CREATED 11/5/2011
 WARNING:
This site deals only with the corporate corruption of science, and makes no inference about the motives or activities of individuals involved.
There are many reasons why individuals become embroiled in corporate corruption activities - from political zealotry to over-enthusiastic activism; from gullibility to greed.
Please read the OVERVIEW carefully, and make up your own mind.
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OPINION ONLY
WSA's Scientific Consultants in Europe
Background:In February 1995 Geoffrey C Bible took control of the tobacco industry's main fightback program at Philip Morris and completely reformed the organisational structure of the company's lobbying and disinformation activities. Philip Morris virtually dominated the global tobacco industry's fightback program at this time.
Bible essentially merged the active-lobbying/scientific witness arms of both the domestic (PM USA) and the international (PMI) companies and creating three new entities. - The old Corporate Affairs division of both companies merged into one worldwide Corporate Affairs (CA).[This was the strategy-formation level of all lobbying to counter anti-tobacco forces.]
- The Science & Technology Divisions of both the domestic company (in New York) and the European (Neuchatel's FTR in Switzerland) merged their scientific lobbying functions [as distinct from R&D/product development] to form Worldwide Scientific Affairs (WSA) [This ran scientific recruitment and disinformation projects to manage "issues".]
- The political lobbying and legal functions of both merged to produce the Worldwide Regulatory Affairs (WRA).[Responsible for tactics: paying off politicians, intelligence gathering, legislation creation, etc.]
Creating the Worldwide Scientific Affairs combined the scientific skills and contacts of those employees with recognised scientific credentials, and use them to develop new approaches to scientific disinformation campaigns globally.
Within PMI's old Corporate Affairs division, the non-scientific administrators of projects [such as Andrew Whist, Matt Winokur, Kathleen Linehan, Mary Pottorff (Mopsy)] were excluded from this new WSA. They were, however, kept information of WSA activities and they interacted with both the WSA and WRA when required. In fact, from this time on, most of the active teams operating around the globe included all three components: WSA, WRA and CA.
The reorganisation which led to the formation of the WSA appears to be a desperation measure. Philip Morris knew the industry was loosing the smoking war, and they understood that they'd never solve their problems by producing a better or 'safer' cigarette. They had no further need to understand the nature nicotine addiction, cancer, coronary heart disease — or any of the adverse health effects that cigarettes caused. They were now well known, even if they weren't admitted The era when their scientist may have contributed to a solution was now at an end; no one now had any doubt about the harm that cigarettes caused.
Lobbying and promotion now became more valuable than R&D. Bible wanted to 'incentivize' the more aspirational and creative of his in-house scientists; get them out of their laboratories and put them to better use as scientific and political lobbyists.
Of course the old hands in the Science & Technology divisions, [ Tom Osdene, Helmut Gaisch, Helmut Reif, etc.] had long been involved in lobbying activities, even in the early years when they also did some legitimate research. However company-minded men tended to be 'free-market' fanatics, and this new structure provided them with new opportunities to "preserve people's right to smoke" and to "rescue the industry from the anti-smoking zealots." They often became partisan warriors fighting liberals and socialists who promoted the so-called 'Nanny State' mentality.
By enlisting tobacco scientists (in-house and consultants), and others from regulated industries with similar poisoning and polluting problems, Bible clearly hoped that: - company scientists would prove more successful at developing better techniques to delay or counters the progressive scientific claims accumulating against cigarettes.
- company scientists (and some outside consultants who were recruited specifically for the WSA) were better able to systematically scan and cull the literature, and so develop highly selective lists of studies that could be used to counter the anti-smoking case.
- this more coherent group of scientists could also reinforce the industry's position at scientific conferences by acting en masse, and
- by joining forces with scientists from a coalitions of corporations, they might eventually become a real force in the fightback struggle against health and environmental activism.
Outline of the Worldwide Scientific Affairs The organizational charts for the WSA show that they preserved the two main focuses: - the primary group in New York. mainly Tom Osdene's S&T team, together with some new blood from the Richmond R&D division,
- the old European S&T group based at Fabriques De Tabac Reunies (FTR), Neuchatel, Switzerland.
- Individual scientists in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Germany to add to the WSA's reach.
The character of the WSA can be ascertained by spending time looking through the distinct body of Worldwide Scientific Affairs files (using the indexes at the UCSF tobacco archive). These include an ecclectic mix of records — meetings where genuine research findings were discussed along with meeting that can only be described as pure lobbying — both scientific papers and PR plans. So genuine science was coupled with the deliberate distortion of science. This 'Smoking Gun Document" is one example of the indiscriminate blending of the two.
