摘要：A review of internal tobacco company documents showed that the tobacco company Philip Morris and the insurance company CIGNA collaborated to censor accurate information on the harm of smoking and on environmental tobacco smoke exposure from CIGNA health newsletters sent to employees of Philip Morris and its affiliates. From 1996 to 1998, 5 of the 8 CIGNA newsletters discussed in the internal tobacco documents were censored. We recommend that accrediting bodies mandate that health plans not censor employee-directed health information at the request of employers. AS A LEADING CAUSE OF numerous cancers and cardiovascular diseases, cigarette smoking kills more than 400 000 Americans each year. 1 Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke is estimated to cause 3700 lung cancer deaths and more than 50 000 deaths from heart disease in adults each year in the United States. 2 Environmental tobacco smoke is also causally associated with low birthweight and sudden infant death syndrome among infants and with acute lower respiratory infections, asthma attacks, and middle ear infections among children. 3 In this article, we report an unusual agreement between the nation’s largest cigarette manufacturer, Philip Morris, and the nation’s third largest publicly traded managed care organization, CIGNA. Philip Morris benefits managers and CIGNA employees collaborated to censor accurate information about the harm of smoking and environmental tobacco smoke exposure from CIGNA newsletters sent to employees of the tobacco company and its affiliates.
