摘要：The major tobacco manufacturers discovered that polonium was part of tobacco and tobacco smoke more than 40 years ago and attempted, but failed, to remove this radioactive substance from their products. Internal tobacco industry documents reveal that the companies suppressed publication of their own internal research to avoid heightening the public’s awareness of radioactivity in cigarettes. Tobacco companies continue to minimize their knowledge about polonium-210 in cigarettes in smoking and health litigation. Cigarette packs should carry a radiation-exposure warning label. Although it has been known for more than 4 decades that tobacco smoke contains the radioactive substance polonium-210 (PO-210), publicity surrounding the poisoning of former KGB agent Alexander V. Litvinenko with PO-210 in 2006 has heightened awareness of its presence in tobacco smoke. 1 , 2 We reviewed internal tobacco industry corporate records made public through litigation to assess cigarette manufacturers’ internal and external activities in response to the presence and potential health effect of PO-210 in cigarettes. Documents show that the major transnational cigarette manufacturers managed the potential public relations problem of PO-210 in cigarettes by avoiding any public attention to the issue for fear of “waking a sleeping giant.” 3 Despite the industry’s long-time strategy of “creating doubt about the health charges without actually denying it,” 4 internal corporate records suggest that manufacturers avoided drawing attention to the PO-210 issue in the public domain. Documents also show that once manufacturers determined that PO-210 was a constituent of tobacco smoke, they attempted, but failed, to remove it. Simultaneously, internal research potentially leading to advancements in scientific knowledge was avoided. Similarly, internal experimental results favorable to the tobacco companies were suppressed from publication by company lawyers despite urgings by internal scientists contending that their data contested reports published in the medical literature. Currently, although all the major tobacco companies would likely admit that PO-210 is present in their products, they continue to minimize its importance in smoking and health litigation and remain silent on the issue on their Web sites and in their messages to consumers.
