An estimated 27 million pages of tobacco industry documents are now available through the Web site of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov/tobacco/industrydocs/). It provides access to documents released as part of Minnesota's tobacco litigation and settlement with the tobacco industry. In fact, it is the only site containing the complete index of documents housed at the Minnesota Tobacco Document Depository - the largest public cache of tobacco-industry documents in the world. It also includes documents related to the Master Settlement Agreement reached by 46 states and the tobacco industry in November 1998, as well as some 7000 items comprising the Guildford-British American Tobacco documents. It also contains links to industry Web sites operated by tobacco companies, lobby groups and other bodies. FIGURE
![Figure](https://www.cmaj.ca/content/cmaj/162/4/548.2/F1.medium.gif)
Figure.
The mammoth site was launched after US President Bill Clinton issued an executive memorandum in July 1998 asking that the "veil of secrecy" surrounding the tobacco industry be lifted. His aim was to increase access to important documents and enhance understanding of the health consequences of smoking.