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.

OPINION ONLY

Part 2 of 3

By the late 1980s, ACVA staff were also involved in aircraft air-quality testing to counter the growing trend of airlines banning smoking on domestic flights. The tobacco industry trained, and then promoted Gray Robertson as a 'world expert' in cabin-air quality.

In the leisure industry ACVA also conducted numerous IAQ tests for hotels, restaurant owners and casino operators who all worked closely with the cigarette manufacturers in trying to block public smoking regulations. These organisations also faced the risk of being sued by staff working in this smoke-laden antmosphere, in the event that they developed lung-cancer.

ACVA staff were always available to act as witnesses, whenever the possibility arose that some local council or State Government might seek to limit public smoking. The international HORECA (HOtels REstaurant CAsino) organisation was behind the Tobacco Institute, as were many of the state and local entertainment organisations and in return, the tobacco industry funded many of the organisation's activities.

The later Congress subcommittee on Health and the Environment report summarised the role that ACVA (also called HBI here) played during these years.

HBI performed at least two vital services for the tobacco industry. First, it conducted scientific research for the industry that purported to show that ETS is not a significant source of indoor air pollution. The most significant of these research studies was done in 1989, when HBI was paid over $300,000 by the tobacco industry's Center for Indoor Air Research (CIAR) to study ETS levels in 885 office environments.

The results of this study were summarizad in a final report to CIAR in January 1990, presented to EPA in public comments in September 1990, and formally published in 1992.

In addition to conducting research for ths tobacco industry, HBI regularly testified for the industry in opposition to federal, state, and local restrictions on smoking. Over most of the last decade, HBI was the tobacco industry's principal defender on ETS matters.

		"The audiences hearing HBI's testimony may never have been aware of HBI's relationship with the tobacco industry."
	Congress subcommittee

According to the records of the Tobacco Institute, HBI [incl ACVA] testified 129 times for the Tobacco Institute from August 1986 through September 1994 — an average of more than once per month. In some months, HBI testified as many as six times. HBI's appearances for the Tobacco Institute included testimony before Congress (including this Subcommittee on June 37, 1986, and March 17, 1994, before state legislatures, and before local governments.

Some key documents

• ACVA was later known as Healthy Buildings International, so it is often refered to in these pages as ACVA/HBI

See these documents
• ACVA 1981—1986 (Previous)
• HBI 1989—on (next)

---

1987 Jan According to Simon Turner's C/V he joined ACVA/HBI at this time. He appears to have become a silent partner in the business. His father was AD Clive Turner, the head of public relations at British-American Tobacco who had been seconded to run the Tobacco Advisory Council in the UK. He later took over Hong Kong's Asian Tobacco Institute.

---

1987 Jan: The Tobacco Institute shopped out many of its PR operations (which helped keep their internal PR operations for fire-fighting activities).

Fleishman-Hillard Inc. a public relations company with global operations, became a specialist in conducting media tours and arranging witness appearances for the Tobacco Institute, both in the various US States, and also around the world. Media tours consisted of the PR company taking their celebrity on visits to important State capitals or major centers where interviews were arranged with local newspapers, radio and TV stations. The would need to find some 'news peg' which provided an excuse for the celebrity visit.

    With the tobacco industry witnesses, this would be done in association with them making an appearing at a local ordinance or legislative hearing into some aspect of public smoking. Or if this wasn't the case, a completely fictitious 'news peg' would be created by (say) claiming that this 'world expert' in sick buildings, had been conducting a survey of public buildings in the city ,,, or something similar.

    This is just one Activity Report from Karen Doyle on Fleishman-Hillard's work (among other activities) running a series of conducted ACVA media tours for the Tobacco Institute (TI) in the USA. She reported that she had:

• Pitched ACVA story to the 14th media market (Massachusetts).
• The tour resulted in interviews with 15 news organizations.
• Distributed ACVA materials to newspapers in Massachusetts.
• Provided the Tobacco Institute with video, audio and print clips of recent ACVA interviews.

