Donald K Hoel

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Don Hoel was the main tobacco industry attorney from the mid-1980s in the Kansas City lawfirm Shook Hardy & Bacon (SHB and SH&B), one of the major lawfirms which produced, advised, and ran tobacco industry scams during the 1980s and 1990s. See his C/V. [2]

He was the key external lawyer for the Tobacco Industry Research Committee (TIRC) and its later manifestation, the Council for Tobacco Research (CTR). He served as a member of the CTR in 1978 and assisted in screening "apppropriate" research projects to received funding: those with little interest to the industry were passed through the Scientific Advisory Board, which included both the industry's staff, 'friendly scientist' and some external scientists with no obvious tobacco affiliations to give the SAB a cosmetic appearance of independence. The projects which had significance to the industry, especially those designed to deny or refute legitimate research discoveries, were passed through the Ad Hoc Committee of lawyers and paid via the secret CTR Special Projects accounts (#3, #4 and #5). Hoel controlled these accounts and their payment.

The tobacco industry was coordinated globally by ICOSI, the international Committee on Smoking Issues run by Mary W Covington an ex-executive of Philip Morris. Later this organisation was transformed into the INFOTAB International Tobacco Information Center under John A Boxcidge and Bryan Simpson (as Directors-General). Hoel was trusted to the point where he often served as secretary at INFOTAB meetings.

Although the Royal College of Physicians' ground-breaking "Smoking and Health" report was issued in 1962, and the U.S. Surgeon General's first report conclusively linking smoking with disease was issued in 1964, Hoel wrote in a 1979 memo:

"At present we are accused of being sponsors of 'unhealthy living.' This is unproven in terms of current evidence, but public authorities and the community at large interpret the evidence at present available as proof against us...We therefore have to ensure that the debate about our Industry is not concentrated purely on the issue of Smoking & Health. Other matters on which we must concentrate, and where we can show that we make a beneficial contribution include: contributions to revenue, employment, agriculture, Old Age Pension, etc."

It cannot be argued that Hoel did not know that a solid case linking smoking to disease had been built by medical authorities by this time, since he stated in this memo to Alexander Holtzman, PM's Assistant General Counsel.

"It has taken years to establish the case against smoking and we cannot expect to refute it overnight."

[3][4] Hoel appears to be an early architect of the tobacco industry's public relations strategy of taking the public's attention off the key subject of health, and directing it instead to other topics, such as the industry's economic contributions to employment, revenue and the tax-funding of "Old Age Pensions." And in some frank exchanges with industry executives, he described how the tobacco industry needed to continue the undermining public health authorities and of reassuring frightened smokers by convincing them that smoking was benign, or positively beneficial:

In the meantime, it is equally important that we re-assure our consumers and re-establish their confidence in smoking...Doubt has to be sown in the case put by our detractors...We must emphasize the positive aspects of smoking - relief from stress, etc.

  • Donald Hoel's CV [5]

The main tobacco law firms

  • Arnold & Porters (AP) worked at a Board level for Philip Morris, as well as doing work for the Tobacco Institute.
  • Covington & Burling (C&B) worked for all the US tobacco companies but mainly for the Tobacco Institute. They also ran many of their operations in Europe and Latin America. C&B was seen as more respectable law firm than SHB, and it operated fairly openly for tobacco in Washington DC and elsewhere. They also ran the European Whitecoats programs and did a lot of underhand work.
  • Shook Hardy & Bacon (SHB and SH&B) specialised in all the wealth of dirty tricks and anti-science corruption employed by the industry. They were given the job of setting up secret societies of academic helpers, running think-tanks, bribing political parties and politicians, etc.
  • Jacob Medinger the firm of Edwin Jacob which handled secret payments for the Council for Tobacco Research (CTR). It was later merged with Shook Hardy & Bacon.

