet nominees include WI Gov. Tommy Thompson for Secretary of Health and Human Services, John Ashcroft as Attorney General, and Gale Norton as Secretary of the Interior

2001-01-22: LITIGATION: WV: Blankenship "medical monitoring" trial is declared a mistrial when witness Farone inadvertently references the verboten subject: addiction. Ohio County Circuit Judge Arthur Recht had said a few days earlier, "I guarantee I'm smarter now than I was a month ago. As the case goes on you get a clearer picture, and it is clear now: Addiction is, I believe, a necessary element in this case -- the inability to quit."

2001-01-24: LITIGATION: 3 Countries Sue Tobacco Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan file in Florida

2001-02-22: "Clearing the Smoke: Assessing the Science Base for Tobacco Harm Reduction, " a new report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies, is released.

Products developed to lessen the risk of disease by reducing exposure to toxic chemicals are scientifically feasible, but in the absence of rigorous research, no one knows if these products decrease the incidence of tobacco-related disease or actually increase it by encouraging smoking. The report outlines how tried-and-true public health tools -- research, surveillance, communication, and regulation -- should be used to ensure that the availability of these products confers less risk to the individual and to the population as a whole compared with conventional tobacco products. It recommends a regulatory strategy to assure that these products reduce risk of disease

2001-03-08: LITIGATION: Grady Carter collects $1.1 million from Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. The payment, covering a 1995 jury award of $750,000 plus interest, represents the first time an individual collected payment from the tobacco industry for a cigarette-related illness.

2001-04-05: LITIGATION: FL: Miami jury finds cigarette manufacturers not liable for the lung diseases of former TWA flight attendant Marie Fontana. This was the first individual case (out of about 3200 filed) after the Broin settlement.

2001-04-16: LITIGATION: FL: Florida state court judge rules that he would dismiss the lawsuit brought by Ecuador against US manufacturers.

2001-05-01: Australian barmaid wins AU$450G from employer in ETS case. In NSW Supreme Court, Mrs. Marlene Sharp sued the Port Kembla RSL for negligence claiming her cancer was caused by years of breathing other people's smoke while working at the club between 1984 and 1995. The four-man jury took about four hours to decide the club had been negligent.

2001-05-16: LITIGATION: NJ: jury finds Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds not liable in the Mehlman personal lawsuit (Mehlman v. Philip Morris, et. al.)

2001-05-18: CHINA: BAT and China Tobacco Corporation enter into joint venture resulting in the Sino-British Cigarette Sales Co.

2001-05-22: LITIGATION: US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit throws out Service Employees International Union Health and Welfare Fund, Guatemala, Nicauragua and Ukraine suits.

2001-05-31: RELIGION: LEBANON: Senior Shiite Muslim cleric Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah issues a religious edict (fatwa) ordering his followers to stop smoking. ''A smoker is committing two crimes, one against himself and the other against the one inhaling next to him," he tells AP.

2001-06-04: LITIGATION: NY: Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield wins up to $17.8 Million for deceptive business practices regarding smoking and asbestos exposure from Philip Morris, RJR, Lorillard and Liggett.

2001-06-05: LITIGATION: CANADA: Ex-cigarette salesman Joe Battaglia loses his $6,000 case against Imperial Tobacco

2001-06-01: REGULATION: CANADA: Toronto's strict indoor smoking law goes into effect. Bars will be added August 1.

2001-06-06: LITIGATION: CA: Richard Boeken is awarded $3 Billion from Philip Morris in Los Angeles

2001-06-13: BUSINESS: Philip Morris sells off 16% of Kraft. The Kraft Foods (KFT) IPO begins trading at $31, and ends the day at $31.25, raising $8.68 billion in the nation's second-largest initial public offering ever. Philip Morris keeps 275 million Class A shares and all 1.18 billion of the Class B shares in Kraft, thus retaining almost 98% of voting rights in Kraft. For many analysts, the "tobacco taint" remains.

2001-06-19: LITIGATION: Dept. of Justice assembles a team to negotiate a settlement over its racketeering lawsuit.

2001-06-22: BUSINESS: Gallaher acquires Austria Tabak..

2001-06-28: LITIGATION: US Supreme Court bars Mass. ad restrictions.

2001-06-29: LITIGATION: CARTER: US Supreme Court denies B&W petition; $750,000 award stands. B&W pays Carter $1.1 M

2001-06-29: LITIGATION: FALISE: Manville Trust drops asbestos lawsuit.

2001-07-16: CZECH REPUBLIC: News reports reveal that Philip Morris released to the government a PM-commissioned Arthur D. Little report which concluded that smokers save the state money--by dying early. While the Czech media yawns, other international media provide heavy coverage and extremely negative commentary.

2001-07-24: Philip Morris CEO Geoffrey Bible writes a letter to US Senator Diane Feinstein.apologizing for the Arthur D. Little report.

2001-07-25: Steven C. Parrish, a senior vice president, apologizes for the Arthur D. Little report, saying in a Wall St. Journal interview, "We understand that this was not only a terrible mistake, but that it was wrong. . . To say it's totally inappropriate is an understatement."