[Note: Jack Peterson ran a rival air testing business to ACVA — the others listed here are just long-term scientific lackeys of tobacco from the IAPAG front-group.]

1987 Feb 23: Tobacco Institute activities report of Jack Shoemaker, the Southern Regional Manager (lobbyist) in Florida. He reported that he had:

• Legislative Activity: Picked up all printed prefiled bills of Florida legislature and read same.
• Contacted Peter Binnie (ACVA) regarding his participation in ETS briefing in Tallahassee 3/3.
• Contacted Guy Spearman regarding luncheon meeting for coalition members and dinner for legislators on March 3.
• Contacted 11 coalition members to invite them to attend coalition luncheon on ETS presentation.
• Next Week's Activities: Monday - Visit with Peter Binnie and discuss ETS briefing.
  Attend Republican party reception.

1987 Mar 2: Another Activities Report by Jack Shoemaker at the Florida office of the Tobacco Institute.

• Made arrangements for travel to Tallahassee by Mr. & Mrs. Peter Binnie (ACVA), Mark Reasor [West Virginia Uni Pharmacologist] and Carl Johnson for ETS briefing.
• Had conference with Ron Morris, Ann Gordon (NTC) and Peter Binnie regarding ETS and coalition work.
• Attended luncheon of Florida coalition group at Governor's Club regarding ETS with Peter Binnie.
• Dinner for Florida Legislators canceled for lack of attendance.
• Accompanied Mark Reasor and Peter Binnie on tour of
      Tallahassee, and had dinner to discuss legislative program.

1987 Jan 13: The company seems to be expanding across the Atlantic, looking once again to setting up operations in Europe. This is a memo from AD Clive Turner (BAT/TAC) to JD Backhurst (ccd to AJ Nelmes at the UK tobacco industry's PR committee) suggests that Simon Turner was initially hired to run a UK ACVA operation.

Clive Turner was a major UK public relations executive for the tobacco industry and also the father of Simon, who had now become a secret/silent partner in ACVA Atlantic. Clive doen't mention this fact in his memo.

I have so far interested ACVA Inc. in pursuing some research for us if we choose to call upon their experience and knowledge gained working (at arms length) for the [US] Tobacco Institute.

    I must say it would seem obvious to me that we should involve ACVA when you consider the 27 million square feet of building research they have already conducted — particularly as they seem especially skilled at publicly presenting the findings to the advantage of the tobacco industry.

1987 Feb: An ETS Seminar has been held in Sydney, Australia. The ICOSI executive in charge of the Social Acceptability Working Party (SAWP) in Brussels is being copied with the Sydney press coverage. This includes a number of news reports which had appeared on Australia television saying that:

" Gray Robertson, an American bacteriologist ... has told our Tobacco Institute Seminar in Sydney that studies which purport to show passive smoking contributes to disease are scientifically invalid.

    The claim comes just days before anti-smoking guidelines are introduced to the [Australian] Federal Public Service.

    Mr Robertson preferred not to deal with the issue of existent cigarette smoke pollution in the workplace. And said Australia's push to have a smoke-free Public Service by 1988 could be made irrelevant.

Robinson Quote: In our experience the smoke only contributes between 2 and 4% of all indoor pollution. And if you eradicate that 2 to 4% you've done nothing about the other 96%.
  Clean out the company's air conditioning and there'll be no need to ban smoking, because tobacco smoke only pollutes office air when the ventilation is poor."

Robinson Quote: And now you have your legionella or your fungus, or whatever this bacteria is, in the air stream, and as the air goes across it, water evaporates and takes the bacteria and the fungus straight into the ductwork, and then it's disseminated to everyone in the building.

