Overview

Victor DeNoble is an American behavioral pharmacologist who worked as a research scientist at Philip Morris in the early 1980s. He was hired to study the addictive properties of nicotine and to develop a safer alternative to nicotine for cigarettes. DeNoble and his colleague Paul Mele conducted groundbreaking research demonstrating that nicotine was powerfully addictive; rats self-administered nicotine in a manner identical to cocaine and heroin; proving for the first time through industry-funded research what the tobacco companies had long denied publicly. When Philip Morris executives realized the implications of DeNoble's findings (which confirmed nicotine was addictive and undermined the industry's public position); they shut down his laboratory in 1984; fired him; forced the retraction of his peer-reviewed paper from the journal Psychopharmacology; and required him to sign confidentiality agreements. DeNoble later became a key whistleblower; testifying before Congress in 1994 alongside other former tobacco scientists. His testimony provided critical evidence that tobacco companies knew cigarettes were addictive and deliberately suppressed scientific evidence proving it; contributing to the massive 1998 Master Settlement Agreement worth $206 billion.

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Sources & Documentation

2 documented sources from official records, investigations, and reports