Customer Reviews

A Question Of Intent: A Great American Battle With A Deadly Industry

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It's funny that when I purchased this book, I never really suspected that it would be quite the page-turner that it is. In this book, David Kessler (former head of the FDA) speaks first of his agency's enlightenment that it COULD and SHOULD fight Big Tobacco and then of the fight itself. This is gripping and compelling a story that public policy has to offer: it's hard to remember that ten years ago, the tobacco industry still held that nicotine a)was not addictive and b)did not cause cancer; this book shows how these myths were finally put to bed in the public sphere. Second, this is a neat story. Kessler has much more of a knack for putting words down on a page than one would expect for a medical doctor (perhaps his wife, whom he declares was a fan of Anthony Trollope, rubbed off on him!) He puts together a story that is worthy of John Grisham; seeing that Erin Brockovich became one of the big pictures of the past twelve months, this fella might have something going for himself here....

Setting all of these aside, this book has something to offer for people interested in how the American political system works. In much the same way as books like 'Boomerang!' chronicled the downfall of the centrally-funded health care system also circa the early Clinton-era, this book deals with one of the great succeses (or a part thereof) of the same period. This is a great read and entirely worth buying in hardcover....

Please buy this book....

This is a wonderful book that should appeal to tobacco warriors and the general public alike. It reads like a novel, yet its copiously documented throughout.. It will be equally at home on your coffee table and as required reading in graduate schools of public poicy.

Whether you agree with what David Kessler did or you don't, the message here goes far beyond tobacco. At a time when there is a feeling that government no longer matters, this book shows how a small group of people,in one government agency,led by a leader who believed deeply in the law and his cause, can make a difference..

That Kessler's tobacco war ended in defeat with a 5 to 4 vote in the Supreme Court provides an eery parallell to recent events. But no one felt good about the election mess in Florida. Most Americans, liberal or concervative, will feel pretty good when they finish this book. It shows that leadership can still make a difference and that our government can still matter.

A great read, one of those books that justly deserves to be called a page-turner. If any doubt remained about the character of the tobacco industry and the damage it inflicts, A Question of Intent lays it to rest. Funding volunteer firefighters who then make public statements downplaying the risk of cigarettes as a source of fire? Adding chocolate to tobacco because when burned it gives off a chemical that may make it easier to inhale? Identifying Islamic religious leaders who oppose an interpretation of the Qur'an that would lead to a ban on tobacco use? Who knew?

But this is no predictable polemic, far from it. It's more like a detective story, with shrouded informants, driven investigators, and the pursuit of long-shot leads and buried clues. David Kessler comes across as agile, self-effacing, and very smart, with a surprisingly ironic sense of humor. A Question of Intent is about more than tobacco. It is also about the education of a political neophyte and an insider's look at Washington -- that messy, unseemly place where someone with vision, commitment and wiles can still make a difference.

I've always been a little suspicious of the anti-tobacco crowd -- it seemed a bit Puritanical, a bit holier-than-thou -- so I admit to approaching A Question of Intent with a chip on my shoulder. By the time I had raced through this book -- which literally kept me reading through the night -- my view had changed dramatically. Like many Americans, I had bought into the myths created by the tobacco industry to protect its own vast profits. My perspective had been almost painfully naïve. There's nothing inherently glamorous about holding a smoking stick, but the industry's aggressive and long-lasting public relations campaigns have somehow convinced us that there is. The argument that people smoke of their own free will is unsupportable when the industry works to addict the nation's children, but we've allowed rhetoric to persuade us otherwise.

The FDA's efforts to bring this industry into line through commonsense regulations that carefully avoid the taint of Prohibition are chronicled here, with the author revealing a deft touch for detail, a strategic mind worthy of Bismarck, and no small degree of humor. And the decision by the Supreme Court to undercut Kessler's effort (the same five judges who voted to defeat the FDA's tobacco initiative also made that dead-of-night decision to cheat Al Gore of a fair election count) will surely go down in the history books as a great opportunity squandered. Rather than showing the courage to change public health forever, the Court chose to bolster the profit margins of an industrial killer. That's something we should all remember next time we go to the polls.

