David Obey: “Mr. Chairman, this place is something else. I am no blue nose. If people want to make an informed decision to smoke, so…”

“Mr. Chairman, this place is something else. I am no blue nose. If people want to make an informed decision to smoke, so be it. I used to smoke three packs of cigarettes a day. At the same time, I worked with asbestos. Johns Manville Corporation knew since 1939 that asbestos caused cancer, but I did not when I was working with it, because they hid it from consumers and from the Government itself. I also did not know, but Johns Manville did, and I believe the tobacco companies did too, that there was a synergistic effect between asbestos and tobacco, and when one is exposed to both, one's chances of getting cancer increased at a geometric rate. So very frankly, since those days I have been waiting for the shoe to drop. We have the same situation with the tobacco company executives that we had with the asbestos company executives. Both of them lied through their teeth for years. When the gentleman from California's (Mr. Waxman) subcommittee was holding the hearings, we all remember the famous seven tobacco company presidents standing up and swearing to tell the truth, and then proceeding to tell the committee that no, no, no, they did not believe that tobacco caused cancer. Well, they had in their files information that demonstrated that they certainly knew it did. So we have listened to their bull gravy for 50 years. Now we have a question as to whether or not we are going to do anything about it or not.”