Destroyed documents: uncovering the science that Imperial Tobacco Canada sought to conceal.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In 1992, British American Tobacco had its Canadian affiliate, Imperial Tobacco Canada, destroy internal research documents that could expose the company to liability or embarrassment. Sixty of these destroyed documents were subsequently uncovered in British American Tobacco's files.

Methods

Legal counsel for Imperial Tobacco Canada provided a list of 60 destroyed documents to British American Tobacco. Information in this list was used to search for copies of the documents in British American Tobacco files released through court disclosure. We reviewed and summarized this information.

Results

Imperial Tobacco destroyed documents that included evidence from scientific reviews prepared by British American Tobacco's researchers, as well as 47 original research

SUBMITTER: Hammond D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2774364 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature