Creating A False Controversy Among Scientists

The tobacco industry's strategy of perpetuating controversy about the adverse effects of tobacco took place on two levels. One was to generate controversy among the lay public as discussed above. The other was to generate controversy among scientists. The controversy among scientists could then be publicized in the lay press. As mentioned in the previous sections of this chapter, special projects were often used to support scientists to prepare talks for conferences and to send scientists to conferences.

Sponsoring scientific conferences was identified early on as a way of publicizing results favorable to the tobacco industry's position. Support "in conducting conferences of scientists" is first mentioned in a document describing the formation of TIRC in 1954 {1903.03, p. 2} Sponsoring and publishing the results of scientific conferences has been used as a strategy by both the pharmaceutical and the tobacco industries to publicize research that supports their interests (9, 12). For example, the tobacco industry has sponsored at least six symposia on ETS. These symposia present research articles that are primarily unbalanced reviews of the medical literature, rather than original work. In general, the symposia articles, many of which are authored by industry-affiliated individuals, suggest that ETS is not harmful or that other factors contribute more to health problems than ETS does (9). Furthermore, once the symposia articles are published, they can be cited in a misleading fashion by the industry as if they were peer-reviewed medical or scientific journal articles. For example, articles from symposia proceedings were cited frequently by tobacco industry—affiliated individuals who reviewed the EPA risk assessment of ETS (1).

The tobacco company lawyers encouraged industry-supported scientists to attend scientific meetings in order to counter the results presented by the general scientific community. In 1978 William Shinn, an attorney at Shook, Hardy, and Bacon, wrote in a memo that it "may also be important to evaluate the desirability of increased attendance at scientific meetings" {1910.05}. Shinn then summarized the work of four non-industry-funded scientists who would be presenting data unfavorable to the industry at meetings, such as evidence that smoking is an addiction. The memo then notes that Dr. Gary Huber, then director of the CTR-supported research facility at Harvard University, will conduct a session at another meeting:

Dr. Huber has agreed to conduct a two-hour presentation at an American Thoracic Society/American Lung Association meeting in May. There will be

several participants, who will discuss the status of tobacco research in the fields of cancer, cardiovascular disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Dr. Huber also contemplates a section on the nonsmoker and tobacco smoke. {1910.05, p. 2}

Shinn's letter spends six paragraphs reporting on various aspects of Dr. Huber's work, including that Huber was concerned about the appearance that he had become closely identified with the tobacco industry:

Sometime ago Dr. Huber asked that a committee be formed at Harvard to critique the scientific aspects of the smoking and health programs. Dr. Huber, as you know, is very proud of the caliber of work done and wanted to lay to rest any accusations (completely unfounded) that the industry had control over the research. {1910.05, p. 3}

The lawyers also monitored the performance of industry-supported researchers at scientific conferences. It may be fairly inferred that if an industry-supported researcher presented data that were unfavorable to the industry, his or her chances for future industry funding would decrease. For example, an April 22, 1981, letter from attorney William Shinn to the counsels for the industry describes a meeting attended by special projects grantee Theodor Sterling:

At a meeting on occupational health, held earlier this month, he gave a presentation titled "Job Discrimination Based on Exposure Consideration and Smoking." This meeting was monitored by one of our research analysts ; she felt that Dr. Sterling's manner of presentation put his potentially hostile audience in a receptive mood and that the audience paid close attention to what Dr. Sterling had to say. He reviewed published evidence contrary to the idea that smoking heightens the risk of disease by interacting with certain substances to which workers are occupationally exposed. He also stated that the questions of whether other people's tobacco smoke is hazardous to non-smoking workers, and whether smoking workers represent an additional cost to industry, are not settled and that the published reports in these areas are based on data which can be questioned on sound scientific grounds [emphasis added]. {2022.03, pp. 2–3}

Researchers supported through special projects also reported back to the law firms and tobacco companies on the scientific conferences they attended. A January 19, 1978, memo from Donald Hoel at Shook, Hardy, and Bacon to Ernest Pepples states:

I enclose herewith a copy of a program for the International Symposium on Mechanisms of Airways Obstruction to be held in South Africa during March 28–31 of this year. You will note that Dr. [Domingo] Aviado [who was funded through special projects] is making a presentation at this symposium. I am

sure that upon his return, Dr. Aviado will be giving us a general report on the papers and presentations given at the symposium. {2007.03}

The tobacco industry sometimes sponsored conferences through an independent foundation, so that its sponsorship of the conference would not be disclosed. For example, in 1972 Dr. Theodor Sterling wrote to William Shinn asking for $5,000 to fund a panel on "Effects of Pollutants on Human Health at the International Meeting of the Society of Engineering Science in Tel Aviv, Israel." Sterling also suggested that the grant be awarded to the ALEPH Foundation, to "enable us to manage the arrangement of support in a proper and desirable manner" {2002.02}. It is advantageous for the tobacco industry to hide its sponsorship of scientific conferences because it makes the results that are presented at the conferences appear independent of the industry. In a memo to other industry lawyers, Shinn recommends that Sterling's request be approved and that it be funded through a "special project non-CTR" {2002.05}. Shinn believed that the conference proposed by Sterling would be valuable for advancing the industry's position that ETS is not dangerous because Sterling had been effective in this way in the past:

The work which Dr. Theodor Sterling has been doing in connection with air pollution became unusually valuable following the President's transmission on January 31 of an air pollution message to Congress, which you have received, that attempted to implicate cigarette smoking in 95% of lung cancer and 90% of chronic obstructive lung disease. {2002.05, p. 1}

Sterling's work was used to criticize this message.

The tobacco industry continues to fail to disclose its sponsorship of conferences; of the six conferences on ETS known to be sponsored by the tobacco industry, only four openly mentioned industry funding (9).