Documents & Timeline

1932 Jan 22 Born

1953 BS Uni of Missouri

1958 Associate with Shook Hardy & Bacon

1958 Earned his JD at University of Missouri

1974 Nov Don Hoel, tobacco lawyer from Shook Hardy & Bacon, was in Australia on some mission.

1976 Jun 2 Don Hoel responds to Andrew Whist's cable and sends him the statements made by tame scientists at a recent Senate Subcommittee on Health hearing. It lists a few tobacco staffers and contractors

This event occurred only two weeks before the first Philip Morris International S&H meeting in Bermuda (where Whist and Hoel would have met. This is in the early days of the Fraser Liberal Government in Australia) [6]

1977 Jun 17 Was 'of Kansas City" (Type-in Bates Number) 1000753977

1977 Jun 28 Colby conveying pre-print copy of a Wynder article to those who need to know in RJ Reynolds [7]

1978 Sep He was from SH&B and went to London on trip only at this time.(Type-in Bates Number) 1005121667

1978 Nov 6 Donald Hoel's memo to Janet and Arnold Henson discussed the views of their company, American Tobacco Company, that the Council for Tobacco Research must be maintained, but needed new people. American Tobacco felt that CTR must be more politically oriented. The Hensons felt that the approach must be steady, slow and conservative. They felt CTR must strive to find skeptical scientists. The staff at Council for Tobacco Research also needed to be more tobacco-oriented with a skeptical view.[1]

[Arnold Henson was a lawyer on the Industry Research Committee (IRC) of the CTR] [8]

1979 Mar The SAWP/ICOSI "countermeasure" meetings at Brussels and Amsterdam have outlined general plans . This is an early general "countermeasure" work plan.

[SAWP=Social Acceptability Working Party of ICOSI, the international lobby organisation. They were trying to introduce "Accommodation" measures - the idea that everyone should be tolerant of each other and let them do what they liked (in the way of polluting the air)

Philip Morris has agreed to provide some staff Mary Covington, and the SAWP group ask for $60,000 to interview appropriate consultants.
There is no plan for any discussion on openly countering the World Conference on Smoking & Health -- they obviously wanted these actvities kept within the SAWP group. [9]

[GIWP (Global Issues Working Party) + SAWP were the main sub-groups of ICOSI,. They transferred over to remain the dominant sub-divisons of INFOTAB. SAWP was constantly looking for ploys, arguments and research to support the claim that the problems non-smokers had with second-hand smoke was simply a matter of Accommodation (politely accepting the fact that the air was polluted). According to SAWP, these problems could best be solved by offices, etc. increasing the air-exchange rate in their air-conditioning systems to dilute the ETS.]

1979 Apr 20 ICOSI Task force meeting in Brussels, specifically on coverage of the 4th World Conference on Smoking & Health in Stockholm.

They have decided to keep a 'low profile' and are sharing around this information:

  • Elizabeth Ralf has been hired to run a press secretariat from May 1.
  • They don't have a list of delegates - but know that more than 300 have registered
  • Joseph Califano [the antismoking US Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare] and John Pinney [Office of Smoking & Health] would be attending.
  • WHO was taking over more responsiability than expected.
  • [Ernst] Bruckner [Verband] and [Murray] Senkus [RJR] were supplying biographies of the Speakers.
  • [Also] Details of task force facilities in Stockholm + logistics.]

[10]

1979 May The SAWP/ICOSI group are setting up a strategy/science meeting in Zurich to help the National Manufacturers Associations (NMAs) -- partly to counter the anti-tobacco activism, which is now focused on the June Stockholm World Conference on Smoking & Health.
Attorneys Jacob & Medinger have charged RJ Reynolds for their share of the organization services. [11]

1979 May 3-4 ICOSI meeting in London "Rehearsal for Zurich Meeting with Associations" [the National Manufacturers Associations (NMAs)] Again there is no mention of the Stockholm countermeasures However attendance appears to include the "countermeasures subcommittee of SAWP"

1979 May 20-23 Another ICOSI meeting in Zurich. (no mention of Stockholm) This is probably an executive group. [??] [12]

1979 Jun Tobacco Industry Attendees at the Fourth World Conference on Smoking & Health held in Stockholm. This is a 4-page document from RJ Reynolds. It is the tobacco industry's own agenda for their SAWP Attendees to attend every major session. The industry has arranged for 37 top disinformation executives from a number of tobacco companies together with their top scientific lackeys, to attend and to cover each of the main sessions.
Agenda of conference coverage [13]
Another document gives the list of those from the industry who will be attending, together with their affiliations .
Those attending included Aviado, Seltzer, Haas, Grice, Sterling, Furst, Sirridge, Berger, Nystrom, Lee, Adlkofer, Descoteaux, Whist, Panzer, Senkus, Vogel, Hargrove, Ely, Finnegan, Seymour, Kloepfer, Toet, Corner, Kenrick Wells, Bruckner etc. etc.

