Antismoking documents now available on Web site
CMAJ 2000;163(3):260
I wish to clarify our position on claims made in a recent CMAJ article [News and analysis].1 Your reporter stated that British Columbia is withholding internal tobacco industry documents (the Guildford documents) collected to support the government's lawsuit to recover health care costs associated with smoking-related disease.
That is not the case. To avoid any suggestion that government action might influence the outcome of a constitutional challenge to the legislation upon which the lawsuit was based, the province temporarily withheld publishing the Guildford documents until a decision in the constitutional challenge was rendered. After the decision was handed down, the documents were made public on Apr. 18 (www.health.gov.bc.ca/tobacco). These 15 000 pages of documents concerning British American Tobacco and its Canadian associate, Imperial Tobacco Ltd., were retrieved by BC from the Guildford document depository in Guildford, England. These documents were first made available at the depository as part of the settlement of Minnesota's lawsuit against tobacco companies. Another 5000 documents have recently been received from Guildford and will be added to our Web site shortly.
The documents provide inside information on the tobacco industry, including its marketing and promotional strategies. With them, health organizations and governments interested in tobacco reduction can find information about business practices within the industry.
Andrew Hazlewood
Assistant Deputy Minister
Public and Preventive Health Services
BC Ministry of Health
Victoria, BC
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Reference
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Sibbald B. Physicians fight for access to tobacco info, hope to show criminal negligence. CMAJ 2000;162(10):1468.
© 2000 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors
