BMJ 2000;321:371-374 ( 5 August )

Education and debate

"Operation Berkshire": the international tobacco companies' conspiracy

Neil Francey, barrister at law ^a, Simon Chapman, associate professor ^b. 

^a Wentworth Chambers, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia, ^b VicHealth Centre for Tobacco Control, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia

Correspondence to: S Chapman, Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia simonc@health.usyd.edu.au

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Advocates of tobacco control worldwide have long suspected collusion among major international tobacco companies over their refusal to acknowledge that smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and other serious diseases. Tobacco industry documents now available on the internet disclose the establishment of a conspiracy between Philip Morris, R J Reynolds, British-American Tobacco, Rothmans, Reemtsma, and UK tobacco companies Gallaher and Imperial, dating from 1977. The documents also disclose the objects of the conspiracy: basically, to protect the industry's commercial interests both by promoting controversy over smoking and disease and through strategies directed at reassuring smokers.

The documents also disclose the means of implementing the conspiracy by utilising national manufacturers' associations coordinated through the International Committee on Smoking Issues, later to become the International Tobacco Information Centre. We expose the formation of the conspiracy and its objectives and means of implementation over the ensuing decades.

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