Co-operation and conflict in the management of a health scare: the work of the Tobacco Industry Research Committee, 1953-1964

This paper examines the response of the American tobacco companies to the health scare surrounding tobacco harm between 1953 and 1964, through an analysis of the operations of the Tobacco Industry Research Committee (TIRC). We consider the reasons for the TIRC's establishment and subsequent conduct in the context of a series of external pressures which built up on the tobacco industry prior to, and during, the period in question. These include the increase in deaths from cancer which had occurred during the first half of the twentieth century, accumulating epidemiological evidence suggesting that tobacco use was harmful to health, progressively more grave statements that were being made by public health bodies and scientists to the same effect, falling sales of cigarettes and faltering stockholder confidence. We consider the TIRC's contribution to restoring confidence in tobacco products, what motivated scientific advisors to sit on, and resign from, its Scientific Advisory Board and the legitimacy of the argument that the controversy surrounding tobacco harm continued until the mid-1960s.