2001-07-26: Philip Morris publicly apologizes for the Arthur D. Little report. The statment reads, "For one of our tobacco companies to commission this study was not just a terrible mistake, it was wrong. All of us at Philip Morris, no matter where we work, are extremely sorry for this. No one benefits from the very real, serious and significant diseases caused by smoking. We understand the outrage that has been expressed and we sincerely regret this extraordinarily unfortunate incident. We will continue our efforts to do the right thing in all our businesses, acknowledging mistakes when we make them and learning from them as we go forward."

2001-08-08: BAT breaks into South Korean market; announces plans to invest $1bn in South Korean cigarette operations, beginning with a new $80M factory, BAT becomes the first foreign company to break KTG's monopoly.

2001-08-09: LITIGATION: Judge reduces Boeken award from $3B to $100M, denies Philip Morris a new trial.

The jury plainly, and with substantial evidentiary support, found Philip Morris's conduct reprehensible. The record fully supports findings that Philip Morris knew by the late 1950s and early 1960s that the nicotine in cigarettes is highly addictive, that substances in cigarette tar cause lung cancer, and that no substantial medical or scientific doubt existed on these crucial facts. Nevertheless, motivated primarily by a professed desire to generate wealth, Philip Morris, in concert with other major American tobacco companies, consistently endeavored through calculated misrepresentations to create doubts in the minds of snickers , especially addicted smokers such as Richard Boeken, that cigarettes are neither addictive nor disease-producing. . . Philip Morris's doubt-creating scheme fully succeeded in the case of Mr. Boeken and others . . . The evidence further indicates that Philip Morris monitored the relative market share of its Marlboro brand - the brand smoked by Boeken from his teens - to insure it maintained dominance among underage smokers to whom cigarettes could not be sold legally. . . Citing the Public Health Cigarette Act of 1969, 15 U.S.C. 1331 et seq:, Philip Morris argues that Congress has determined "that it is not reprehensible ... to market and advertise cigarettes with the warning prescribed in that statute." Philip Morris is not being punished for marketing cigarettes, but rather for engaging in a fraudulent business scheme initiated long before passage of the Act. . . Philip Morris's conduct was in fact reprehensible in every sense of the word, both legal and moral. -- Charles W. McCoy, Jr.

2001-08-11: SETTLEMENT: National Conf. of State Legislators report finds only 5% of state tobacco settlement monies go to tobacco control. NCSL's PR Release is titled: "Health Programs Benefit from Tobacco Money" (36% went to health services and long-term care).

2001-08-22: UK: The Guardian publishes new smuggling allegations against BAT, backed up by documents from whistleblower Alex Solagnier,; Conservative Party leadership candidate and BAT spokesman Kenneth Clarke is attacked.

2001-08-24: BAT breaks into Vietnam market. BAT announces that it has been granted a license for a $40 million joint venture with Vintaba to build a processing plant in Vietnam

2001-09-11: International Tobacco Products Marketing Standards Agreement is signed JT, BAT and Philip Morris agree that the promotion and distribution of tobacco products should be "directed at smokers and not at youth," and should be "consistent with the principle of informed adult choice." The agreement will go into effect in Dec., 2002.

2001-10-16: US Court of Appeals (First Circuit) reinstates a Massachusetts law that requires tobacco companies to disclose the ingredients in their products.

2001-10-19: LITIGATION: NY Judge Weinstein refuses to throw out the jury's verdict in the Blue Cross/Blue Shield case.

2001-11-05: BUSINESS: Brown & Williamson begins test-marketing Advance, its "reduced risk" cigarette, in Indianapolis, using the slogan, 'All of the taste, less of the toxins.'

2001-11-05: BUSINESS: Vector heralds Omni, its "reduced risk" cigarette, with an ad in Monday's People Magazine, with the tagline, "Reduced carcinogens. Premium taste."

2001-11-01: CANADA raises tobacco taxes by C$1.50; some provinces increase their own taxes on top of the federal increase.

2001-11-02: INDIA's Supreme Court rules that smoking in public spaces must be banned country-wide.

2001-11-15: BUSINESS: Philip Morris proposes changing its corporate name to Altria, which would consist of Miller Beer, Kraft Foods, and the two cigarette branches, Philip Morris USA and Philip Morris International.

2001-11-26: LITIGATION: Philip Morris files appeal of Engle verdicts.

2001-11-29: Beatle George Harrison dies of lung cancer. He had been battling various forms of the disease for at least three years: In 1998, he underwent radiation therapy for throat cancer, which he attributed to years of smoking. In their December l0th issues, both Time and Newsweek extensively covered Harrison's death, but neither magazine mentioned smoking. Both magazines carry tobacco ads.

2001-12-11: BUSINESS: RJ Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. buys Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. for $340M in cash. Santa Fe makes Natural American Spirit cigarettes, which contain no additives.

2001-12-13: BUSINESS: RJ Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. signs merger deal with Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co.

2002-01-16: BUSINESS: RJR Completes acquisition of Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co.

