SYDNEY, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- A study highlights how links with the tobacco industry may have influenced the publication of research on the dangers of second-hand tobacco smoke.
The study in the latest issue of The Lancet says that in 1987 tobacco industry personnel met to consider how to "improve the industry's position" on passive smoking.
Among the many strategies proposed, one by Philip Morris USA was to "establish a genuine scientific journal on indoor air quality." The paper said.
In 1989 the international tobacco industry assisted the establishment of the International Society of the Built Environment, which published the journal Indoor and Built Environment.
Simon Chapman at the University of Sydney, Australia, and colleagues reviewed 484 papers published in the journal since its inception in January 1992 until February 2004.
They found that paid consultants to the tobacco industry dominated the society's executive. Of the 66 papers published in the journal during the study period that related to environmental tobacco smoke 40 of them reached conclusions that could be judged to be industry-positive.
Of these, 90 percent had at least one author with a history of an association with the tobacco industry.
