This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation.

James David Mold was with the Liggett Tobacco Company, and was Assistant Research Director in the L&M (Liggett & Myers) Tobacco Division. He went to work as a scientist for Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co. in 1955. Dr. Mold was Head of Liggett & Meyers Organic Chemical Research. Mold had knowledge of the health hazards of tobacco products and the suppression of research and development by the tobacco industry.(PMI's Introduction to Privilege Log and Glossary of Names, Estate of Burl Butler v. PMI, et al, April 19, 1996)(ABC Primetime Live 02/25/93)

Biography

Dr. James D. Mold began his career as a scientist for Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co., (L&M) 300 North Duke Street in Durham, North Carolina, 27702 in 1955. He served as Assistant Research Director for L&M, INc. until 1979. He was assigned to identify the ingredients in cigarette smoke that caused cancer in lab mice. Liggett scientists found what materials were present in cigarette smoke that were causing the cancers on mice skin, and embarked on a project to remove or minimize them.(MNAT007267450) (N.M., L & M Liability Notebook, Section 3, Personnel List)

Project XA

Mold concluded that cigarette smoking contributed to lung cancer in human beings, and for 25 years worked on a project at Liggett to develop a safer cigarette (Project XA).

The company Executives gave Mold the "go ahead" to see if a safer cigarette could be developed. Dr. Mold spent 25 years working with the A.D. Little Company on developing a different cigarette, specially treated with palladium as a catalyst, that caused no cancer in lab animals. By the mid to late 1970s, he had developed a cigarette (called the XA, or palladium cigarette) that tests had showed had a reduced tendency to cause cancers.

When the XA cigarette was finally ready for commercial production and marketing in 1978, company lawyers stepped in and scuttled the project. The legal department was afraid that putting out such a "safer" cigarette would hurt their courtroom defenses.(ABC Primetime Live 2/25/93) Mold has admitted that Council for Tobacco Research's research efforts were not directed towards resolving the smoking and health issues and that Liggett Executives did not permit him to publish information about the Liggett/A.D. Little mouse painting experiments her performed, which confirmed that the contents of cigarette smoke caused cancer.(Allman complaint, p. 49).

Scientists and consultants for Liggett Group Inc. poured more than 20 years into developing a catalyst--made of palladium and magnesium nitrate--that purportedly destroyed cancer-causing compounds in cigarette smoke, according to testimony in a New Jersey wrongful-death case [Cipollone? Haines?].(L.A. Times 7/19/94). Project TAME, or the XA cigarette, as it was known inside the company, was abandoned about 1979 because of litigation fears, according to testimony [in Cipollone] by Liggett's former assistant research director, James D. Mold (LAT 7/19/94). According to Mold, "They felt that such a cigarette, if put on the market, would seriously indict them for having sold other types of cigarettes." In a deposition, Mold said that he was forbidden by Liggett to publish his research on the subject.(LAT 7/19/94). See Thomas Mold Dr., TTLA Almanac - Names. See Personnel List Part 1: Presumed -Pro-Plaintiff, also TTLA Almanac - Names.

Dr. Mold died 2002.

Related SourceWatch resources

External resources

News and Record Crafting a Safer Smoke Publication. September 27, 1992. Bates No. 202318041/8043.

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