A power-point-illustrated speech by Geoff Bible detailed the WSA's role as "Representing the company on scientific issues relating to tobacco, smoke, and smoking related to external bodies [eg ETS or environmental tobacco smoke/passive smoking]' The WSA was to provide a "central source of data, information and scientific positions" , and be a "consistent communicator on scientific issues ..." in order to "gain credibility" and take control of the industry fightback program. These are public relations and lobbying terms which have no place in science.
Worldwide Scientific Affairs was given primary roles in: - Information Analysis [trying to find faults or arguments]
- Issues Management [political and media lobbying]
- Scientific Affairs [running special (secret) projects]
- ETS/Ventilation Support [the use of fake indoor-air-quality testing]
- Scientific Information Managment [electronic databases]
[The WSA division in Neuchatel was still functioning at the end of 2000, well after the Master Settlement Agreement. But, by then, it had re-focussed on legitimate scientific research.] See entries for both the Worldwide Scientific Affairs (WSA) and Scientific Research Review Committee (SRRC). | Smoking-Gun documents |
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| The information in these Smoking-Gun documents has sometimes been refined, corrected and sometimes condensed in the interests of clarity. But you can cross-check our changes against the original at any time. We have made changes in order to: - correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar
- edit clumsy language [many writers were not natural English speakers],
- interpret and include semi-legible handnotes and editing amendments
- spell-out full names from surnames, nicknames or initials.
- expand and explain the widespread use of jargon and acronyms.
- sometimes to simply clarify turgid prose.
We have also provided additional explanatory material [clearly identified as such] to put the correspondence in its wider context. |
DISAMBIGUATION
It's easy to confuse Philip Morris's Worldwide Scientific Affairs (WSA) with its Worldwide Regulatory Affairs (WRA). They were both created at much the same time, and they often operated under the direction of Philip Morris Companies' Corporate Affairs division.
WRA staff, by contrast to the WSA, tended to be lawyers and non-scientific lobbyists. while CA staff were middle-level executive adminstrators of the major projects with higher-level executives working on tactics and strategies.
Worldwide Scientific Affairs had groups in New York and Switzerland, and a few individual scientists in other regions. It was organised around Cathy Ellis and Richard Carchman, both legitimate scientists who had originally led teams at Philip Morris's Richmond Research Center.
Carchman, however, had always had one foot in legitimate research and the other in manipulation and lobbying. By the time of this memo, he had left Philip Morris and was contracting back to them to help run the WSA (Ellis was only the nominal head).
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Smoking-gun document This is an encapsulated version. See Original Document
1998 Mar 6: This the date at which this document was faxed. It was probably prepared around 1992. [Note that the document was faxed after the signing of the Master Settlement Agreement that prohibited this kind of lobbying activites in the USA. The original document doesn't appear to exist in the files (which it should).] Richard Carchman, Deputy Head of the Worldwide Scientific Affairs division of Philip Morris USA (the domestic company) has received a long memo which provides him with revealing evaluations of a selected group of well-established WSA Scientific consultants from Edward ('Ted') Sanders who is resident at PM's FTR facility in Neuchatel, Switzerland,
Consultant Evaluation
Dr Gaston Vettorezzi — of the International Toxicology Information Center. - He was the long-term secretary to various joint FAO/WHO committees on pesticides and food additives. [The tobacco industry put pressure on the World Health Organisation, via the Food and Agriculture Organisation. They were keen to have someone inside the tent when anti-smoking issues were in discussion.]
- Industry history: He had been a consultant both by Philip Morris and others in the Industry on pesticide, via CORESTA. [the tobacco chemist's organisation]
- He had been employed through Covington & Burling. [These lawyers were used as cut-outs, so the scientists could maintain never to have worked for a tobacco company.]
- Current work for PM: He was on the Agrochemical Advisory Committee, but paid indirectly via PM's CORESTA contributions. [They had an arrangement with the CORESTA organisation to pay him, and they would then compensate CORESTA]
- Value: His former affiliations with WHO were seen as 'authoritative'; and he also excellent contacts in Latin America; speaks Spanish, Italian, French,
Prof Berthold Schneider, Hannover - Advisor to the German Government on medicants. [So he had contacts at the top level of the Health ministry.]
- Used by PM and the tobacco industry for checking mortality and survival models. Writing Letters-to-the-editor; Organised a statistical workshop at Hannover University. [He was retired from Hannover University by this time, and did odds-and-sods work for them like running symposiums and writing letters-to-the-editor for payment]
- Current work for PM: Presentation at the European Forum Alpbach/Public Health Seminar on the pitfalls of epidemiology [the Alpbach Forum was a regular public health-lecture event]; on-going work to publish statistical conference proceedings; reviews statistical papers if needed.