This attendee is listed as:

Mr DK Hoel -- Shook Hardy & Bacon -- Kansas City


[See Tobacco Industry list of attendees] [14]

1979 Aug 29 Following the Stockholm conference, Mary Covington presents SAWP CounterMeasures Action Plan to ICOSI executives. It was designed

to prepare proposals for an action plan to develop social acceptability coutermeasures that can be used by national manufacturer's association,

Changing public opinion

  1. public/passive smoking
  • courtesy/annoyance
  1. freedom of choice
  • assisting the smoker
  • attitudes towards smokers/smoking
  1. social costs/social benefits
  • positive economic impact of the industry (e.g. Canadian impact study)
  • establish the costs of introducing or enforcing legislation
  1. discrediting the antis
  • develop for dissemination profiles, conflicting statements, examples of intolerance, etc.

Lobbying
Identification of whom to lobby and methods to be used, Lobbying not confined to the political arena, but to include all decision takers or opinion formers on restrictive measures, it will also have to include lobbying of international/multinational bodies and its coordination.
Allies
[From] tobacco-family ; non-tobacco family ; scientists/medical
To identify the widest possible list of allies, with detailed reasons for so defining them (eg common,fears, economic interest, political attitudes, 'endangered species', common problems).
To assist national associations to identify new potential allies not yet developedo this would be followed v/ith ideas on best approaches for recruitment of allies and possible priorities between them .
Development of counter measures.
We know from our experience at the Stockholm conference and after, that the anti-smoking movement is increasing its capability of coordinating its actions on a world-wide scale, we can therefore expect that this WHO initiative will result in increased coordinated actions being carried out throughout the year and through out the world, We therefore decided that it was both urgent and appropriate that in our countermeasure work we developed campaigns and actions that could be adapted and used by national associations to help them fight back under these attacks.
One association, the Verband [[[Franz X Adlkofer]]] , specificially pointed out this area as one where ICOSI should be of help. The development of appropriate countermeasures will be carried out in close consultation with George Berman who leads the social costs study as a consultant to SAWP. [15]

1981 Jun Don Hoel of SH&B was Chairing a meeting on product liability in Germany [16]

1982 Nov 32 Meeting of the Winnipeg Project Team of SAWP/ICOSI planning to infiltrate and disrupt the WHO Smoking & Health conference to be held in Winnipeg. The members are:

1986 Jun 23 [Date wrong in document] Tobacco Institute Report (by Don Hoel) Sterling's attack on the Repace study (Hoel)
Dr Theodor Sterling has submitted the paper by (Anthony) Arundel, Irwin, Sterling and Weinkam entitled "New and Non-smoker Lung Cancer Risk from Exposure to Particulate Tobacco Smoke" to the American Journal of Epidemiology.
This paper is a critique of assumptions and calculations made by Repace and Lowrey in their paper entitled "A Quantitative Estimate of Non-Smokers Lung Cancer Risk from Passive Smoking" published in Environment International 1985. The latter paper used a linear extrapolation model and estimated the lung cancer deaths in non-smokers to be 5000 per year in the US.
Considerable concern was expressed that Arundel et al. paper appears to endorse the linear extrapolation model. Don Hoel assured the committee that Sterling does not endorse the linear extrapolation model but feels the paper would be rejected by the reviewers if it doesn't imply acceptance of the model in his initial submission. It is Dr. Sterling's intent to insert qualifying statements in the text after the paper has been accepted for publication.
Sterling and co-workers apparently have a second paper in preparation which would follow this paper and more specifically attempt to point out the inapplicability of the linear response model as well as the phenomenological model.
Considerable discussion followed concerning Sterling and co-worker papers as well as the problem-of getting critical comments of the Repace and Lowrey papers into the publisned literature. It is known that several critical comments of Repace and Lowrey papers submitted to Environmental International have not been made public simply because the journal is not published on a routine basis. Alternate approaches to get the information into the literature was suggested by members of the committee including submission of the critical comments sent to Environment International to other journals which have quoted the Repace/Lowrey papers.
Several members of the committee expressed concern that the papers by Sterling and co-workers had been submitted without prior review by the committee.
Dr. Spears also asked if Sterling intended to notify the National Academy of Sciences that he does not agree with the linear extrapolation model. Don Hoel indicated that "he has no plans." [18]

