Two studies released yesterday allege that big tobacco companies tried to undermine anti-smoking policies in Asia by infiltrating a research institute in Thailand and providing funding for one in China.
Public health researchers from the University of Sydney and the University of Edinburgh analyzed internal industry documents made public following litigation in the US. The researchers claimed that Philip Morris planted a scientist in Chulabhorn Research Institute in Bangkok in a bid to get researchers to play down the impact of secondhand smoking.
A separate study including a Mayo Clinic researcher alleges that British American Tobacco provided funding in China for the Beijing Liver Foundation in a campaign to shift the focus there away from smoking dangers to ailments like liver disease.
Both companies denied the charges presented online in the Public Library of Science Medicine journal. The two studies were partly funded by the National Cancer Institute in the US.
COVERT INFLUENCE
Anti-smoking groups say big tobacco for years has sought to covertly influence government smoking policies and squash scientific findings highlighting the hazards of smoking.
Earlier reviews of company documents have claimed that cigarette companies worked to defeat a tobacco advertising ban in Europe, pressured drug companies to tone down marketing for smoking-cessation products and placed consultants at the WHO to try to subvert efforts to reduce smoking.
Critics contend the companies are turning increasingly to Asia where smokers are on the rise.
WHO estimated this year that 30 percent of the world’s smokers now live in China and 10 percent in India. Thailand has seen the number of cigarettes smoked more than double since 1972 to 42 billion sticks in 2004.
“There is no doubt that the WHO regrets the unethical behavior of tobacco companies that infiltrate research organizations to influence the research process and the findings of such organizations,” said Edouard Tursan d’Espaignet, an epidemiologist with the WHO’s Tobacco Free Initiative.
GOVERNMENT-FUNDED
In the Thai study, University of Sydney’s Ross MacKenzie and University of Edinburgh’s Jeff Collin allege that Philip Morris scientist Roger Walk was able to lecture and organize conferences at the Thai government-funded Chulabhorn from the early 1990s to at least 2006.
The researchers say this allowed Philip Morris to develop relationships with key officials and scientists in efforts to discount the threat of secondhand smoke.
OPEN AFFILIATION
Spokeswoman Marija Sepic of Switzerland-based Philip Morris International — which separated this year from the US branch of the company — dismissed the documents as outdated and said the company never hid its affiliation with Walk.
However, Chulabhorn associate vice president Jutamaad Satayavivad said the institute was not aware Walk worked for Philip Morris until about a decade into his tenure. After seeing the study, institute officials plan to bar him because he was “not straightforward in sharing with us,” she said.
The other study alleges that London-based British American Tobacco used the Beijing Liver Foundation to lobby China’s Health Ministry in a campaign to forestall smoke-free legislation.
The researchers say documents show that the company provided training for industry, public officials and the media to spread its message that secondhand smoke was an insignificant source of pollution.
“Our findings show that, despite the tobacco industry’s public efforts to appear socially responsible and to assert that they are part of the solution to the global tobacco epidemic, there is a fundamental conflict between the interests of tobacco companies and public health,” said the Mayo Clinic’s Monique Muggli, who conducted the study with Kelley Lee, Quan Gan, Jon Ebbert and Richard Hurt.
China’s Health Ministry did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.
British American Tobacco spokeswoman Catherine Armstrong said it was illogical to suggest that any link the company has to a medical charity “was an attempt to divert attention away from smoking related disease.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese