Smokes and cyberspace: a public health disaster in the making

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Abstract
Three articles in this month's journal raise serious concerns about the internet becoming the future marketplace for the sale of cigarettes.1-3 One seller predicts that 20% of all cigarettes will be sold over the internet in 10 years. The warning is clear: if the tobacco industry embraces this new unregulated medium, many of the major public interventions that we have developed to curb real world lung cancer could go up in a puff of cyber smoke. Taxes, ad bans, and youth access laws are easily eroded online. To test this premise, I took my own digital tour of the web starting first with Brown and Williamson's (B&W) and RJ Reynolds' (RJR) on line document depositories, and found megabyte plans for moving operations to the world wide web (www.tobaccoresolution.com). A juicy, 1997, RJR internal memo boasts of the new power of the web to get their brands warm and cozy with individual smokers. Camel would have its own home page with instant clicks to Camel Cash, chat rooms, a store, and, of course, the date of the next Camel …

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