[This document leaves no doubt that Anthony Arundel, Edward Irwin ('ted'), Theodor D Sterling and James J Weinkam (all from Faculty of Applied Sciences, Simon Fraser Uni) were preparing this supposedly scientific report, attacking a legitimate scientist, under the strict control of tobacco industry executives for a specific political purpose. They were acting as lobbyists, not scientists. The paper was eventually published by a different journal under a slightly different name, and with Irwin's name removed from the list of authors.[19]

1986 Jul 7 Sam D Witt, legal executive at RJ Reynolds, has written a letter to the file on "FTC - Of Cigarettes and Sciences."

Don Hoel called today to say that Dr.Seltzer had decided not to write an Op-Ed piece for the New York Times . Don told me they were concerned about overexposing Dr. Seltzer to the risk of being noticed for deposition by [Marc] Edell or another plaintiff's lawyer.

[Note: Edell was the lawyer in the Cippolone trial who had engineered the publication of thousands of tobacco industry documents which showed that the industry engaged in scientific distortion.]

They are not concerned, however, should we choose to ask Dr. Seltzer to assist us in our defense. I asked Don if he thought Dr. Seltzer would consider a letter to the editor commenting on Abrams' Op-Ed piece. He said he would give that serious consideration.
Don also told me in the same phone call that he had recently received a call from Dr. Ted Sterling in Canada, offering to assist us in substantive defense of the "Of Cigarettes and Science" ad. His specific proposal was that he would seek the underlying data, including some that is apparently unpublished, and then convene a peer group to include doctors such as Seltzer, Feinstein, and others to review and criticise in a manner which he expected would be helpful to our interests. I told Don that I would pass that suggestion on, and thanked him for the call.

To round out a week of offers of assistance on the scientific side of this matter, I sat next to Dr. Alvan Feinstein from Yale at the awards luncheon last Monday, and he made a similar offer of assistance though in a somewhat more guarded way. I promised Dr. Feinstein I would talk to our lawyers and get back to him. Don Hoel thought that perhaps this approach could be related to the approaches from Drs. Seltzer and Sterling as well. [20]

1986 Dec 2 Theodor Sterling (a life-long tobacco lackey) writes to Don Hoel at Shook Hardy & Bacon feeding him scuttle-butt which may be of use in the future. He is commenting on a NAS/NRC paper 'ETS - Measuring Exposures and Assessing Health Effects.

What I find particularly interesting is that the two individuals who are given the most credit for putting together the NAS/NRC report, Drs Devra Davis and Marvin Schneiderman, are on record of recognizing the confounding of smoking and occupation. [Note: Both are anti-smoking National Cancer Institute associates]

On a number of occasions when Marvin Schneiderman and I appeared on the same program, Marvin Schneiderman has gone out of his way to refer to our work on smoking and occupation. Occasionally he has referred to me as the "voice in the wilderness".


I've had occasion also to observe Devra Davis to be well versed in the relationship between occupation and smoking. On such occasions as the 1985 SOEH Meeting in Washington, I've heard her take a strong stand on this issue. [21]

1987 Jul 8 An ETS meeting in New York Office of Philip Morris International with Tom Osdene, Don Hoel, Andrew Falkewicz, Andrew Whist, Guy Smith, Mary Pottorff, Don Harris. [All well-known PM/SH&B disinformation/conspiracy executives] These are diary handnotes by [[Tom S Osdene], Science & Technology at Philip Morris + some explanation and paraphrasing.

