Reynolds Unfairly Attacked by Critics

I am frankly baffled why you put R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in a defensive position in your Nov. 21 article “Scientist Says Reynolds Feared Test Results” when facts before you in a printed transcript of the former RJR employee’s deposition can lead to only one conclusion: that private lawyers representing the state of Texas in its suit against the tobacco industry fabricated these allegations from whole cloth.

Winston-Salem, N.C., was not a large city in 1970, and the closing of this research lab was widely discussed and reported in the local newspaper at the time. The scientist, Joseph Bumgarner, acknowledged in his deposition that the company had to divest itself of a food subsidiary and that RJR canceled its development of a smoking-machine project. With the need for much of the lab’s work gone, the company closed it and made grants to private and university research organizations to complete its smoking-related research.

One of the recipients of those grants was the American Medical Assn. Published research reports on the AMA-funded research are part of the deposition record.

Mr. Bumgarner’s own words clearly indicate that there was absolutely no suppression by the company of the research his lab was conducting. During the course of the deposition, Mr. Bumgarner confirmed that he was free to discuss the work he did at RJR for the past 26 years and that when he left, he was never told he could not discuss his work. It was also revealed that his supervisor presented their work while it was underway at scientific conferences.

Mr. Bumgarner testified that he was trying to develop methodologies to pursue an emphysema research theory that was published extensively in the scientific literature before he joined RJR, while he was an employee and after he left the company. He testified that his own work was preliminary, had never reached final conclusions and had never produced major breakthroughs. Further, he admitted that the underlying theory behind this research was ultimately rejected by the U.S. surgeon general as well as the medical research community in favor of alternate theories.

It is extremely difficult for parties to lawsuits to get fair hearings in courts and before juries when press reports are so plainly wrong. Your readers are entitled to the full and accurate story--not just the views promoted by our critics, or by lawyers who stand to make millions of dollars if these fabrications are accepted.

DANIEL W. DONAHUE

Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel-Litigation

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

Winston-Salem, N.C.