Dioxin, DDT and "other scares"

This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation.

This memo was written by Tom Hockaday of APCO Associates, a PR company employed by Philip Morris. APCO's web site states one of its corporate services is to "influence decisionmakers and shape public opinion by crafting compelling messages and recruiting effective allies." (http://www.apcoworldwide.com/content/services/index.cfm?id=8#coalition). The document lists individuals that could be approached to lend their names to pre-written, favorable-to-tobacco op-ed pieces on the subject of environmental tobacco smoke. One of the people APCO considered approaching was Peter Samuel, whose qualifications included the fact that he had "developed a book proposal to address unsubstantiated scares including alar, dioxin, DDT, ETS, asbestos and others." (Dioxin, the primary toxic component of Agent Orange, was found at Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York and was the basis for evacuations at Times Beach, Missouri. Asbestos, a toxin and known carcinogen, causes the lung disease asbestosis and a cancer of the pleura called mesothelioma. DDT, a dangerous pesticide that can persist in the environment for up to 15 years, was banned in the United states in 1972.) Another candidate Hockaday approached said that his organization "would not lend its name to opinion editorials written by other sources," which indicates that APCO was shopping around for prominent people to lend their names--and their organizations' names--to pro-tobacco industry op-eds that were already written.

Title: Possible Individuals to be approached for opinion editorials
Per. Author: Tom Hockaday
Date: 19930302 (March 2, 1993)
Type: Memorandum
Bates No. 2021178213/8216
Master Bates: 2021178205/8223
Collection: Philip Morris
Pages: 4
URL: http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/bfn24e00