  • Andrew Whist (PM Corporate Affairs) has had an idea for a "definitive book on ETS" -- eg Smoking & Society
  • Cannot do in US
  • Commission book from JMU -- issue to be examined [he possibly meant GMU or in Europe]
  • John Tollison -- Rupp & Hoel (+Whist) as editor [The writer either meant Robert Tollison of George Mason Uni, or John Dollison who was Whist's associate at PM. Presumably Rupp, Hoel and Whist were in favour]
  • Large budget -- for publicizing the book
  • Whist (editor of one of their publications) of Pergamon Press (in 12 weeks)
  • How many printed -- 20,000
  • Has 4 or 5 authors
  • publication betore the 6th World Congress [on Smoking OR Health]
    It appears that this new book by tobacco staff and lobbyist was to carry:
  • Short papers by
[Note: All of the above are very well-known, well-document tobacco lackeys]
  • Guy [Smith] to talk with Peter Sparber at the Tobacco Institute. [Note: Smith is PR at Philip Morris, Sparber runs dirty tricks at the TI)]
  • Introduction - by Nobel Laureat [David Morse]

The second page of the note deals with the recruitment of WhiteCoats.
Bill Murray (then CEO of PMI) wanted to know where did they have scientific witnesses and how can they be increased.
The two principal tobacco lawfirms, Shook Hardy & Bacon and Covington & Burling, were to provide their lists -- and the scheme was to expand (using Myron Weinberg of The Weinberg Group/Washtech for recruitment). The contact point at Philip Morris International, Corporate Affairs for this program was Mary Pottorff ('Mopsy')
Murray wanted 2 or 3 credible scientist identified in each country by July. It will take another 2-3 months to "write them up" (actively recruit them). [22]f

1988 Aug 23 Ray Thornton, (Scientific Affairs at BAT) is circulating to BAT executives a summary of "details on the Philip Morris Programme on ETS -- compiled from various sources" BAT are being asked to join forces with PM and RJR in running this Pan-European ETS program.
The document provides a good summary of the early organisation of PM's Whitecoats project. It reveals that the project is: # Divided geographically into two parts. Helmut Gaisch of FTR and John Rupp of Covington & Burling had responsibility for Europe and the Middle East. Don Hoel of Shook Hardy & Bacon was to provide coverage for the "rest of the world" [Which, at this stage, was mainly USA, Canada, Australia, Latin America].

  1. PM's budget for the European/Middle Eastern activities in 1988 was £2.3 million. This involved the recruitement of teams of scientists under the cryptic name ARIA by Francis JC Roe and George B Leslie. The team also included Frank Lanau, Peter N Lee, John Faccini, Alan K Armitage, Leonard Levy , and Petr Skrabenek . Drs Jeffrey R Idle and Susan Wonnacott [who both worked for BAT/TAC] were approached to join, but declined.
  2. The first formal conference of the ARIA team was at "The Bell" (a hotel with conference rooms), Aston Clinton, Aylesbury [30 miles NW of London] on Sep 12th-13th 1988
  3. Thornton also lists the ARIA group's involvement in the "Perry Conference" [aka "Imperial College London ETS Conference"]

    He also lists the EGIL group in Scandinavia, and some Whitecoats in France, Belgium, Austria and Italy.

    (Current) ACTIVITIES:

  • Members of Teams are asked to comment on a Smoking Issues paper and then to write comments [and] articles as appropriate. and to be generally proactive on the issues.
  • Discuss establishment of a Centre for Environmental Toxicology in the US (Sorell Schwartz and Nancy Balter the leading figures to run this were from Georgtown Uni and IAPAG.)
  • Collaboration with RJ Reynolds
  • Plans for two conferences: one in Argentina, the other in Central America.

Thornton is scathing about the British scientists and science recruiters involved. He blames John Rupp for problems "because of his brash behaviour, exacerbated by minor problems such as the role of dr Francis Roe, but particularly his minor acolytes, Dr George Leslie and Dr Frank Lunar, who would not be seen in the first rank of scientists qualified to comment on ETS. (Nor would Dr Alan K Armitage who made his name as a Pharmacologist in the 1960's/1970's at Harrogate, working for the UK TRC as it was then." [Now TAC]

There is also the synopsis of a proposed book (Edited by Alan K Armitage) by many of these Whitecoats (plus a few probably unsuspecting genuine scientists) trying to raise other scare-substances like asbestos to the same level as smoking. [23]

1988 Oct 17-20 Attornies from Shook Hardy & Bacon, USA were in attendance at INFOTAB workshop in Malaga. (with many other industry counter-executives) The SHB contingency consisted of Don Hoel, James Newsom and LeAnn Zimmerman [24]

1988 Nov 29 to Dec 3 Geoffrey C Bible of Philip Morris (who had just taken over as CEO of PM International) ran his own internal planning conference at Boca Raton, Florida -- where the notorious Boca Raton Action Plan was formulated. It guided the industry's actions against the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other UN Agencies for many years, and provided the initial planning for projects to subvert science and politics around the world.

