|
|
 |
| Jul 29, 2010 - 06:41 PM |
Queen City News - Helena's FREE Weekly Newspaper |
Helena, Montana |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dr. Victor DeNoble laughed in delight Monday afternoon as a health class of C.R. Anderson 7th graders took out camera phones to photograph the monkey brain he was holding.
DeNoble, a former research scientist for tobacco giant Philip Morris, used two different samples to show the effects of nicotine on the brain. He is known as the first whistleblower of the tobacco industry and was in Helena to speak at the Montana Tobacco Use Prevention Program’s annual conference at the Great Northern Best Western Hotel.
His harrowing tale of corporate coverups and bullying fascinated his adolescent audience. The beginning of the story has DeNoble in a secret laboratory in Virginia funded by Philip Morris from 1980 to 1984. The original purpose for his research was to find a new chemical to put in cigarettes that would be healthier for the human heart.
However, DeNoble used his laboratory to study the effects of nicotine on the brain and central nervous system. They first tested the brains of rats, then of a monkey and, finally, the brain of a human.
At this point in the lecture, two brains were produced for the students to see. There were twitters of excitement as he walked around, showing them up close. One belonged to a monkey addicted to nicotine; the other belonged to a man who died of cancer. Both brains were physically changed due to nicotine use. According to DeNoble, the tobacco company constantly told him to ignore the brain research and focus on the heart.
Eventually the lab staff came up with a solution for the heart problems that accompanied smoking, he said. They developed a cigarette that contained a newly created chemical and filter system that would decrease cancerous toxins by 80 percent and be healthier for the cardiac system.
This cigarette was never released. DeNoble said that he was taken into the corporate offices and told his new design would not be for sale. The company would be vulnerable to lawsuits if a safer cigarette was on the market and would lose money on their other brands, he was told. DeNoble was then given a copy of the secrecy agreement he had signed at the beginning of his employment and fired.
He said he was able to retain some of the pictures from the laboratory and managed to work his way around the secrecy agreement to tell the truth about cigarettes. In 1994, a judge ordered him to answer questions under oath and, in the same year, Congress released him from his secrecy contract. His testimony against the company resulted in expensive repercussions and investigations into the tobacco industry.
His story certainly caught the attention of young Montanans on Monday. DeNoble pointed out that the average age people begin smoking is 12 and, if they start that early, they will most likely smoke for the next 42 years. He told them that it is not only a health risk but will cost anywhere from $75,000 to $150,000.
“If you make it to 18 without trying cigarettes, you have an 80-percent chance of never smoking. If you make it to 21, there’s a 95-percent chance you will never smoke,” he said.
At the end of his presentation, DeNoble told the 7th graders to go to college and stay educated. Along with not smoking, he said attending college is one of the best ways to take care of yourself.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Queen City News is published every Wednesday in Helena, MT, by Mossback Media, LLC.
Contents are copyrighted and cannot be used in any form without prior permission from the QCN.
Copyright © Queen City News, 2002
Logo by Internet Navigating
Design and development by Pure Development
Best discount software.
|
|
|
