Junking Science to Promote Tobacco

2001/11/01 by Derek Yach, Stella Aguinaga Bialous · 4 citations
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics · Business, Management and Accounting · #Pharmaceutical industry and healthcare #Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology

paper · doi:10.2105/ajph.91.11.1745

openalex publication_date 2001/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15

Abstract

Despite the tobacco industry's claims that it has changed its practices, the toll of tobacco-related disease and death continues to grow worldwide, and the industry continues to use a vast array of strategies to promote its products and increase profits. This commentary discusses the ways the tobacco industry has created controversy about risk assessment and about the scientific evidence of the health hazards of secondhand smoke. The authors recommend that policymakers be more vigilant and that they demand transparency about affiliations and linkages between allegedly independent scientists and tobacco companies. They also urge policymakers to be prepared for new and continuing challenges posed by the tobacco industry, because, despite the industry's claims, there is little evidence of fundamental change in its objectives.

Cited by

• Constructing “Sound Science” and “Good Epidemiology”: Tobacco, Lawyers, and Public Relations Firms
• “Conclusions about exposure to ETS and health that will be unhelpful to us”: How the tobacco industry attempted to delay and discredit the 1997 Australian National Health and Medical Research Council report on passive smoking: Table 1
• Turning free speech into corporate speech: Philip Morris' efforts to influence U.S. and European journalists regarding the U.S. EPA report on secondhand smoke
• Junk science [wikipedia]