2001/11/01 by Elisa K. Ong, Stanton A. Glantz · 244 citations
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics · Business, Management and Accounting · Health Professions · Medicine · #Pharmaceutical industry and healthcare #Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology #Health Policy Implementation Science #Epidemiology #Sound (geography) #Public health #Environmental health #Tobacco industry #Political science #Public relations #Medicine #Law #Acoustics #Pathology
paper · doi:10.2105/ajph.91.11.1749
published in American Journal of Public Health 91(11), 1749-1757 (American Public Health Association)
openalex publication_date 2001/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
The tobacco industry has attacked "junk science" to discredit the evidence that secondhand smoke-among other environmental toxins-causes disease. Philip Morris used public relations firms and lawyers to develop a "sound science" program in the United States and Europe that involved recruiting other industries and issues to obscure the tobacco industry's role. The European "sound science" plans included a version of "good epidemiological practices" that would make it impossible to conclude that secondhand smoke-and thus other environmental toxins-caused diseases. Public health professionals need to be aware that the "sound science" movement is not an indigenous effort from within the profession to improve the quality of scientific discourse, but reflects sophisticated public relations campaigns controlled by industry executives and lawyers whose aim is to manipulate the standards of scientific proof to serve the corporate interests of their clients.