ArticleTobacco control2019
Tobacco company strategies to identify and promote the benefits of nicotine.
Article in Tobacco control, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- What Are the Effective Components of Group-Based Treatment Programs For Smoking Cessation? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2023Pooled it
- 'Here is my stack': complementary promotion of nicotine and 'productivity' pouches on social media.Tobacco control · 2026Article
- Point-of-sale, court-ordered, cigarette-related corrective statements: population prevalence of exposure and reactions.Tobacco control · 2026Article
- Utilisation of waterpipe tobacco imagery in cigarette advertising: a case study of American tobacco company and RJ Reynolds tobacco company.Tobacco control · 2025Article
- Pharmaceuticalisation as the tobacco industry's endgame.BMJ global health · 2024Article
- Influence of Disclosed and Undisclosed Funding Sources in Tobacco Harm Reduction Discourse: A Social Network Analysis.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2023Review
- Tobacco industry messaging around harm: Narrative framing in PMI and BAT press releases and annual reports 2011 to 2021.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- The importance of psychology for shaping legal cannabis regulation.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2021Review
- In defense of sugar: a critical analysis of rhetorical strategies used in The Sugar Association's award-winning 1976 public relations campaign.BMC public health · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIn response to a changing regulatory and consumer landscape, tobacco companies developed new strategies to promote cigarettes and smoking. We examined one of these strategies: to fund and conduct scientific research related to potential benefits of nicotine, and to use their findings to promote nicotine.
methodsQualitative analysis of previously secret tobacco industry documents from the Truth (formerly Legacy) Tobacco Documents Library (industrydocuments.library.ucsf.edu/tobacco), triangulated with data from other sources, including the online search engine Google, from the 1970s to December 2017.
resultsAfter publication of the 1988 Surgeon General's report on nicotine addiction, tobacco companies (particularly RJ Reynolds) intensified efforts to promote the benefits of nicotine while downplaying its addictiveness and health risks. Activities included building relationships with academic institutions and funding scientific studies of the benefits of nicotine on cognition and other performance areas through intramural and extramural programmes. Companies then promoted their research findings through public relations campaigns, often minimising nicotine's health risks by comparing it to caffeine or coffee. These comparisons appeared in highly publicised scientific meetings and interviews with the press. Nicotine-positive messages reappeared in the popular press and on some company websites in the 2010s.
conclusionsTobacco companies implemented strategies to promote benefits of nicotine to scientific and general audiences while minimising its health risks. These strategies reappeared at the time novel tobacco products like electronic cigarettes were introduced. A greater awareness of the source of claims related to purported benefits of nicotine could inform discussions about emerging tobacco products.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.