© World Health Organization 2002

This publication tells the story of how a powerful industry was forced by US courts to reveal its innermost secret documents, documents that explain what nine tobacco companies knew, when they knew it and what they concealed from the public about their dangerous product. It also summarizes the major findings in the documents discovered during the Minnesota trial and demonstrates, how anyone can readily research the documents from several websites and the continuing value of these documents to journalists, public health workers, government officials and ordinary citizens.