Merchants of Death: The American Tobacco Industry

By Larry C. White

New York: Beech Tree Books

$17.95

THE evidence that smoking is not only bad for you, but will eventually probably kill you, is overwhelming. Even smokers know this fact; they most likely repeat it even as they light up another one. But as dangerous as the health hazards are, they fail to convince. And that is why Larry White's new book, Merchants of Death: The American Tobacco Industry is so useful. White's argument is joined at a moral level, arguing not only that that smoking is bad for you, but that smoking is bad for everyone, because it props up a tobacco industry which is ruthless in its pursuit of power.

In a sense, then, Larry White, who is not a doctor, is not calling on us to quit smoking for health reasons. He is calling for a boycott of the tobacco industry on moral grounds. Charging the officials of such companies as R J Reynolds and Phillip Morris as being the vendors of fatality, White paints an incredibly grim picture of an industry that thrives on fraud, deception and a complete lack of social responsibility.

In forming his attack against the tobacco giants, White makes use of examples of the cigarette industry behaving at its worst. He analyzes advertisments in both magazines and on billboards, reviews medical tracts and relies on legislation and lawsuits against tobacco companies to villify their merchandising techniques of a product he considers to be lethal. White also relies on public surveys, information from the tobacco companies themselves and his own personal experiences as a smoker to make a case that the cigarette manufactures are nothing more than industrial murderers.

Most damning of all, White analyzes the diversification policies that allow cigarette companies to increase their profits and their influence over smoking policies. He writes that as companies like Reynolds have merged with Nabisco, they have dictated national policies, becoming like spiders with tentacles of influence in interests as diverse as food and appliances. When any of its subsidiary companies attempt to ban smoking in their offices, the tobacco industry imposes hardships on them.

WHITE, who is a lawyer in California and the author of Human Debris: The Industrial Worker in America, begins Merchants of Death with details from his own life as a Camel addict. He reveals that he was drawn to smoking by peer pressure and the conviction that the habit was considered to be a "cool" thing to do.

And, while White's experiences inhaling cigarettes from Camels to Newports do not have much relevance to the tobacco industries' policies as a whole, it seems, in this first chapter, that White is attempting to justify his writing of the book. By showing that he too was victim of the manufacturer's ploys, White avoids alienating smokers by appearing to be a "holier than thou" figure.

White concentrates first on the great lobbying power cigarette companies have held over Congress and in local politics. Citing a statistic that out of 451 congressional districts, tobacco is grown only in 51, White presents us with information regarding laws and national tobacco policies to show that the cigarette kings have more than their fair share of representation in Washington.

He argues that the companies manipulate the government into weakening the phrasing of the warning labels on cigarette packs, waging over the past decades a winning battle to eliminate the words "death" and "addiction" from package covers. Later White says that the cigarette companies often work for legislation that benefits their interests while taking advantage of the numerous tobacco farmers in the South.

As a lawyer, the author traveled around the country and did extensive research on the subject of anti-tobacco company legislation. He argues that the companies are guilty on two counts: they have so much money that they can extend the litigation process indefinitely, and they are uncooperative in providing information pertinent to the cases.

White focuses on the 1986 case of Marsee vs. United States Tobacco Company, to show how a company's evasive policies can work to its advantage. Arguing that the head of U.S. Tobacco refused to answer questions pertaining to the charges that Sean Marsee died from oral cancer as a direct result of chewing tobacco daily for seven years, White presents convincing excerpts from the case testimony.

But more than rail against deception, White analyzes cigarette advertising to show how the industry uses its power and money to dictate media and corporate policies. Stating that there are three cigarette manufacturers included among the top 100 advertising companies in the country, White argues that by buying a "cool" image and by exerting their power to influence the media, the companies are promoting murder.

WHILE Larry White does present overwhelming evidence that cigarette smoking is lethal and is moreover perpetrated by companies that have concern for profits and no care for their fellow citizens, his book fails to be thoroughly convincing. He presents quotes and official statistics, but White generally neglects to present the reader with his sources.

In addition to failing to show where he obtains his evidence, White's language is occasionally too relaxed and sarcastic for a book that rails against an official industry. When writing about the medical profession, White invokes the "good old family doc of the AMA", and when talking about a time when the cigarette companies invited doctors to investigate their policies, he says that the medics disapproved of the policies, but adds that they probably enjoyed being wined and dined.

Despite these drawbacks, White's book is an effective attack on the cigarette industry. Its purpose is not to campaign against smoking, it is to campaign against those who promote it. And that is because he views their policies as tantamount to death.