Wow. Who would have thought a book on the history of the FDA's handling of tobacco regulation would read like a spy novel? I grabbed this book off the new books shelf at the library, and picked it up expecting to skim through it. Kessler begins with how he was chosen to head the FDA, and introduces several of his staff including the one who started him toward taking on the tobacco industry. Then we get plenty of background including the history, marketing, and laws concerning tobacco.

With all the press on Big Tobacco, I expected them to be shown as fiendish. I've been a member of Americans for Non-Smokers Rights for 20 years, and I've read all about the Industry's dirty tricks, and I fully expected to read about them again here. What I didn't expect to find was the thoroughness in Big Tobacco attempted to discredit the FDA, and Kessler takes us through the political campaigns and counter-campaigns. He shows how Big Tobacco created fake advocacy groups on several issues, leading to their attempt to muzzle the FDA and cut off all their government funding. If you remember the '94 Contract with America and the movement against Big Government, you'll be surprised to find how Big Tobacco co-opted it to fight the FDA, one of the more admired agencies.

If you weren't already cynical about how the US government operates, this book will get you there, even with its descriptions of some of the good guys continually outmaneuvered by the bad ones. Several congress members are shown to be captives of Big Tobacco, doing their dirty work with scripts written by their lobbyists and lawyers.

And speaking of lawyers, one of the most amazing revelations to me ok is how the tobacco industry became captives of their law firms! Yes, instead of working for their clients, the law firms ended up calling all the shots, and the CEOs would read statements prepared by them. The book covers how this came to be.

If you love looking of source material, you'll be busy. Kessler leaves plenty of footnotes in this meaty book for your review. My only complaint is that the book jumps around in places, as the story moves forward or back depending on the topic being covered. But this is a small beef, as the material is so compelling. Find out not only how cigarette's nicotine content was manipulated but how the industry tried to hide this obvious fact from FDA visitors to their manufacturing facilities. Enjoy the victories and despair over the setbacks; this is a policy-wonk's book as written by a Tom Clancy wanna-be.

I do not want to repeat too much that other reviewers have said better than I can or shall.

Still, this is a very readable introduction to the politics of regulation. More important, I believe it to be an excellent civics text.

Because Big Tobacco involved and still involves public relations, advertising, lobbying, coercion, litigation, subsidization of junk science, campaign contributions, localism, and ideology, Dr. Kessler's narrative implicates each branch of government and each arena of political influence. That makes it an introduction to U. S. government.

Moreover, each branch, each locality, and every group is shown to comprise at least reasonably principled actors and utterly craven characters. This introduction to U. S. politics and government, it follows, reveals heroes to be emulated as well as villains to be excoriated. That makes it a balanced introduction to U. S. government.

This volume also features science versus pseudo-science; lofty exhortations calling on Americans to be their better selves versus crass bloviations calling on Americans to look the other way during a plague of cancer and emphysema; and proof that Bill Clinton hardly invented hair-splitting and mendacity and that the Nixon Administration did not invent the non-denial denial. That makes it a wide-ranging [but not comprehensive] introduction to U. S. government.

This is no fairy tale, however. The travail involved in getting tobacco executives to admit what everyone else knew to be true should frighten every reader about what "authorities" tell us. That scientists as well as lawyers, politicians, and lobbyists were entangled in the deceits necessary to preserve an empire that made billions from addicting citizens in the United States and abroad should give every American pause. That makes it a relaistic and cautionary introduction to U. S. government.

Review the reviews below mine: if anti-smoking crusaders are dissatisfied with their prominence in this book, but at least one free-marketeer is willing to slander Dr. Kessler as a socialist who is deeply suspicious of all business and markets [he isn't], then Kessler must have maintained at least some impartiality. Judged by its few detractors, this must be a great read. It is.

This book is 5% about other battles the FDA fought early in Kessler's tenure, and 95% about his at first reluctant, and then zealous drive to get the tobacco industry under FDA regulation.

I admittedly was anti-tobacco before I started this book, however what I didn't realise was how incredibly malicious they are. I thought that they ground up the tobacco, made cigarettes, and oops, they are addictive and cancer-causing, but they are protecting their bottom line, so they try to forget it.

