North Carolina – The Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society

1985: North Carolina takes a hard look at the ethics of growing tobacco

“Our Tobacco Dilemma: N.C.’s top crop: part of our lives but bad for health” (20 pages)

A Special Report
The Charlotte Observer
March 25, 1979

This exploration of the health, economic, agricultural, and social impact of tobacco in North Carolina may be the most extensive such analysis ever published by a newspaper. The original newsprint report is one of the highlights of the collection of the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society.

“BURNING ISSUES: WHAT DID REYNOLDS KNOW?” (8 pages)

A Special Report
Greensboro News & Record
September 26-28, 1992

“An investigation into what one of the nation’s major tobacco companies knew about smoking.”

“TOBACCO: A DILEMMA FOR NORTH CAROLINA HEALTH WORKERS” (4 pages)

Program for the North Carolina Health Council Convocation, Raleigh, North Carolina, May 7-8, 1985

In the most extensive history of tobacco control efforts in North Carolina, the 331-page “Chipping Away at Tobacco Traditions in Tobacco Country: Tobacco Industry Political Influence and Tobacco Policy Making in North Carolina 1969-2011,” by Michelle Washington, Richard L. Barnes, and Stanton Glantz, of the University of California at San Francisco Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, there is no mention of the North Carolina Health Council Convocation. http://escholarship.org/uc/item/7kc398r4

Invitation to be a speaker at the North Carolina Health Council Convocation (2 pages)

Letter sent by William L. Beery to Alan Blum, MD
January 25, 1985

“Speakers for the 1985 North Carolina Health Council Convocation”

Letter from William L. Beery, coordinator of the convocation, to presenters
Received March 18, 1985

“North Carolina Health Council Convocation”

Memorandum from Reginald L. Lester, Managing Director, Tobacco Growers’ Information Committee, Inc., to Committee Members
May 9, 1985

“There is a growing boldness on the part of the state’s intellectuals (newspaper editorialists, health professionals, religious leaders) to climb on the anti-tobacco bandwagon. We may be faced with a new, unique and potentially strong anti-tobacco enemy in the number one tobacco state.”

Handwritten notes on the presentations at the North Carolina Health Council Convocation (29 pages)

Notepad of Alan Blum, MD
May 7-8, 1985

Report on the North Carolina Health Council Convocation (9 pages)

Memorandum from Reginald L. Lester, Managing Director, Tobacco Growers’ Information Committee, to committee members
Undated

“I then described our view that tobacco was extremely important in the creation of a free and democratic society. In the United States, pointing out that the U.S. capitol is adorned with tobacco leaves in tribute to the debt our nation has to tobacco.

“I reminded the group that the use of tobacco in our society is a matter of freedom of choice and pointed out to them that I didn’t see any dilemma for health care workers in that most people perceive of the use of tobacco as a health hazard. I asked them if they wanted government ‘by nanny.’ I also told them that we in the tobacco economy do not feel that we have anything to be ashamed of and that tobacco would be important to North Carolina in the future as it was in the past…”