Dr. Jeffrey Wigand is one of the most famous whistle blower’s in the United States. His testimony against the Brown and Williams Tobacco Corporation (B&W) revealed unethical tactics used to delude the American public against the cancer causing additives and the addictiveness of nicotine in tobacco. Wigand was born on December 17, 1942 in New York City. He was one of five children in a strongly devout Catholic family. His early childhood was spent in the Bronx and when he was a teenager he moved to Pleasant Valley, New York. His parents were strict disciplinarians who gave little affection to their children. Little is known about his mother but his father was a mechanical engineer. Wigand had aspirations of becoming a doctor and worked part time as a scrub nurse at a local hospital. In 1960 he attended the Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie where he excelled in chemistry and biology and was an avid cross-country runner.
In 1961 he dropped out of college and joined the Air Force. Wigand’s first duty station was a United States military base in Misawa, Japan. He was there for 2 years and ran an operating room. During his spare time he taught English in exchange for learning Japanese and studied the martial art of judo ultimately becoming a black belt. Although he served a tour in Vietnam during 1963, the war hadn’t really started yet and so was not involved with any conflict. Finishing his enlistment of 4 years in the military, he returned home and enrolled in the State University of New York to resume his studies. While attending a judo class he met his first wife Linda, fell in love and married in 1971. His education included a B.A. in Chemistry, an M.A. in biochemistry and culminated with a Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1973.
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...ince the happiness applies to millions of people and only the few people in the tobacco industry who tried to cover up the lies would be unhappy, I would say it is a morally right action. In fact, if there were to be an argument against him it would only be that he was disloyal to B&W. Wigand risked everything but stayed true to his moral compass by telling the truth to the public. I believe that Wigand did the right thing and will be remembered in history for it.
"Jeffrey Wigand." 2014. The Biography.com website. May 04 2014 http://www.biography.com/people/jeffrey-wigand-17176428.
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/wigand-60-minutes-most-famous-whistleblower/
Works Cited
"Jeffrey Wigand." 2014. The Biography.com website. May 04 2014 http://www.biography.com/people/jeffrey-wigand-17176428.
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/wigand-60-minutes-most-famous-whistleblower/
After graduation, he went to work for a blast furnace unit at a Ford Motor Company’ Rouge Plant. After working at Ford for five years Randall took a job with the United States Post Office as a clerk and letter carrier. In July of 1943, he was enlisted into the U.S. Army Air Corps, and served during World War II. After returning from the war, he went back to work to the post office. In 1949,while working in the post office he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in English and his Master’s degree in Library scien...
In 1948, he was released and then he joined the Air Force. Even in the military he managed to cause trouble. He was sent to the military prison for assault many times. He also got arrested in 1950 for being absent without leave. Believe it or not, he still got an honorable discharge four years after he had joined the service. After he was released from the Air Force, he went back home to Massachusetts.
He served in WWII as a flight radar observer and navigator. After serving in the army he went to school at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. He went there on the G. I. Bill. After graduating from Vanderbilt with a M. A. in English, he started to teach. He taught first at the Rice Institute in Houston, Texas. His time there was cut short because he was recalled to duty in Korea as flight training instructor. But as soon as he was discharged from the Corps he returned to teach again at Rice University. He taught at Rice until 1954 when he left to go to Europe on the Sewanee Review fellowship. After returning to the U.S. he joined the English Department at the University of Florida. He did not stay there long because he resigned after a dispute after he h...
After the war, he returned to Tuskegee and completed his degree in Commercial Industries and Tailoring and graduated Cum ...
Attended Oregon State University 1946 – 1950 and received a BS. Degree. Taught High School Science for eight months at Benson High School before being recalled to active duty for the Korean War on 1 April 1951. Assigned 816th TCS and flew C-119s out of Ashiya, Japan in support of the Korean War. Promoted to Captain 1 June 1952.
