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LETTERS: Benoit Nemery, Danielle Piette, James Le Fanu, and Christopher J Proctor The hot air on passive smoking BMJ 1998; 317: 348 [Full text]

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Relevant research track records of tobacco industry consultants

Simon Chapman   (4 August 1998)

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Jennifer Mindell   (6 August 1998)

Relevant research track records of tobacco industry consultants 4 August 1998
Simon Chapman, Associate professor University of Sydney Send response to journal: Re: Relevant research track records of tobacco industry consultants	Editor- Nemery and Piette's tabulation[1] of the publication records of six European scientists who wrote a tobacco industry sponsored report on passive smoking found all of these authors had little to no research records in epidemiology or anything to do with smoking. In 1994, the Tobacco Institute of Australia convened what it called an "independent working party" of "eminently qualified experts" to critically review the research literature on passive smoking [2]. As with the European report, with one exception, the Australian review's authors had next to no track records in any area of epidemiology or tobacco-related research (see table). A letter written by the chief executive of the commissioning Tobacco Institute noted that all those being approached to take part in the review "are known to us, as are their views" and that "in the order of $A200,000" was approved to pay for the exercise -- an average of $A22,000 per consultant[2]. As Nemery and Piette note for the European report, the research track records of the Australian group mirror the recruitment guidelines set out in the minutes of a tobacco industry meeting: namely, that such eminently qualified experts should have "no previous record on the primary issues."[3] Like the European report, the Australian report [4] concluded that the evidence for passive smoking being harmful was weak. The tobacco industry continues to refer to this "authoritative" report in its dealings with the public and government. Simon Chapman Department of Public Health and Community Medicine University of Sydney 2006 Australia Table: Publications of Independent Working party in Medline indexed journals, 1956-1994 NAME and expertise nominated by Tobacco Institute Total publications Indexed for "epidemiol*" Indexed for "tobacco" or "smoking" J LEE (lung cancer, adult respiratory disease) 1 - - PJ COOKE (SIDS) - - - WTM DUNSMUIR (lung cancer) - - - JA ECCLESTON (SIDS) - - - MJ FADDY (SIDS) 10 - - DK McKENZIE (adult respiratory disease) 31 - - MJ MERRILEES (CVD) 21 - - KL MENGERSEN (lung cancer) 2 - 2 JK PEAT (SIDS, asthma) 49 1 12 References 1. Nemery B, Piette D. Experts who evaluated studies seem not to have had relevant experience. BMJ 1998;17:348. 2. http://www.philipmorris.com/getallimg.asp?DOCID=2504088601/8606 3. Chapman S. Tobacco industry memo reveals passive smoking strategy. BMJ 1997;314:1569. 3. Lee J (convenor). Health aspects of environmental tobacco smoke: an evaluation of the scientific literature. Submission to the Health Care Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council. Newtown (Sydney), November 1994 156pp.
Untitled 6 August 1998
Jennifer Mindell, Honorary clinical lecturer Department of Epidemiology and Public Health Send response to journal: Re: this article	Le Fanu is disingenuous in claiming that lung cancer in China is biologically distinct from that in Western countries. He fails to distinguish between absolute and relative incidence of adenocarcinoma in Chinese women. In a population with very low prevalence of smoking, the relative incidence of cancers unrelated to smoking will be high in comparison with those due to smoking. To claim that the current high prevalence of smoking in Chinese men and low incidence of lung cancer demonstrates that smoking is not a cause of lung cancer shows a lack of understanding of epidemiology and the dangers of using cross-sectional data. Although most Chinese men smoke cigarettes, this is a relatively recent phenomenon. The predictions for the rise in incidence in lung cancer in China over the next few decades are alarming. Studies of passive smoking need to be conducted on populations in which sufficient individuals are themselves non-smokers and enough of them fall into each group of exposure and non-exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. At the time that many of the studies were being conducted in China and Japan, it would have been much more difficult to find suitable subjects in Western countries.