- Paid $14,000 in 1997, budgeted for $20,000 in 1998.
Prof. Dr Peter Atteslander. University of Augsburg. - Retired but still active in Augsburg. President of Swiss Academy for Development (SAD)[This was important because SAD had economic implications]. Chairman and organiser of seminars on public health of the European Forum Alpbach.[He was one of the organisers and speakers of the lecture series on health] Regional WHO advisor for Public Health. [This would have earned him thousands of dollars a year alone — they always needed insiders to inform them about WHO activities.]
- Industry: Scientific advisor to the Swiss NMA [The equivalent of the US Tobacco Institute]; scientific advisor to PM SA, Lausanne [SA= Scientific Affairs at Philip Morris's Swiss headquarters]; participated for PM in a public hearing of the Swiss Federal Health Authorities; published paper in defense of the holistic view of the threats to public health.[The claim that the health bureaucrats needed to look at the 'Big Picture' — primarily diet and chemical exposure — rather than just focussing on smoking]
- Current work for PM: Assessment of questionnaires/health-related polls; advice on Swiss NMA and laws; Letters-to-the-editor. He has been sponsored for SAD and for European Forum Alpbach. Paid $24,000 in 1997 and $20,000 budgeted for 1998 [and has] excellent links to Asia and China. [Rapidly developing markets for US companies]
Dr Angelo Cerioli, Toxicologist. - Member Italian Society of Toxicology and Italian Society of Epidemiology. Tobacco laboratory experience with Battelle, Geneva, and Laboratiorie Isoconsult, mainly doing animal experimentation.
- Used by PM for assessment of Italian scientific publications. Also a member of ARIA.[ARIA was the UK-based WhiteCoats front organisation]
- Current work for PM: General advice on Italian epidemiology. Monthly press summaries on scientific articles. He 'mediates' contacts to project leader Prof Dolara, Florence. [The toxicologist Professor Piero Dolara, worked on grants from the tobacco companies but he continued to find evidence which disturbed them. Ceroli may initially contracted Dolara through his Isoconsult business front.] Good personal contacts with Italian epidemiologists who contribute to the IARC study on ETS [Every bit of information about the progress of the WHO's IARC study was important. They spent about $10 million on counter-measures and leaked information prior to its release.] Paid $20,000 1997; In 1998 $20,000 for IARC-Related Consulting.
- Value. Fluent in Italian, English, French and understands German. Very willing to to work for PM; well connected to Italian academics.
Prof Jim Parry, Professor of Genetics, University of Wales, Swansea - Biological Scientist. Editor of 'Mutagenetics'. Active commitee member of UKEMS [United Kingdom Environmental Mutagen Society], and past president of EEMS [European Environmental Mutagen Society]. [He also worked for BAT and Rothmans "in private" on inhalation and other animal studies.]
- Chair of the UK Department of Health's Committee on Mutagenicity and also Committee on Carcinogenicity.
- Is willing to meet, discuss and debate genetic problems /ideas. He is not specifically contracted but is given a grant of $10,000 a year.[Parry obviously tried to stay independent of tobacco influence while taking their cash and giving them advice. He kept his consultancy quiet, so it is difficult to know what wider influence this funding had.]
- Prof Parry has some reluctance to support the Tobacco Industry for fear of reprisals by grant-giving authorities within the UK.
Prof John William Gorrod, Department of Biological and Chemical Sciences, University of Essex - Was research professor/Head of Health Sciences, with Kings College London
- Value to PM: Fellow Royal Society of Chemistry/ also RS of Pathologist; Founding member of ISSX [International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics]. Honorary members of many associations. [Including Philip Morris's ARIA/EGIL WhiteCoats groups]
- Services to PM: Consulting well before 1992 (lost in the mist of time).[He was included in Philip Morris's closed McGill ETS Conference in Nov 1989, and active in nicotine research 20 years before that — working with Francis Roe. He later worked with John Wahren and the IAPAG group (US WhiteCoats)] Received several research grants [Some from the CTR also]; main role as a consultant has been in attending scientific meetings on pharmacology and metabolism and providing advice on request (nicotine metabolism/biomarkers)
- Current services: Grant to attend New Orleans meeting. Was in Richmond, Nov 1997. Funded approximately $10,000 per year. [This was low compared with previous funding of $86,000 in 1991 alone. He must have been past his use-by-date.]
