Philip Morris Skulduggery In England

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

         Thursday May 14, 1998 
Tobacco firm paid scientists as stooges 

 By Clare Dyer, Legal Correspondent 

The United States tobacco giant, Philip Morris, infiltrated the British
scientific establishment with consultants paid to promote the tobacco
industry's line on passive smoking, according to a confidential memo from
the company's lawyers.

The 1990 memo from the London office of Covington and Burling, released on
the Internet, claims one consultant, recruited by Philip Morris, was an
editor of The Lancet, one of Britain's most prestigious medical journals,
and another was an adviser to a Commons select committee. 

 The Lancet, which takes a strong anti-smoking stance, said it took the
allegations extremely seriously and asked its independent ombudsman to
look into them. The editor, Richard Horton, who was not on the staff at
the time, said: 
 "The claim made in the memorandum is hard to understand as a review of
The Lancet's coverage of smoking in 1989 and 1990 emphasised the adverse
effects of smoking." 

  Mr Horton said he had spoken to senior editors responsible for the
journal's content at the time, and they had no knowledge of Philip
Morris's consultancy programme.  In an editorial for its May 16 issue, the
New Scientist, a stablemate of The Lancet, calls on Philip Morris to name
the alleged mole: "The probity of a world famous medical journal is at
stake." 

 Clive Bates, director of the anti-smoking pressure group
 Action on Smoking and Health, said: "Philip Morris's attempt to
infiltrate science is a scandal, but it is matched by the willingness of
some scientists to act as soldiers of fortune for the tobacco industry.
The documents show the
 industry... orchestrating controversies, buying up scientists and
creating influential outlets for tainted science." 

The document is part of a cache of 39,000 which the industry disclosed in
a massive lawsuit brought by the state of Minnesota and settled last week.
The companies argued that the documents were privileged and so protected
from disclosure. But the court held there was prima facie evidence of
fraud, which overrides the privilege. 

Philip Morris, the world's biggest tobacco company, is shown to have
masterminded a global campaign to influence opinion on passive smoking,
through the secret recruitment of paid scientists. 

The US law firm, Covington and Burling, set up its London office in 1988
to co-ordinate the European consultancy programme, code-named Project
Whitecoat. Because the project was handled by lawyers, the company could
claim legal privilege for any documentary evidence and, under normal
circumstances, would not have needed to disclose it in litigation. 

 The project strategy was outlined to British tobacco firms at a meeting
in London, in February 1988, attended by representatives of BAT, Imperial
and Gallaher. In a report, Sharon Boyse of BAT, noted: "Philip Morris are
putting vast amounts of funding into these projects, not only in... large
numbers of research projects but in attempting to co-ordinate and pay so
many scientists on an international basis to keep the ETS [environmental
tobacco smoke] controversy alive." Dr Boyse's note includes a list of 18
scientists, most at British universities, who were suggested as possible
consultants. 

 Under the heading, Lancet, the Internet memo says: "One of our
consultants is an editor of this very influential British medical
journal." Another consultant is described as an adviser to a Commons
committee. The New Scientist identifies him as the late Roger Perry, an
adviser to the Commons environment committee and an environmental
scientist at Imperial College, London. Other documents
 among the cache show he was paid by Philip Morris. 
                                                
                                  © Copyright Guardian Media Group
plc.1998



May 14 1998

Times of London

   Tobacco firm had secret army of
       scientists in smoke battle

          BY NIGEL HAWKES, SCIENCE EDITOR
  THE tobacco company Philip Morris recruited a covert
  army of scientists to contribute to The Lancet and other
  journals to counter bad publicity about passive smoking, it
  was claimed last night. A company "consultant" also
  advised a a Commons select committee on pollution. 

  The infiltration exercise, codenamed "Project Whitecoat",
  is described in a 1990 memorandum from an American
  law firm acting for the company, which has released some
  39,000 papers as part of a Minnesota lawsuit. 

  The documents, published on the Internet by an American
  congressional committee chairman, also claim that the
  company established its own "learned society" in Geneva
  which published papers suggesting that factors other than
  tobacco smoke might be behind lung disease. 

  Under the heading "Lancet", the memo says that "one of
  our consultants is an editor of this very influential British
  medical journal and is continuing to publish numerous
  reviews, editorials and commitments on environmental
  tobacco smoke". The document does not name the
  person. 

  Richard Horton, the present Editor, did not work for the
  journal at the time and says that he has no knowledge of
  any involvement. His deputy, David Sharpe, also said that
  neither he nor the other two editors working for The
  Lancet in 1990 had any contacts with Philip Morris or the
  law firm, Covington and Burling. 

  In a commentary to be published in this week's issue, Mr
  Horton says that the charge made against the journal is a
  serious one, and surprising since The Lancet's coverage
  of smoking issues at the time emphasised the adverse
  effects, including those of passive smoking. 

  In the memo, consultants are defined as people "who are
  not paid unless they actually perform work". One
  document names the late Dr Roger Perry, an
  environmental scientist at Imperial College, London, as
  such a consultant. He served as an adviser to the
  Commons Environment Select Committee, which
  published a report on indoor pollution in 1991, but he is
  said to have told members that he had done work for the
  tobacco industry. 

  Another of the papers shows that representatives of Philip
  Morris and other tobacco companies met in London in
  1988 to discuss how to counter bad publicity about
  passive smoking. One strategy suggested was to recruit
  scientists without obvious connections to the industry to
  write articles and attend conferences. 

  Another was to establish Indoor Air International,
  described by the law firm as "the world's only learned
  society addressing questions of indoor air quality". 

  Dr Helmut Gaish, who was Director of Science at Philip
  Morris Europe at the time, wrote: "No other resource
  gives the industry any similar access to the scientific
  community, government, and those who make decisions
  about indoor air quality issues and standards." 

  Clive Bates, the director of ASH (Action on Smoking and
  Health) said last night: "Philip Morris's claimed infiltration
  of 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." 


Copyright 1998 Times Newspapers Ltd.