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2/21/00

'INSIDER' JEFFREY WIGAND TO SPEAK AT SLU

CANTON -- Jeffrey Wigand, whose decision to go public with damning 
information about the tobacco industry was chronicled in the Academy 
Award-nominated film The Insider, will speak at St. Lawrence University 
on Thursday, March 2, at 7:30 p.m. in Gulick Theatre.
	Wigand's talk, titled "Ethical Decisions in an Unethical World," 
is open to the public, free of charge. He is the O'Loughlin Leadership 
Endowment Speaker at the University.
	The Insider, a 1999 film directed by Michael Mann, "exposes the 
power that this corporate giant has on the media," according to Wigand, 
"and the lengths it will go through to suppress the truth and cover up 
its 50 years of deceit, lies to the public and disregard for public health 
and safety." Hired by Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation to develop 
a safer cigarette, Wigand's career came to an abrupt halt in 1993, when 
he took issue with the company's policy to continue using a controversial 
pipe-tobacco additive.
	In the next two years, Wigand began to share his knowledge of 
cigarette product design with staff at the United States Food and Drug 
Administration (FDA). The information he shared with the FDA on the tobacco 
industry's use of additives in tobacco, genetically engineered tobacco and 
other aspects of cigarette design contributed to the FDA's decision to 
regulate cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products. Wigand's 
willingness to expose the truth about what the tobacco industry knew about 
the dangers of smoking made him a key witness in tobacco litigation. In 
1996, he was featured in a segment on the CBS television program "60 Minutes" 
which was originally withheld from broadcast because of threats of reprisal 
from the tobacco industry.
	In conjunction with his appearance, the film The Insider will be 
shown on campus, on Wednesday, March 1, at 7 and 9:30 p.m. in Gulick Theatre.

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