[Intl-tobacco] Israel Cancer Assoc: Ban research funded by tobacco companies

[Robert Weissman]

ICA: Ban research funded by tobacco companies

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, THE JERUSALEM POST =09Dec. 20, 2005

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Israel Cancer Association (ICA) has asked the Health Ministry and
thousands of anti-smoking activists around the world to work for the
amendment of the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on
Tobacco Control (FCTC) - approved by 169 countries and ratified by 115
(including Israel) - to prohibit the funding of medical research by
tobacco companies.

In its official letter Tuesday to ministry director-general Prof. Avi
Yisraeli and ministry legal expert on tobacco Elana Mayshar, the ICA
said it was motivated to take this dramatic initiative as a result of
reading three articles in /The Jerusalem Post/ last week revealing that
Philip Morris, the world's largest tobacco company, had invested
$250,000 in a single study on the influence of genes and personal
background on young Israeli women's starting and continuing to smoke.
The chief researcher, Hadassah University Medical Center psychiatrist
Prof. Bernard Lerer, told /The Post/ that he was "not the only one" at
Hadassah doing research on smoking with funding from the giant tobacco
company - "four or five" other groups were are currently doing so as
well, Lerer said.

The study of 500 Israeli women students, which has just been published
in the online edition of the journal /Molecular Psychiatry/ and will
appear in February's print edition, concluded that nicotine-receptor
genes had the strongest influence on whether women who already smoked
would become addicted long-term smokers, while psychological influences
and background most determined whether they would start smoking in the
first place. Lerer's study ignored the psychological effects of tobacco
advertising -- the focus of multibillion-dollar lawsuits in Israel and
abroad against tobacco companies -- on smoking initiation.

The Health Ministry said Yisraeli and his legal staff would examine the
issue and decide whether Mayshar would propose such an amendment at a
Geneva meeting in February of representatives of all WHO members that
have ratified the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

Haim Geva-Haspil, the ICA's chief of health promotion and education,
wrote on the association's behalf not only to the ministry, but also to
thousands of anti-smoking activists joined together by Globalink, a
network committed to promote the fight against tobacco.
"We're almost in 2006, and the tobacco industry still tries to influence
science. Many commercial bodies have an interest in funding health
research to promote their products or their new technology. Even if the
physician or scientist tries not to be influenced, and they follows the
most restrict protocol, the fact that his research -- and in many cases
even his salary -- are sponsored by the commercial company, can't be
ignored."

In his letter to Globalink members, Geva-Haspil added: "There are
ethical codes restricting funds of medical research by pharmaceutical
companies, but apparently almost no one thought there was a need to set
similar restrictions on tobacco companies' funds. Obviously, the ethical
issues here are well beyond commercial aspects and involve the
misleading perception that the tobacco company is actually interested in
promoting research in favor of human health. [But] usually the purpose
is merely to divert the responsibility from the tobacco company and its
advertisement efforts to genes, environment or psychological
characteristics of the smoker and help them to fend off lawsuits for
product liability."

The ICA official added: "The WHO's FCTC doesn't address this issue
either, and now there is an obvious and urgent need to do that.
Following the series of articles in /The Jerusalem Post/, the Israel
Cancer Association -- in conjunction with other health and scientific
organization -- will try to persuade the Israel Ministry to address this
issue at the first session of the conference of the parties to the FCTC
in Geneva, in February 2006, and propose an amendment that will bar
these attempts to influence science by banning contributions from
tobacco companies and their subsidiaries and affiliates."

/The Post/ tried to identify any other Israeli hospitals and scientific
institutes that have received funding from tobacco companies for its
research, but has so far been unsuccessful, except to note that the
Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot played a minor role of
examining genetic material for Lerer's study, as tobacco companies are
not required to disclose it and researchers must disclose such potential
conflicts of interest only when their research articles are published.
The Health Ministry said Tuesday that it has begun querying government
hospitals it owns and operates, and so far none admitted to taking money
for medical research from cigarette manufacturers.

The Hadassah Medical Organization (HMO) and its parent, the Hadassah
Women's Zionist Organization of America, have been leaders in the fight
against smoking by voluntarily making its two medical centers smoke-free
prior to binding legislation and refusing to accept tobacco ads for
/Hadassah/ magazine. But they have both refused to comment beyond the
HMO's statement at the outset that "the research conducted by Prof.
Lerer is totally objective and unbiased=85 No person or company, including
the tobacco company, imposed any conditions or made demands to Prof.
Lerer or Hadassah. The tobacco company could not - and did not -
intervene in the research whatsoever. They were not involved in how the
research was conducted, the analysis of the data or its publication, in
any way whatsoever. Any implication that non academic interests tainted
the results is incorrect and insulting to Prof. Lerer."

Meanwhile, the ethics bureau of the Israel Medical Association, which
does have regulations governing the use of pharmaceutical - but not
tobacco -- company funding for medical research has appointed Dr. Tami
Karmi to investigate the issue raised by /The Post/ and decide what
action to take.