14 DAY TRIAL // According to the conclusions of a comprehensive research conducted by experts at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), the tobacco industry had “deep, intimate” knowledge of the cancer-causing potential of radioactive alpha particles in cigarettes, yet failed to disclose this to consumers.
Investigators discovered that this has been going on for about 40 years. Over this time frame, companies conducted a number of studies on the nature of the effects alpha particles had on the smoking population's health, but chose not to disclose their findings.
The study was carried out on internal industry documents released back in 1998, as part of a legal settlement. The conclusions made the researchers shiver, when seeing the depth to which these corporations went in hiding their deceit.
Scientists have always known that the industry was aware of the alpha particles' health risks, but the UCLA research revealed that top representatives knew about this a full 5 years earlier than thought.
The first in-depth industry investigation on the effects of alpha particles on health began as early as 1960, the team reports. The new study appears in the September 27 online issue of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco's (SRNT) peer-reviewed journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research.
“The documents show that the industry was well aware of the presence of a radioactive substance in tobacco as early as 1959,” the UCLA research team wrote in their journal entry.
“Furthermore, the industry was not only cognizant of the potential 'cancerous growth' in the lungs of regular smokers, but also did quantitative radiobiological calculations to estimate the long-term lung radiation absorption dose of ionizing alpha particles emitted from cigarette smoke,” they adds.
The new results put the industry's efforts to suppress this vital information in a new light. What tobacco companies did was, in effect, allow people to develop lung cancer and die as a result of smoking, without even the courtesy of informing people of the risks they were exposing themselves to.
The study was led by UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSM) Cardiovascular Research Laboratory adjunct professor of cardiology Hrayr S. Karagueuzian, also the first author of the study.
“They knew that the cigarette smoke was radioactive way back then and that it could potentially result in cancer, and they deliberately kept that information under wraps,” the investigator explains.
“Specifically, we show here that the industry used misleading statements to obfuscate the hazard of ionizing alpha particles to the lungs of smokers and, more importantly, banned any and all publication on tobacco smoke radioactivity,” he concludes.