Editorials/The Borking of Carol Iannone/Mouthwash Madness
Tyrrell, R Emmett Jr.
MOUTHWASH MADNESS S pring is with us! But so are The Mournful—The Ever Mournful. No sooner are we visited by the first balmy gusts from the season of amour than word leaks from the National Cancer...
...A demented rock musician can sing forth any twisted lyric that comes to mind with the full force of the First Amendment on his side...
...There are new accusations that tobacco companies are misleading the public about the dangers of smoking by implying that they've come up with safer cigarettes," Dan Rather declaimed in introducing an April 9 "Evening News" report on protests against Philip Morris's new line of low-nicotine cigarettes...
...It is ironic that, even as American longevity increases, the number of products marked for extinction by the zealots also increases...
...American industry lives in fear of the 8 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY 1991 zealots and the many trial lawyers who prosper from the zealots' industry...
...Think of the howls that have attended the tobacco industry's attempts to market low-nicotine cigarettes...
...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY 1991 9...
...Think of the stress that will afflict them before canoodling if they have to worry about the carcinogenic qualities of their breath-sweetener of choice...
...The apple industry went belly up and Mar went the way of cyclamates—though Mar was shown to be harmless...
...Foul breath will impede young love, for our country abounds with the hypochondriacs, the pessimists, and the mournful...
...Actually, the tobacco industry has not claimed that low-nicotine cigarettes are safer than standard cigarettes—only that they are lower in nicotine, which means they are less likely to be addictive...
...Like all American industrialists, the Mouthwash Moguls would rather not find themselves targeted by reforming zealots...
...There are increasing numbers of these glassy-eyed idealists, all devoted to stirring up controversy where once there was only, well, mouthwash, or food sweetener or . . . Alar...
...That chemical rendered apples redder and more beauteous to the eye until February 26, 1989, when Mr...
...Actually, the National Cancer Institute admits that it has not "firmly established" an increased risk of cancer attendant with mouthwash...
...Kaboom...
...In journalism, we call this a chilling effect...
...Remember Mar...
...Research staffs are doubtless already at work developing mouthwash that is politically correct and—who knows ?—perhaps respectful of the rights of bacteria and halitosis...
...Yet a company with a new product to boom has to fear endless litigation if some crank complains...
...it retards industry, and could retard research into a safer cigarette...
...The consequence of this censorship will be not a healthier society but a more boring one...
...In fact, there is a movement afoot today, here and in Europe, to ban from media advertisements for a whole range of products, from pharmaceuticals to booze and tobacco, and now perhaps mouthwash...
...What is more, it acknowledges that "it is premature to make recommendations about using mouthwash...
...Ed Bradley described it on "Sixty Minutes" as the "most potent cancer-causing agent in our food supply...
...That would be all to the good, but anti-tobacco groups want to keep these cigarettes off the market on the illogical grounds that a cigarette that is less addictive will be smoked more frequently...
...Yet the damage has been done...
...What will young lovers do without mouthwash...
...This flap too began on CBS...
...And can you imagine industry being afraid to advertise new products for fear of prosecution...
...Can you imagine twenty years ago greeting low-nicotine or low-tar cigarettes with protests...
...Both groups make it difficult not only to market products but also to improve them...
...No sooner are we visited by the first balmy gusts from the season of amour than word leaks from the National Cancer Institute that mouthwash increases the risk of throat and mouth cancer...
...Then too, you can be sure that mouthwash moguls all around the republic are going to be contacting their lawyers...
...Surely, this stress cannot be salubrious...
...The zealots could sue for access to such research data and use them against the companies...
...But the zealots' influence could prove even more pernicious...
...In researching a less addictive, lower-tar cigarette, tobacco researchers might be producing data that reveal the standard cigarette to be hazardous...
...Can you imagine researchers apprehensive about improving their products for fear that, in so doing, they would be encouraging trial lawyers to sue them for their earlier products...
Vol. 24 • July 1991 • No. 7
