UC to Release Tobacco Firm’s Papers in Wake of Ruling

The University of California will release documents allegedly showing how the nation’s third-largest tobacco company hid knowledge of nicotine’s addictive qualities, a university lawyer said.

The documents will be made available on the Internet and in a university library beginning today, university counsel Christopher Patti said.

The state Supreme Court cleared the way for the release Thursday by denying Kentucky-based Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp.’s request to review a judge’s decision allowing UC to release all of the estimated 4,000 papers.

“This was a good result for the public and the academic community,” Patti said. “It involved issues of academic freedom, freedom of speech and informing the public, and those are things the University of California likes to stand up for.”

The documents include internal memoranda from Brown & Williamson and other tobacco firms, as well as reports on research done on the companies’ behalf.

The tobacco company, which makes Lucky Strike and other cigarettes, has fought to keep the papers secret, claiming they were stolen in 1989.

Brown & Williamson sued in California after learning that UC had gained copies of the documents, sent in May, 1994, to UC San Francisco professor Stanton Glantz. The return address only listed the name “Mr. Butts,” the cigarette-shaped character in the Doonesbury comic strip.

Glantz said the papers include documentation that Brown & Williamson conducted research revealing cigarettes’ health dangers and the addictive properties of nicotine, and that the company chose to remain silent about the results.