"Operation Berkshire": the international tobacco companies' conspiracy

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Abstract
Methods After learning of a document referring to “Operation Berkshire,” we searched for documents on the website tobaccoarchives.com, and we collected and reviewed documents relevant to the conspiracy between the major tobacco companies and to its objectives and implementation.1 The website provides access to document sites on which various tobacco companies have been required to post copies of documents as a result of the multiparty settlement of litigation by United States attorneys general.2 An initial search of the Philip Morris site using the term “Berkshire” produced 157 documents of which the vast majority related to the conspiracy. Subsequent searches using the term “Shockerwick”, especially on the Philip Morris and R J Reynolds sites, filled in the gaps. Further searches using the terms “ICOSI” (International Committee on Smoking Issues) and “INFOTAB” (International Tobacco Information Centre) yielded thousands of additional documents on almost all the sites. Documents found under “Berkshire” and “Shockerwick” exposed the formation of a conspiracy and its objectives. Documents found under “ICOSI” and “INFOTAB” were too numerous to explore in the time available, but any number of them illustrate the implementation of the conspiracy. Acknowledgments We thank Anne Landman, regional programme coordinator and editor of the DOC-ALERT list service sponsored by the American Lung Association of Colorado, and Smokescreen for helping to find documents. Matthew Peters supplied the photographs electronically; the signpost was “enhanced.” Contributors: NF first discovered a “seam” of relevant documents on the Berkshire conspiracy on the world wide web and wrote a first draft of the paper. SC discovered further material and contributed to subsequent drafts of the paper. Anne Jones, chief executive, ASH Australia, and Andrew Penman, chief executive and convenor, New South Wales Cancer Council and Tobacco Control Coalition, helped evaluate the documents. NF and SC will act as guarantors for the paper.

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