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"This project lifts the tobacco industry's veil of secrecy so that everyone can know the origins of today's epidemic of teenage smoking and the history of our national addiction to tobacco," President Clinton said. "These important documents tell in the industry's own words the extent to which vital public health information has been systematically concealed from the public."

"There is no better time to launch this historic database than today, the annual observance of the Great American Smokeout," Secretary Shalala said. "I hope that all Americans will take advantage of this user-friendly Web site to find out firsthand what the tobacco companies have known all along about the danger of tobacco products. I also want to join the American Cancer Society in sending a simple message today. If you do smoke, quit. If you don't smoke, don't start."

This new Web site will allow users, for the first time, to conduct full-text searches of key documents made public by state lawsuits, congressional subpoenas, and the November 1998 master settlement agreement between the states and tobacco companies. This Web site, developed, coordinated, and housed by HHS's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), can be found at www.cdc.gov/tobacco. It is CDC's largest fully searchable database of electronic documents ever and the only place where the entire index of documents housed at the Minnesota Tobacco Document Depository is merged and available online in a searchable format.

Secretary Shalala also announced the results of a new CDC study showing that the prevalence of cigarette smoking among adults in all 50 states and the District of Columbia in 1998 remained virtually unchanged from 1996. The study underscores the addictiveness of tobacco use but also highlights gains that are possible at the state level. The study reported that state-specific smoking rates ranged from a high of 31 percent in Kentucky to a low of 14 percent in Utah.

The Tobacco Industry Documents Web site is the result of more than a year of work by CDC and other government agencies in response to the president's request that HHS coordinate a public health review of tobacco industry documents and develop a plan to make the documents more accessible to researchers and the public.

There are four major parts of the Tobacco Industry Documents Web site:

1. Citations of about four million tobacco industry documents, representing about 27 million pages, which make up what is called the 4B Index. Until now, the 4B Index could only be searched separately by company at the Minnesota Tobacco Document Depository, where the documents are now housed, or on each company's Web site. Users may also submit requests either online or by fax to be sent hard copies of requested documents.
2. A database for a full-text searchable Minnesota Select Set with about 350,000 pages of viewable documents that were "selected" by Minnesota lawyers as key to the state's trial.
3. A similar full-text searchable database for nearly 7,000 selected British American Tobacco Company documents stored in Guildford, England.
4. Links to 11 tobacco-related sites that have tobacco documents online.

"This Web site is a treasure trove of information for many different audiences," said CDC director Jeffrey Koplan, M.D. "The general public can research the health consequences of tobacco use. Public health workers can study industry marketing strategies to help design more effective counter-advertising campaigns. And scientists can get a better understanding of the nature and processes of nicotine addiction and the effects of certain tobacco product designs and ingredients."

Koplan said CDC plans to continue to augment the Web site by adding sets of tobacco industry documents as they become available-for example, the Select Set from the State of Washington's tobacco trial, smokeless tobacco documents from United States Tobacco Company, and documents produced in future civil actions involving smoking and health cases, as required of the industry in the 1998 master settlement agreement. CDC also will continue to enhance the quality of the documents now online and to improve the document searching and viewing tools based on user feedback.

In addition, HHS's National Cancer Institute plans to fund research on a wide variety of scientific, technical, marketing, and tactical activities by the tobacco industry as recorded in the industry documents. Topics to be analyzed include, among others: nicotine pharmacology, nicotine addiction, health consequences of tobacco use, tobacco product additives, tobacco product design and manufacturing, advertising and promotion, youth initiation, tobacco use cessation, disruption of scientific and public health programs, and policy research. This new information will improve public understanding of tobacco industry practices and tobacco use behavior and will guide health professionals in the development of new programs to reduce tobacco use.

Audio of Secretary Shalala discussing the new CDC Tobacco Industry Documents Web site and the Great American Smokeout are available on the HHS Radio Line at 1-800-621-2984. These audio clips are also available on the Internet at: www.hhs.gov/news/press/1999pres/website.wav and www.hhs.gov/news/press/1999pres/smokeout.wav

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RADIO STATIONS NOTE: An actuality of Secretary Shalala's remarks on the CDC Tobacco Industry Documents Web site is available on the HHS Radio Line at 1-800-621-2984 or by clicking here (www.hhs.gov/news/press/1999pres/website.wav). An actuality of Secretary Shalala's remarks on the Great American Smokeout is available by clicking here (www.hhs.gov/news/press/1999pres/smokeout.wav").