Those at the Boca Raton conference were:

  1. Disinformation staff of both the domestic USA and European Science & Technology groups [later grouped together as Worldwide Scientific Affairs, or WSA],
  2. Members of the Worldwide Regulatory Affairs (WRA) staff, [in-house lawyers and political lobbyists]
  3. Corporate Affairs people [based at the New York headquarters, but with members from all regions, (including Brussels and Neuchatel)].
  4. a few trusted outside consultants who had services to offer.
  • Trevor King, INFOTAB in the UK [observer; but INFOTAB also participated}
  • Paul Dietrich, Institute for International Health & Development [IIHD] supposedly at the Catholic University, Wash. DC
  • AD Clive Turner, Tobacco Advisory Council (TAC) in the UK [[[ADC Turner]] -- observer]
  • Don Hoel, Shook Hardy & Bacon, Kansas City
  • Stephen Aiello, Burson-Marsteller PR, New York
  • James Lindheim, Burson-Marsteller PR, London
  • David A Morse, Jones Day Reavis & Pogue [actually IIHD, Libertad, etc see below]
  • Wayne V Reid, International Confederation of Sports , UK
  • John Rupp, Covington & Burling, Washington DC
  • Auberon Waugh, Columnist, UK [Murdoch lackey/columnist, Libertad lobbyist]
  • Stephen Parrish, Shook Hardy & Bacon, Lausanne, Switzerland
[Note: Apart from the lawyers, PR people, and observers:>br?-- Paul Dietrich and David Morse were partners who worked with Andrew Whist of PMI Corporate Affairs in establishing and operating many front groups including AECA, NYSIA, Libertad, and IIHD. The Catholic University in Washington was just a front.
-- Wayne Reid was Andrew Whist's long-term Australian lobbyist who was used to retain tobacco-sports sponsorship. He had been a clandestine recruit many years before as head of Australian Lawn Tennis.
-- Auberon Waugh (and his close friend Bernard Levin) were both paid by the tobacco industry to promote the anti-Nanny-State idea through the sham Libertad organisation and ARISE. They toured around the world with other media 'curmudgeon-contrarians' and attacked any attempt at regulation of smoking in public places as evidence of the "Nanny state". This was partly a News Ltd. operation. [25]

1989-90 Hoel spent 1989 and 1990 with SH&B in London.

1990 Feb Donald K Hoel ('Don') and Anthony J Andrade ('Tony') have moved to the new SH&B London office. This was established specifically to help run the Philip Morris Whitecoats recruitment and control operations.

1990 Feb-Mar Eugene Peck of SHB in Kansas City is faxing: Steve Parrish, who is now with PM Switzerland, David A Schechter of BATUS in Kentucky (the company's document destruction expert), Don Hoel at SHB London and Stuart Chalfen of BAT London (British-American Tobacco lawyer specialising in document destruction) . Covers only. [26]

1990 June 6 Following a London UK meeting James T Newsom has written to the primary SH&B Tobacco Team covering many issues. THIS IS A LONG DOCUMENT WELL WORTH READING. HOWEVER NOTE THE PAGES ARE OCCSIONALLY OUT OF ORDER. (order rearranged to simplify) [27]
Don Hoel, Bob Northrip, Steve Parrish and himself met in London to discuss a number of issues to do with tobacco.

