Source: British Medical Journal (UK) Contact: Sat, 23 May 1998 Author: Clare Dyer, legal correspondent, BMJ TOBACCO COMPANY SET UP NETWORK OF SYMPATHETIC SCIENTISTS The US tobacco giant Philip Morris set up a network of scientists throughout Europe who were paid to cast doubt on the risks of passive smoking and highlight other possible causes of respiratory problems, according to confidential documents from the company's law firm released on the internet. The company's consultants included "an editor" of the Lancet, an adviser to a Commons select committee, and members of working groups of the International Agency for Research in Cancer, claims a memo from the US lawyers Covington and Burling. Clues in the documents point to the Lancet contact as the late Petr Skrabanek, who was not an editor but a regular contributor who wrote editorials among other articles. Robin Fox, the Lancet's editor from 1990 to 1995, said it was "very likely" that Dr Skrabanek, who was an associate professor of community health at Trinity College, Dublin, was the scientist referred to in the memo. Under the heading "Lancet" the memo says: "One of our consultants is an editor of this very influential British medical journal, and is continuing to publish numerous reviews, editorials, and comments on environmental tobacco smoke and other issues." Dr Fox said Dr Skrabanek did not write editorials on smoking. The select committee adviser is believed to be the late Professor Roger Perry, an environmental scientist from Imperial College, London, and an expert on traffic pollution, who advised the environment committee. Clive Bates, director of the antismoking pressure group ASH (Action on Smoking and Health), said: "Philip Morris's attempt to infiltrate science is a scandal. The documents clearly show the industry inventing and orchestrating controversies by buying up scientists and creating influential outlets for tainted science." He said ASH sympathised with difficulties faced by institutions and journals like the Lancet. "No matter how strict you are about conflicts of interest, there is not much you can do if scientists conceal who they are paid by." The memo from the London office of the US law firm Covington and Burling claims that Philip Morris consultants set up a learned society, Indoor Air International--complete with scientific journal. The document is one of 39 000 which the industry was forced to disclose in a lawsuit brought by the state of Minnesota and two healthcare companies which was recently settled. The fact that the project was coordinated by lawyers meant the company could claim legal privilege for any documentation and prevent disclosure in later litigation. But the Minnesota court held that there was prima facie evidence of fraud, which overrides the privilege. The documents reveal a global campaign to influence opinion on passive smoking in the US, Europe, Australia, the Far East, and central and South America through the secret recruitment of scientists. Covington and Burling set up its London law office in 1988 to coordinate the European arm, code named "Project Whitecoat." The project strategy was outlined to British tobacco companies at a meeting in London in February 1988, attended by representatives of BAT, Imperial, and Gallaher. A report on the meeting written by a BAT representative includes a list of 18 scientists, most at British universities, who were suggested as possible consultants. A year later the learned society Indoor Air International (now the International Society of the Built Environment) was set up. Five of the seven founders were on the list, and others on the list were on the editorial board of the journal. Dr John Hoskins, current editor of the society's journal, Indoor and Built Environment, said: "I understand the tobacco industry did not put any money into the society nor into the journal. They may well have bought some free lunches. Three of the people who set it up are dead. Nowadays we publish anything from the medical to the purely engineering and anything about tobacco has to go through extra hurdles." Scientists were "not paid unless and until they actually perform work," according to the Covington and Burling memo. They were "asked to cover all substantial scientific conferences where they can usefully influence scientific and public opinion." Text of Philip Morris memo can be found at http://www.bmj.com/misc/philipmemo.shtml The tobacco documents can be found at http://www.ash.org.uk - --- Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)