Controversy Surrounds Tobacco Industry-Supported Research Grant Money

Science: Big tobacco’s offer: $1 billion for research. Should scientists take it?
“…Accepting tobacco money for research was widely seen as acceptable until the 1990s. But revelations about the way the industry hid data on the risks of smoking from the public and used science to sow confusion and doubt made such funding increasingly taboo for academics. Many universities now shun direct industry funding, and some journals no longer publish tobacco-funded research. Major funders such as the Wellcome Trust and Bloomberg Philanthropies bar their grant recipients from also accepting tobacco money. But [Derek Yach, head of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, funded by Philip Morris International,] says industry and scientists should work together on ‘harm reduction’ strategies for reducing tobacco’s health risks…” (Enserink, 2/8).

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