  • Things had changed: Chuck Wall and Steve Parrish, were no longer with the SH&B tobacco team. Steve Parrish had been seconded b SH&B ito PM in Switzerland as "Coordinator of International product liability litigation for Philip Morris." Both Chuck and Steve have announced that they will be joining Philip Morris. They see a problem since most of the work of the London office is on tobacco for Philip Morris. Chuck Wall with Judy Hancock had been given the job of looking after International tobacco affairs. Now only Judy.
  • Don Hoel was returning to Kansas City in late June or early August and James Newsom was taking over. Don Hoel intended to take a six month sabbatical beginning Oct 1990 "During that six month period we will not have any lawyer in Kansas City who has had any experience handling international matters."
  • Anthony J Andrade would remain another year in London, but then they will need someone to take over.
  • Marty Warren (woman) is designated the "international associate" in Kansas City,
  • Donald Hoel's hourly rate for tobacco work is $225, and they are planning to push it up to $275 or $285

The Philip Morris Projects in Europe involve:

  • Witness development -- a euphemism for recruiting WhiteCoats (scientist who work for them in secret)
Steve would have a role at PM looking after ETS issues worldwide
Chuck would look after worldwide litigation for PM Tobacco, Millers Beer, and Kraft General Foods (all owned by PM)
Therefore Steve Parrish will now look after WhiteCoats recruitment in-house. The original intention was that Tony Andrade would devote 75% of his time to this recruitment in Europe, and that Don Hoel would devote only 25% if his time to this project. In fact Andrade had devoted time to Australia, and only 50% of his time to European WhiteCoats recruitment.
  • There is some overlap with the recruitment of non-medical witnesses with work done by Allen R Purvis and Gene Peck (both SH&B).
  • Tony(Andrade) estimated that they had ...

    evaluated perhaps 200 potential witnesses and have determined that approximately 90 of them are worth visiting and have visited approximately 40. Of these 30 are worth continuing to see. (The rest will be checked later.)
    The general success rate in finding witnesses willing to consult with the tobacco industry has been higher than witness development efforts in the US. We told Steve that we could continue to see witnesses at approximately the same level during the forthcoming year if Tony devoted approximately 75% of his time to witness development. Of course, we will not see as many new witnesses because we will be revising witnesses previously seen.

    They then told him that some witness contacts had come through US witnesses with whom we have worked such as Drs Domingo M Aviado, Edward M Skolnik and Professor Julius Gould, and a UK Consultant named Dr David Wescott (Imperial Tobacco/CORESTA) and other existing contacts. They are consulting with Peter W Brown and Michael Wilson of Rothmans and Ray Thornton and Sharon Boyse of BAT.
  • In the past, Covington & Burling have done ETS witness development in the US principally under the direction of the Tobacco Institute... "although they are lawyers, they are being used as corporate affairs consultants."
    In Europe, Scandinavia and the UK C&B's activities are mainly for Philip Morris at the direction of PMI Corporate Affairs department
  • They also discussed SH&B joint ETS witness development efforts in the US for Philip Morris, Lorillard, and Brown & Williamson (both ETS and 'Primaries Issues witnesses). Newsom and Don Hoel would meet with the Swiss TR/PM group of Helmut Gaisch, Helmut Reif and Iancou Marcovich to discuss research projects ; and a meeting will also be set up with Alex Holtzman
  • The Copenhagen Conference was being set up by Dr Tage Voss and Helmut Gaisch to counter Richard Peto's statements at the Perth, Australia World Conference on Tobacco and Health. Tobacco would be supported by Drs Tage Voss, Peter Atteslander, Bertoldt Schneider, Petr Skrabanek and Hans J Eysenck. Theodor D Sterling would also be invited together with some members of the Nordic smokers rights organisations (ie Hen-Ry) They were coordinating this with John Dollisson (Philip Morris corporate affairs) and the conference would send a letter to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
  • They also discussed the problem of Pesticides; the Aho case in Finland (being handled by Edwin Jacob of Jacob Meninger& Finnegan (uncooperative); Ingredients; the promotion of Moderation of smoking; Mild/Light cigarettes; and lawyer's meetings in UK, Netherlands, Switzerland
  • Australian AFCO v Tobacco Institute of Australia case (They may also have another case in Perth) (Don Hoel charged at $390 per hour which they thought too low) This was on-going and a potential source of trouble. "

    Despite the difficulties in Australia, we feel that Gary L Huber continues to be useful. He will take his statements in Australia, refine them slight and they will be published by the Uni of Texas press.

