[Intl-tobacco] UK Tobacco companies to make their research Available (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

British Medical Journal 2000;320:336 ( 5 February )
News extra
Tobacco companies to make their research
available on internet

Muhunthan Thillai BMJ

Britain's major tobacco companies have agreed to make their medical researc=
h
freely available on the internet. Appearing as
witnesses to a select committee on health at the House of Commons last week=
,
directors of some of the largest manufacturers,
said that they had no problem with their archives being made more
accessible.

"We would be prepared to make these documents publicly available on the
internet," said Peter Wilson, executive chairman of
Gallaher Group.

Company directors from British American Tobacco, Philip Morris, and R J
Reynolds also agreed that they had no objections
to the idea. Only Gareth Davis, chief executive of Imperial Tobacco Group,
had reservations, citing "practical and legal issues
which would first have to be taken into account."

Information on tobacco research carried out by the industry is held at a
depository outside Guilford, Surrey. Researchers have
to apply to view the documents, and the waiting list is currently five
months long.

The chairman of the select committee, David Hinchliffe, Labour MP for
Wakefield, said that it was "ridiculous to expect a
researcher to wait until June" to view the documents.

Dr Howard Stoate, Labour MP for Dartford and a practising GP, asked the
companies: "Just how much is there actually
available to internet researchers right now?"

Directors from R J Reynolds and Imperial Tobacco Group admitted that there
was nothing at all, but Martin Broughton,
chairman of British American Tobacco, argued that much of his company's
research was available at the moment on their US
website.

None of the five company representatives claimed to be familiar with the
majority of their documents. Mr Broughton agreed
that he knew little about the eight million documents held by British
American Tobacco.

The issue of advertising standards, particularly those overseas, was also
picked up on by the committee. Guidelines for British
advertising were not met when targeting British tourists overseas, they
claimed.

In particular, English language newspapers in some countries, such as Spain=
,
carried advertisements that seem to contravene
rules by the Advertising Standards Agency that forbid the use of glamorous,
attractive, and wealthy people in advertisements to
promote tobacco.

Mr Broughton said that British American Tobacco did "not take the view that
the UK code has worldwide jurisdiction." He
also said that he personally did not see any problem with the use of images
of such people to market a tobacco product: "I
don't think it is wrong=97not necessarily."