Radio 1 88-90fm
Programme 3: 31st August 2006
In December 1988, scientist Dr. Jeffrey Wigand left his job in healthcare and doubled his income with a new job at America's second-largest tobacco company, Brown & Williamson. As Vice President of Research and Development, his efforts to develop a 'safer' cigarette were thwarted and in 1993 he was fired. The following year, he decided to expose the truth: that his company knew nicotine was addictive, and in fact had policies of intentionally boosting the impact of nicotine in its tobacco.
His co-operation with FDA [Food and Drug Administration] investigators and journalists led to a series of death threats against his children, but he persevered and testifyied in a Mississippi lawsuit brought by the State of Mississippi against tobacco companies. His deposition was critical to the 1998 $246bn settlement between the tobacco companies and a group of US states.
