Brown & Williamson knew cigarettes were addictive — and made them more so anyway

Brown & Williamson was a major US tobacco company, best known for brands like Kool and Lucky Strike. In the 1990s, it was revealed that the company had been chemically enhancing its cigarettes to increase their addictiveness. Biochemist Jeffrey Wigand, B&W's Vice President of Research and Development, revealed that the company used ammonia in a process called 'impact boosting' to enhance nicotine absorption in the lungs.

Wigand also revealed that B&W had developed a genetically modified high-nicotine tobacco strain called Y1, and that the company continued to use coumarin, a flavor enhancer he believed was a lung-specific carcinogen, in pipe tobacco. After being fired in 1993 for demanding the removal of coumarin, Wigand was forced to sign a confidentiality agreement. He broke his silence in 1996, testifying for the State of Mississippi and giving a full interview to CBS's 60 Minutes, dramatized in the 1999 film The Insider.

Wigand's revelations triggered lawsuits by 46 US states, leading to the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement of 1998 — a $368 billion settlement paid by the entire tobacco industry. B&W's reputation was destroyed. The company merged with R.J. Reynolds in 2004 to form Reynolds American, ceasing to exist as a separate entity. The case also forced the release of thousands of internal B&W documents, including evidence of $500,000 in payments to Sylvester Stallone for product placement.