- Future value: His new nicotine lab at the University of Essex. [Gorrod was genuinely useful to the industry as a nicotine researcher. But after about 1995 the industry's own secret nicotine research had taught them all they needed to know (they cancelled all internal research), and Gorrod's only real value was that of an 'eminent scientific witness.' and a reporter at scientific conferences.]
Prof John Wahren, Dept Surgical Sciences, Karolinska Institute - In charge of the Clinical Physiology Unit at Karolinska. [The Stockholm Karolinska Institute had a whole cadre of scientists who worked with the Swedish Tobacco Company, Philip Morris and others.] An expert in diabetics and interest in nicotine. Close contacts with the tobacco research group at the Karolinska [Rylander, Dalmann, Cederlof, Frieberg and a half-dozen others. He also developed a working relationship with John Gorrod and the IAPAG group led by Sorrell Schwartz]
- Value to PM: Source of information and good contacts in Scandinavia. [Wahren and Gorrod worked together at various times and did similar work. Their value to the tobacco industry lay in the prestige attached to them as academic nicotine researchers.]
- Funding of $10,000 pa but no specific tasks [Wahren was also a member of the ARISE group, and a de facto member of the US IAPAG]
Prof Bela Szende, Pathologist, Semmelweiss Medical Uni., [Budapest] Hungary - Premier pathologist in Hungary — specialises in apoptosis [basic DNA/cancer research] Excellent contacts in Eastern Europe.
- He has provided the WSA with consulting services for two years. Also done some projects and provided contacts with the medical community.
Prof Don Barry, Statisticians, University College Limerick, Ireland - Has worked as a consultant with PM's Worldwide Scientific Affair since 1995 in both epidemiology and biostatistic — producing a number of publications: review articles, Letters-to-the-editor, theoretical research papers, presentations at conferences. He also supervises a PhD thesis in Biostatistics being funded by Philip Morris at Limerick.
- Barry had invoiced PM for £51,000 in 1997 (£26K for the PhD fellowship). They budgeted £120,000 for his services in 1998.
Peter N Lee, long-term statistical consultant to the UK's TAC.
Steven Turner of The Chelsea Group/Chelsea Strategic. - Ventilation and Energy engineer (IAQ) based in Florida
- Value: Linked to the Florida Atlantic University; Past Board of Governors of ASHRAE, and chaired ASHRAE committees. Links to the EPA.
- Services to PM. He is a consultant to the WRA on ETS problems, and currently working for them on CEN/ISO standards [for air quality in buildings] Paid $16,000 in 1997, and $10,000 to date in 1998.
European Consultants Group This 10 year old program, which WSA inherited approximately one year ago, was originally administered through Covington & Burling (C&B — US tobacco lawyers).
Scientists now take an active role in managing the program which has continued to expand to the point that for the first time in the program's history, face-to-face contact between the three principal consultants involved in the program and WSA scientists has been initiated.
The three principal consuftants involved are
Dr George Leslie, Dr John Hosklns, and Dr Max Weatman.
By the end of next week I will have CV's on each of these three individuals.
The Weinberg Group (TWG - later known as WashTech) TWG was a technical consulting group used extensively by the tobacco industry over many years, and by WSA in Neuchatel during the two years prior to this document. [Also extensively by the chemical, food and pharmaceutical industries.] - The current Philip Morris budget for TWG is $140,000 to manage a SCPR project in London [to study 'Interviewer-bias in epidemiology'] See the organisation Social & Community Planning Research.
- TWG have over 50 scientific experts in their Washington and Brussels offices — "individuals of high quality with considerable credibility and well respected by their peers. [The don't do research, but just scientific lobbying] One example is Dr Gail Charnley, ex Presidential Commission on Risk Assessment, and President-elect of US Society of Risk Assessors.
- Myron Weinberg is extremely well-connected in the scientific community and has an enormous number of contacts. He can and does serve as a conduit to meet with academic scientists who might otherwise shod no interest in speaking to scientists in the tobacco industry. His son, Matthew Weinberg and Brussels manager Dr Henrik Schessing don't possess the same capabilities.
- It is "extremely important to carefully watch your wallet when working with Myron. He is first and foremost a very successful businessman, and he is extremely capable in ensuring that he returns value to his stockholders (namely himself).
Dr Ake Thorn, Karolinska Institute, Occupational Medicine
- A specialist in occupational medicine with an interest in Sick Building Syndrome [a disease virtually invented by the tobacco industry to explain why people got headaches and respiratory illnesses in closed office buildings,,, as an alternative to the second-hand smoke explanation]
- They are in discussions with him about a project, and have given him a token few hundred dollars for secretarial assistance.
Original document  
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WORTH READING
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