All he has to do is look at their faces.
They are one of the few constants in his life now, the faces of young people who sit in school classrooms and listen patiently while he tells his story. They are mostly in kindergarten through eighth grade, unaware and underexposed to the issues he shares with them.
Talking to them is his passion. For Dr. Jeffrey Wigand, a former tobacco scientist, each face represents a life he is trying to save.
“The tobacco industry addicts 3,000 kids a day,” Wigand said. “(It) kills over 430,000 Americans each year and over 4 million people throughout the world. They have done it through deception and intentionally targeting children before they are in a position to make an informed decision.”
Wigand used to work for the tobacco industry. For almost five years, he was the vice president for Research and Development at the Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company.
Today, he spends most of his time warning school-age children about the dangers of tobacco.
“I view this as our duty to our children: to afford them a healthier and better life without tobacco’s addiction and horrific health statistics,” Wigand said.
A study released March 7 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention echoed notions similar to Wigand’s.
According to the report, most stores where teenagers shop carry tobacco advertisements, and tobacco companies are spending roughly $8 billion a year on advertising geared, in large part, towards teens. That’s the message that Matthew Sones, a health care specialist with the CDC, wishes more people like Wigand would communicate.
“In 92 percent of the stores we looked at, there was some form of tobacco advertising going on,” said Sones. “Our findings show that there is an aggressive marketing campaign going on out there to encourage teens to smoke.”
According to Sones, what is all the more frustrating is that research indicates that most teens start smoking at an early age.
“The money that tobacco companies spend on advertising creates a huge challenge for public health officials,” said Sones. “It forces us to come up with aggressive counter-measures to help bring the message to people that tobacco is a dangerous product.”
Wigand has been bringing that message to anyone who will listen for almost 10 years.
“Tobacco companies continue to addict and intimidate as they have in the past,” said Wigand. “This is the essence of what I learned while working for the world’s second-largest tobacco company, with their total disregard for public health and safety.”
After working as a tobacco researcher for five years, Wigand came to realize that tobacco companies have, as he puts it, a “financial stake in addicting people,” and he reached his breaking point.
He had never planned on risking everything to single-handedly take on the tobacco industry.
But in the spring of 1993, that’s exactly what he did, and the story of this part of his life has been turned into a motion picture.
Russell Crowe played the soft-spoken doctor in the motion-picture version of Wigand’s whistle-blowing actions, called “The Insider.”
“I am satisfied with the movie and how it turned out,” said Wigand. “It is a remarkable piece of artistic work of immense social relevance.”
The movie, directed by Michael Mann, followed the course of Wigand’s life when he fought the tobacco industry and became the victim of a smear campaign because of it.
“There are sequences in time that were altered for dramatic effect in the movie,” said Wigand. “But the bullet in my mail box was real, the death threats were real and the smear campaign was real.”
For Wigand, the movie represented only a bittersweet victory. Among other difficulties he faced, he and his wife separated as a result of his struggle.
“If the marriage was strong enough, it would have survived the test and become stronger,” he said. “It wasn’t strong enough. She remarried shortly after the divorce was completed and moved to Texas.” Today, Wigand uses his experiences to reach children, to warn them about the dangers of tobacco before they come in contact with it.
He remains optimistic about the future of his work.
“Stand up and be counted,” he said. “Everyone is capable of making a difference.”
Some people call him a hero. Wigand likes to think of himself as a teacher.
“There was no great alignment of the stars that made it all possible,” he said. “The enormous support from so many people made it happen, as well as the risks many took for believing in me.”
His greatest accomplishment, he said, is the difference he makes in the lives of young people.
“I have no regrets and would certainly do it all over again,” he said. “It made a difference in me, and in the process may have saved one life. That is enough.”
