
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, November 30, 1995                   TAG: 9511300079
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: PASCAGOULA, MISS.                                LENGTH: Short

TOBACCO INFORMANT QUESTIONED

A tobacco industry whistle-blower who is said to have ``devastating'' inside information fielded questions Wednesday from lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department and the state, despite his former employer's effort to silence him.

Government sources in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Jeffrey Wigand met in private for several hours with lawyers from the Justice Department's antitrust division for an investigation into whether tobacco companies conspired to suppress development of safer, self-extinguishing cigarettes.

Wigand, who was fired in 1993 as vice president of research at Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., also submitted to questioning by the Mississippi attorney general's office, which is suing 13 tobacco companies for reimbursement of millions of taxpayer dollars spent treating poor people with smoking-related illnesses.

Brown & Williamson, based in Louisville, Ky., sued Wigand last week, saying he had violated an agreement binding him not to divulge ``competitively sensitive'' information when he talked to ``60 Minutes.'' CBS killed the broadcast of the interview, citing legal concerns.

Wigand reportedly told ``60 Minutes'' that Brown & Williamson scrapped plans to make a safer cigarette and continued to use a flavoring in pipe tobacco that was known to cause cancer in laboratory animals.

- Associated Press

by CNB