BMJ 1998;317:333-339 ( 1 August )

Education and debate

Ethical debate
    Should industry sponsor research?
    Tobacco industry research: collaboration, not confrontation, is the best approach
    Tobacco company sponsorship discredits medical but not all research
    Condemning the drinks industry rules out potentially useful research
    If the drinks industry does not clean up its act, pariah status is inevitable
    Collaborative research with infant formula companies should not always be censored
    How much research in infant feeding comes from unethical marketing?

Should industry sponsor research?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Opinions are divided on whether research and educational material funded by the tobacco, alcohol, or infant formula industries can be scientifically sound or whether it is inevitably tainted. Here, doctors, researchers, and a member of a pressure group argue the pros and cons.

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Editorial by Smith Letters p   344 Filler p   318 News p   301

Christopher J Proctor, head of science and regulation. 

British American Tobacco, Millbank, Knowle Green, Staines, Middlesex TW18 1DY

Christopher_Proctor@britamtob.com

Smoking is strongly associated with several diseases, sufficiently so for public health authorities to say that smoking is a cause of disease and to have warned the public for many years of the dangers of smoking. British American Tobacco respects these actions. Yet science has still to ascertain precise biological mechanisms whereby prolonged exposure to constituents of tobacco smoke causes these diseases. Science has also yet to determine why, for most diseases associated with smoking, the overwhelming majority of lifetime smokers do not contract the diseases, and why there are geographical differences in the incidence of many diseases that are related to smoking.

The public health conclusion . . . [Full text of this article]

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Rapid Responses:

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Title of article does not reflect my views

Alan Lucas
bmj.com, 31 Jul 1998 [Full text]

Untitled

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bmj.com, 4 Aug 1998 [Full text]

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