Stark words, compelling stories, commanding data — scientist Victor DeNoble is a just-the-facts kind of guy.
Sharing his insider view of the tobacco industry from the perspective of a former researcher, DeNoble is in Traverse City for the week to rip the lid off of closely guarded secrets and widespread misconceptions about nicotine addiction. Speaking at more than a dozen area schools, two public meetings and a medical conference, DeNoble estimates he will reach 5,000 people with this information. His visit is made possible in part by the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation.
Hired nearly three decades ago by Philip Morris Inc. to develop a safer cigarette that did not elevate heart rates, DeNoble wound up fired and afraid for his life after his groundbreaking research documented the addictive properties of nicotine. In addition, an actual safer cigarette he and a partner developed was quashed by the company due to fears of lawsuits fueled by charges that they lied for decades about cigarettes being harmless.
"Nicotine goes to an area of our brain that controls happiness,” noted DeNoble, who is also an expert on drug addiction and broke ground with his research documenting lasting brain changes due to nicotine. "When a person quits smoking or even doing drugs, your brain can go back to normal, but it can take five to ten years.”
In 1994, ten years after he was fired and the company's secret lab closed, he provided crucial testimony in the federal investigation of tobacco companies. Since then, DeNoble travels throughout the United States to present his research and experiences with Big Tobacco, which rakes in a billion dollars a day worldwide. He estimated that he has reached a half million people in the past dozen years. He previously visited the area in May, where he spoke to both students and adults.
Robert Peters, principal of Blair Elementary School, which hosted a public forum Tuesday evening featuring DeNoble, said the scientist's message is relevant to children as young as upper elementary school students. A second public talk will be held Thursday evening at the Grand Traverse Resort.
"He did a very powerful presentation and it did leave an impression on me,” said Peters. "I think that when we see in the media right now that Traverse City is entertaining a no smoking ban within the city limits, when people comment that they don't think it is a very good idea, there's mixed messages.”
"I remember a little girl last year at our student presentation who said, 'My mom smokes and I don't like it,'” Peters added. "He said, 'Your mom is a good person, it's not her fault.' I couldn't have thought of a better way of responding to her.”
A passionate and riveting speaker, DeNoble welcomes the chance to talk to youth, especially given that the average age of beginning smoking is 12. He points to a 10-year study by Kaiser Permanente, with whom he has worked in California for 11 years, where the schools he has visited have a 15-20 percent lower smoking rate than schools he has not visited. He also cites statistics that if a person makes it to 18 years old they have an 80 percent chance of never smoking. If they make it to 21, that percentage raises to 95.
"The tobacco industry knows these numbers,” he said.
"My mission is not to tell kids what to do, my mission is to give them information,” DeNoble noted. "The biggest comment I've heard from high school students is that, 'You're the first person who's ever told me without telling me what to do.'”
The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians is sponsoring a talk by DeNoble for the public on Thursday evening from 6:30 until 8 p.m. at the Grand Traverse Resort in Acme. There is no charge to attend and a reception will follow.