Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (July 12/02) - Dr. Jeffrey Wigand, the famed former Fortune 500 executive who blew the lid off big tobacco's marketing practices, pulled no punches during his speech to health care professionals on Tuesday.

Dr. Jeffrey Wigand, a former tobacco executive turned anti-smoking crusader, delivered a speech on Tuesday to health care professionals at the Canadian Public Health Association's annual conference held in Yellowknife. - Mike W. Bryant/NNSL photo

Simply put, said Wigand, tobacco companies are evil, money-sucking entities who care little about the public's health, and only wish to ensure themselves a steady supply of new smokers from one generation to the next.

"They (Enron) may have stole money, but these people stole lives over decades," said Wigand during his keynote speech for the 93rd annual Canadian Public Health Association Conference that was held at the Explorer Hotel, July 7-10.

Wigand was vice-president of scientific research at Brown and Williamson, America's third-largest tobacco company. In 1995, he did an interview with CBS's 60 Minutes, accusing his former employers of lying about the addictiveness of nicotine. His story was later immortalized in the movie, "The Insider."

While acknowledging that Canada has made inroads in recent years to lower smoking rates in the country, he said a lot more can be done.

Wigand pointed to the continued use by tobacco companies of words on cigarette packages such as "light" and "mild," which he said are entirely misleading. "It's such a crock of b.s.," said Wigand. "Light cigarettes leave even more tar because you're sucking more intensely."

He said the machine used by tobacco companies to measure the amount of tar exhaled does not take human smokers into consideration. Instead of actually making the cigarettes lighter, Wigand said, tobacco producers merely puncture tiny holes into the cigarettes, causing smokers to inhale more deeply. He added it is time federal Minister of Health Anne McLellan forces tobacco companies to stop using wording suggesting they are lighter and milder on its cigarette packages.

NWT has to catch up

Wigand also turned his attention to the NWT which, at 70 per cent, has one of the highest smoking rates in the country -- all this despite federal government reports last week that say tobacco use is on the decline overall.

"You have an issue here in the Northwest Territories," said Wigand. "You have a lot to do. If the kids in Quebec, and Richmond, B.C. can do it, so can you."

It was also an emotional speech, and Wigand, a former smoker, spent the better part of it recounting the private demons he faced in taking the job with Brown and Williamson in the first place.

However, Wigand said he would do it all over again if he had to.

"I have no regrets about doing what I did because I'm not sure I would be here talking about it today," said Wigand, implying that he likely would have never become an anti-tobacco crusader had he not taken the job. Besides speaking to health professionals, he also met with some local students at the Abe Miller Centre over lunch -- Wigand is the founder of Smoke-Free Kids, Inc.

Dr. Andre Corriveau, the NWT's chief medical officer, said Wigand's profile and inside knowledge of the tobacco industry was the main reason why he was invited to speak.

"I think it's going to help us move this issue a little bit further," said Corriveau. "It's an incremental process because we are dealing with a lot of a reluctance to move forward in this area to some extent. People need to be convinced that it is a big an issue we think it is."