  • With INFOTAB- they attended Board and Global Issues Working Party (GIWP) meetings [28]
    BAT has now withdrawn from INFOTAB, but they don't know whether B&W would also.
  • Guinness: Don Hoel has opened discussions with Guinness to do some alcohol-related witness development work in Europe, New Zealand and Australia ... "a natural fit with tobacco work".
  • Four other projects: They had feelers out for work in Philippines, Japan, Argentina, Canada, Hong Kong. Latin America (Francisco Moreno -4 projects)
  • Theodor Sterling was possibly going to New Zealand as a witness.
* Elia Sterling (TDS Ltd Canada), Iancou Marcovitch {PM Switzerland) and Claude Bieva (toxicologist, Free Uni of Brussels & lobbyist) are discussing a conference on air quality, sponsored by an European equivalent of ASHRAE in Brussels in 1991. They will also discuss a Madrid conference with Elia Sterling et al. Sterling (TDS Ltd) also doing work in Brazil with local consultants, and possibly Venezuela and/or Guetemala.

Steve Parrish's possible changes.

[29]


1991 Jul 11 Elia Sterling writes to Don Hoel at Shook Hardy & Bacon about the organisation of a conference in Brussels on IAQ in the spring of 1993. Sterling is clearly the lead organiser along with Claude Bieva, and he appears to have Frank Coda, Executive Director-Secretary of ASHRAE on side.

To avoid problems with the ASHRAE Environmental Health Committee, Frank Coda suggested taking the word "Health" out of the title. The new title is "Building Design, Technology and Occupant Well Being in Cold Climates."

[Note: ASHRAE=American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers. This organisation had European chapters and set global standards for indoor air quality (IAQ) -- so it was heavily influenced by members who were in the pay of the tobacco industry -- like Elia Sterling (son of Theodor Sterling Dr Claude Bieva was also a tobacco helper. Here the tobacco lobby appear to be organising their own conference in Europe under the ASHRAE banner.]

Frank Coda suggested a three tiered organization .

  • Organizing Committee composed of members appointed by the lead sponsoring organizations.
  • Co-Sponsors or Co-Organizers
  • Scientific Committee: This committee will be chaired by Dr Bieva and will be responsible for the technical and scientific content of the program. Members have not yet been selected but suggestions include Ole Fanger, David Grimsrud, Charlene Bayer, Gustave Handegard, Richard Armstrong and myself. (I welcome any additional recommendations you might have.).

Budget: Dr Bieva has been requested to provide a revised budget to ASHRAE. The budget should be more realistic regarding Trade Show income and should allow for ASHRAE publication of the proceedings .
Publication: ASHRAE will propose a budget for publishing the proceedings . It is possible that ASHRAE will fund the publishing costs, however, that is still to be negotiated.

[I]t is important that we meet early in September to finalize our schedule and approve the first announcement. I also need to visit the facilities in Brussels and meet the ATIC representatives.[30]

1991 Jul 19 Hoel of SH&B writes to Iancou A Marcovitch at FTR (Philip Morris in Switzerland) re the Brussels Conference. He wants some help sorting it out.

I enclose herewith a memo to me from Elia Sterling dated July 11, 1991, together with a budget (provisional) received from Professor Claude Bieva on July 18, 1991. You will note that sponsorship has not been officially determined from SCANVAC and IIR. We will need to determine what the holdup is on these last two in order that we might begin moving forward with a full complement sponsors.

In regard to the budget, it appears as though there is still some negotiating to be done with ASHRAE concerning the publication. Elia Sterling assures me that this will soon be finalized and hopefully we then can proceed without any further delays.

Professor Bieva mentioned to Elia Sterling that Dr Ragnar Rylander may have some connection with SCANVAC. Do you know anything about this?

[31]

[Note:This was copied to Steve Parrish at Philip Morris who was the main disinformation executive of PM USA]

1994 Dec 14 He is a partner in SH&B when the Dept of Justice was formally being asked to investigate various members of the tobacco industry for fraud, statements made + criminal conspiracy; RICO violations, false claims and unpaid taxes [32]

2004 Oct 20 Don Hoel's Testimony at the USA v Tobacco RICO case. He says that SH&B is his "former law firm".


References

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  1. ↑ (Judge H.L. Sarokin, Haines opinion 2/6/92; Haines documents in limine #01347203 et seq.)
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