To his luck, he arrived to the United States at the time cigarette smoking peaked at a high. All of his co-workers smoked constantly throughout the day. On the other hand, Samuel, keeping with his traditional beliefs on smoking, did not smoke cigarettes. During Samuel’s first week of work, his acquaintances constantly greeted him and offered tons of cigarettes but he took none. Eventually, all offers came to a halt and he earned the reputation of as an outcast in the office for not smoking. Although done unintentionally through his conservativeness and keeping with his traditional views, my uncle let himself become the social outcast in the
Stephen King’s short story "Quitters, Inc." involves a smoker trying to kick the habit, and getting results no matter the means. Dick Morrison meets Jimmy McCann, an old friend, in the bar of the Kennedy International airport. McCann has stopped smoking, gained a promotion, and become physically fir since the last time they met. He tells Morrison about an agency that helped him quit smoking and gave him a business card for Quitters, Inc., which Morrison just put in his wallet. A month later he sees the card fall out of his wallet and decides to go see them. Upon going to Quitters, Inc., Morrison meets Vic Donatti, the man in charge of his case. Morrison signs a contract saying that he won’t reveal anything they do in the course of his treatment. Donatti tells Morrison that he will never smoke again after that day. When he goes back for his next appointment, Donatti starts by punching the cigarettes Morrison had on him whilst still smiling. Donatti then reveals how much they know about their clients by referencing Morrison’s handicapped son who he told them nothing about. Donatti tells him that he is a pragmatist, or someone who is oriented towards the success or failure of something through practical means. Donatti shows Morrison that a rabbit can be taught that eating food will cause an electric shock to occur and therefore after enough aversion training the rabbit will starve itself to avoid the shock. Donatti then explains the various ways they discipline their clients for slipping up, the tenth and last being death. They guarantee you won’t ever smoke again. After a series of non-smoking, Morrison slips up, his wife is kidnapped, and he is called in to watch her get electrocuted for thirty seconds. Afterwards she tells him that she understands what they are trying to do. After months of not smoking Morrison gains weight and Donatti says that if he can’t lose it they will cut off his wife’s pinky finger. After that Morrison passes on the Quitters, Inc business card to a man known only as Crony, and tells him they changed his life. Years later Morrison and his wife meet McCann and his wife at a theatre. When he shakes the hand of McCann’s wife he notices something is wrong. Later the realization hits him that she only had four fingers; her pinky was missing.
He was then drafted into the U.S. Army where he was refused admission to the Officer Candidate School. He fought this until he was finally accepted and graduated as a first lieutenant. He was in the Army from 1941 until 1944 and was stationed in Kansas and Fort Hood, Texas. While stationed in Kansas he worked with a boxer named Joe Louis in order to fight unfair treatment towards African-Americans in the military and when training in Fort Hood, Texas he refused to go to the back of the public bus and was court-martialed for insubordination. Because of this he never made it to Europe with his unit and in 1944 he received an honorable discharge.
After that he went into the Air Force academy and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree and advanced into a flight leader and training officer which then he got the ranking of a captain. During his duty he was stationed in North America and Europe. Shorty after serving in the air force he went to become an air pilot with Pacific Southline Airlines. Later on he transferred to US airways and stayed with them until he retired from commercial flying in early 2010.
His college years took place during the height of the Vietnam War, which he personally supported. Subsequently, he joined the United States Army Reserve Officer Training Corps, but unfortunately his military career was short-lived due to his poor eyesight. After graduating in 1969 with a b...
Slade, John, “The Tobacco Epidemic: Lessons from History.” University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. 1989.
Parents: Professor Robert Hornik (father) the Wilbur Schramm Professor of Communication and Health Policy at the Annenberg School for Communication, and co-director of the Penn Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science
Smoking cigarettes is a detrimental practice not only to the smoker, but also to everyone around the smoker. According to an article from the American Lung Association, “Health Effects” (n.d.), “Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., causing over 438,000 deaths per year”. The umbrella term for tobacco use includes the use of cigarettes, cigars, e-cigs and chewing tobacco. While tobacco causes adverse health consequences, it also has been a unifying factor for change in public health. While the tobacco industries targets specific populations, public health specifically targets smokers, possible smokers, and the public to influence cessation, policies and education.
The tobacco industry is a very unethical industry, due to the long term effects of tobacco on humans. The industry also does not assess the ethical and social responsibility the best way that it should. There are many factors that make the industry unethical; some of the reasons are the way the cigarette companies around the world Advertise, the way governments and cigarette companies make a huge profit from the sales of cigarettes, and the labeling health risks. I do believe however that there is something that the tobacco companies can do to better their strategy as far as their ethics go. I think that they should, always be looking for the best interest on their consumers, as well as advertise strictly on the effects that the cigarettes and what the people are getting for their money.
that never aired. The plot puts Dr. Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe) at odds with Brown & Williamson, the third largest tobacco companies in the country. Wigand was fired from his position as Vice President of Research and Development, at which he was instructed to hide information related to the addictive nature of nicotine. The plot takes off when Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino), producer for 60 Minutes, discovers that Wigand has a story to tell. The best way for Wigand to tell that story is with the help of Bergman, via an interview aired on 60 Minutes. However, tobacco companies have a history of viciously defending their profits, by whatever means necessary, and Brown & Williamson does just that. The story hits a climax as the interests and incentives of the television station CBS, 60 Minutes, Dr. Wigand and Brown & Williamson are played out.