How incredibly wrong and naive I was.

Kessler describes in great detail, in the style of investigative journalism, just how much the tobacco companies (focussing on B&W, RJR, and Phillip Morris, tho others are discussed) knew about their product, how early they knew it, and how they tweaked it to make it more addictive. Low tar cigarettes? Sounds great, right? Still think so, if they artificially add more nicotine to them, to make them more addictive? How about the testing on their own employees, where they spiked harmful substances, including ammonia, into cigarettes, to see how they would affect taste? Did you know that they have the technology to remove the carcinogens from cigarettes, but just don't bother to do it? How does that make you feel? Then there's the evolution of the Joe Camel character. Kessler uses this to showcase what eventually became his driving theme: that while we tend to think of smoking as an adult addiction, it's truly a pediatric disease, as virtually all smokers start before they are 18. Think the tobacco companies don't know this? In one case, a sales rep asked exactly which teenage smokers to target. The reply? "They got lips, we want 'em".

No wonder that Kessler ultimately concluded that the industry must be dismantled.

This book is an incredible read. The facts will fascinate you, and sicken you. The pace of the book starts a bit slow, as Kessler describes his initial reluctance to take on Big Tobacco. As the facts came pouring in, he ultimately stood up to them, put his job, and perhaps personal safety, on the line. He and his staff withstood ridicule, lawsuits, and defamation of character, all in the interest of protecting our public health and that of future generations.

David Kessler's book, A Question of Intent, is a gripping account of how the FDA chose to investigate the tobacco industry, ultimately exposing the industry's calculated intent to cover up the deadly and addictive nature of its product. The dedication of Kessler and his team is ingenious and inspiring. Each chapter leads the reader through a maze of investigation and discovery. The narrative is so engaging that it makes the reader want to stand up and cheer as more and more incriminating data is uncovered throught the efforts of this tireless FDA team. This is an important book that should be read by anyone concerned with public policy, the health of our people, the regulation of tobacco and the need for role models who use their courageous intelligence to make our world a more decent place.

As an avid observer of the political scene, I know how complex it is to make a difference in Washington. Balancing conflicting interests, knowing when to work through proper channels and when to find ways around them, deciding when to compromise and when to stand firm, are all parts of the game and David Kessler plays it brilliantly.

But the author of A Question of Intent also makes it clear that changing public policy is never the work of one man. Unlike some recent stories -- Erin Brockovich comes to mind -- that suggest change occurs only through the efforts of individual idealists, this fascinating and insightful books shows that accomplishment is not possible without teamwork. Kessler gives credit to many other players at the FDA and elsewhere in government, to some of the citizen activists who urged him to focus on tobacco, even to the scientists who schooled him about nicotine, addiction, genetics, and chemistry. Leadership is essential, he argues, but so are the contributions of foot soldiers and behind-the-scenes players. A Question of Intent reveals Kessler's true gift to be attracting and inspiring talent and knowing how to draw on it when the need arises. Although this is billed as a tobacco book, it is really a lesson on what -- and who -- it takes to shift paradigms and make a difference in the world.

David Kessler, former FDA Commissioner, provides a riveting account of the Food and Drug Administration's attempt to regulate tobacco in a fast reading book about his years at FDA. A Question of Intent reads more like a detective novel than a bureaucrat's memoirs. The book also provides a fascinating look at tobacco and Congressional politics. If you've ever wondered how the tobacco companies got away with so much for so long, the answer is here.

The title, A Question of Intent, refers to the legal requirement necessary for FDA to regulate cigarettes. Kessler takes us step by step through the process that led him to the decision that tobacco should be regulated by FDA. He describes interviews with confidential informants from the tobacco companies like "Deep Cough" and "Research." He also takes us to secret tobacco farms and old warehouses stuffed with archived customs records. Each chapter has something new to keep the pages turning.

Along the way Kessler answers some of the questions that many of us have asked about tobacco and provides some controversial suggestions on what to do in the future. A Question of Intent is definitely worth five stars.