2002-02-22: LITIGATION: Burton wins suit in Kansas. RJR and B&W are found guilty of failing to warn about the risks of smoking before warning labels appeared in the 1960s. Jurors found that David Burton's peripheral vascular disease (PVD), which caused him to lose both his legs, was caused by smoking. They ordered R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. to pay $196,416 in compensatory damages and Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. to pay $1,984 for Burton's medical bills and economic losses. Reynolds also was found liable for punitive damages for fraudulently concealing the risks and addictiveness of smoking, according to the unanimous verdict. This is the first time the industry has lost 1) in the MidWest; 2) in a federal court (except for Cipollone, which was overturned on appeal); 3) in connection with PVD.

2002-02-21: REGULATION: President Bush signs into law the Shays/Meehan-McCain Feingold Campaing Finance Reform bill.

2002-03-22: LITIGATION: Oregon Jury finds for Schwartz; finds Philip Morris lied on "light" cigarettes, orders company to Pay $150 M.

2002-03-22: LITIGATION: AUSTRALIA: Victoria Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Eames enters default judgement for McCabe, finding British American Tobacco Australia Services Ltd.'s 1998 destruction of 30,000 documents --plus an untold number since 1985--deprived her of a fair trial. The 133-page decision is sealed until a jury decides on damages. Decision at: http://www.tobacco.org/Documents/020322mccabe.html

2002-04-11: LITIGATION: AUSTRALIA Melbourne Jury awards McCabe $AU700,000; Eames' 3/22 decision is made public.

2002-04-11: SOUTH KOREA: The National Cancer Center (NCC) officially confirms that smoking causes lung cancer.

2002-04-11: CDC estimates smoking health and productivity costs reach $150 billion a year, according to a new study published in this week's WMMR. CDC estimated the total cost of smoking at $3,391 a year for every smoker, and even itemized the per-pack health/productivity costs at $7.18/pack. Further, it estimated the smoking-related medical costs at $3.45 per pack, and job productivity lost because of premature death from smoking at $3.73 per pack.

2002-05: LITIGATION: Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Conrad Aragon fines RJR $14.8 Million for illegally handing out free cigarettes at events like street fairs and car races where children are present.

2002-05: U.S. appeals court affirms a lower court's decision and orders UST to pay a $1.05 billion award for illegally monopolizing the market for moist snuff.

2002-05-31: World No-Tobacco Day. Slogan: "Tobacco-Free Sports: Play it Clean."

2002-06-05: LITIGATION: Oregon Court of Appeals reinstates $80B Williams award. "[D]efendant's narrow focus on the ratio between punitive and compensatory damages ignores the underlying purpose for awarding punitive damages, which is to punish and deter a wrongdoer. The reprehensibility of the defendant's actions, the number of people affected or potentially affected, and indications that the defendant will not change its actions without punishment are all relevant factors. It is also clear that the defendant's wealth is an important consideration; an award that might be a serious punishment for one defendant could be only a minor inconvenience for another."

2002-06-06: LITIGATION: California judge fines RJR $20 million for violating the 1998 tobacco settlement by targeting youths in a magazine advertising campaign. The campaign appeared in a number of youth-oriented magazines such as Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, etc. "RJR saw itself losing market share, especially to Philip Morris, and believed it had to be more aggressive than the other tobacco companies in its advertising so as not to lose any more market share even though the likely effect of these efforts was to cause significant exposure to youth . . It was, or should have been apparent to the skillful and bright people who managed RJR's multimillion-dollar, sophisticated print advertising campaign that youth were exposed to tobacco advertising at levels substantially similar to targeted adult smokers.'' San Diego County Superior Court Judge Ronald Prager wrote in his opinion.

2002-06-17: CANADA: Canadian federal government and provinces hike cigarette taxes. Prices near 1994 levels.

2002-06-18: LITIGATION: Florida jury rules for French in Broin spinoff; nation's first award over secondhand smoke. In a Broin spinoff case, the jury in Circuit Court in Miami found for Lynn French, a flight attendant who claimed her chronic sinusitis was the result of exposure to secondhand smoke while working on flights in the 1970s and 80s, and awarded her $5.5M in damages. 2 previous Broin cases were not successful.

2002-06-23: TOBACCO CONTROL: FRANCE: French health officials air ad warning about the ingredients in a "dangerous product." Half a million people call the hotline to learn what the product is: cigarettes.

2002-07-02: FDA Forbids sale of Quick Test 5's "Nico Water," ruling the product is a quit-smoking drug, not a dietary supplement.

2002-08-02: NBA drops Lorillard as a sponsor of its youth "Hoop-It-Up" tournament. Lorillard was promoting its "Tobacco is Whacko if You're a Teen" program.

2002-08-05: LITIGATION: California Supreme Court rules on legislators' "Napkin Deal" intentions, allows 10-year window of immunity: Smokers can't sue over industry conduct between 1988 and 1998, unless they claim additives to cigarettes increased the danger. (Myers v. Philip Morris Cos. Inc - http://www.tobacco.neu.edu/PR/supportdocs/myers_decision.htm., Naegele v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. - http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/S090420.PDF)

2002-08-07: Exxon-Mobile signs agreement with Attorneys General to better prevent sales of tobacco to youth.