[From March 1 1987 all Australian Commonwealth Public Service offices became smoke-free. This was a period when office workers often panicked at the thought of catching Legionairre's disease from badly maintained air-conditioning systems. ]

1987 Feb: A monthly report from Anne Dedick who worked for the Tobacco Institute's Production Services division handling printing and videotape duplication. It lists a large number of project; she was handling both the ACVA and the Heritage Foundation:

• ACVA Atlantic Inc
  Presentation books [are] in production .... Dedick/Robertson"
• Heritage [Foundation pro-smoking booklet for various states]:
  • MA — printed and delivered
  • CT — Mecahnicals revised/art to printer
  • LA — Mechanicals to printer
  • IN — Reviewing mechanicals ... Dedick/Kloepfer

[Translation: Gray Robertson at ACVA was overseeing the design and production of the ACVA promotional material — paid for by the Tobacco Institute. The Heritage Foundation worked closely with the Tobacco Institute for many years and here they were generating hidden propaganda targetted to various states.]

1987 Feb 5: Draft of the TI's booklet ETS: Is there a Risk?. This was based on a Fact Sheet as handed out to the press by ACVA. [Different versions vary slightly in the claimed figures.]

    These distortions suggest that ACVA had found some accommodation with both the tobacco and chemical industries. They would lay the blame for 'sick buildings' on poor duct maintenance and low air-exchange rates.

    This list of 'claimed facts' was then read into the Congressional Record a few days later (on February 18) by the Hon Walter B Jones of the First District of North Carolina. :

FACT 1 Between 1971 and 1985 the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) inspected 356 buildings due to staff complaints of respiratory symptoms or poor air quality. NIOSH found that 50 percent of the problems were directly due to inadequate ventilation alone. ['Inadequate' here means 'unable to reduce ambient smoke levels to non-smoker breathing requirements!]

FACT 4
In 95 percent of the cases, vapors and gases such as formaldehyde, tobacco smoke and radon gas were not found to be the culprit in poor air quality. Normally, the noticeable presence of these vapors proved to be only a symptom of ventilation problems. ['Culprit' or 'symptoms' depends on your viewpoint. Air-conditioning depends on closed-circulation systems. They symptom is actually human discomfort; the culprits are smoke, formaldehyde, and lack of adequate ventilation to reduce these to tolerable levels]

FACT 7
Over 9 percent of the buildings — nearly one out of 10 — contained significant levels of potentially allergenic bacteria in their ductwork. A dozen different varieties of bacteria were isolated, including "Staph," Streptococcus and Legionella pneumophila, the germ that causes Legionnaires' Disease.

FACT 8
About 7 [or 6] percent of the buildings had high concentrations of glass fiber particles spilling out of the ductwork. Various types of fibers, usually from insulation material, can produce lung disease in humans.

FACT 9
Up to 85 percent of buildings constructed before 1975 still contain materials made of asbestos. Many of these products have deteriorated to the point where they are releasing asbestos fibers into the building environment.

ACVA pamphlet
TI Draft copy
Copy sent to TI's Regional Directors:
Congressional Record
Lawyer's coaching documents

1987 March: Philip Morris's corporate lawyer in Brussels, Michael Horst , has sent the EEC Region's Action Plan for 1987 to his New York-based controller Mary Pottorff (who worked at Corporate Affairs under Andrew Whist).

Italy:
The pilot market for this program is Italy, and it will be extended to other markets later in the year. The concept is to introduce the IAQ issue to the market via a seminar organized by the Italian Personnel Managers' Association, with no mention of Philip Morris or tobacco industry involvement.

    The seminars would center around the presentation of results of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) testing done by Gray Robertson of AVCA in Italian office buildings. Assisting AVCA would be an Italian Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) company which would subsequently act as AVCA's licensee in Italy.

    The seminar public would consist of white-collar trade union officials, personnel managers, health officials, and journalists. Essential to the program is maximum distribution of videotapes of the testing phase and the seminar to national and local television. Italian seminar planned for early Spring.

Resources needed: cooperation of AVCA (already being coordinated through John Rupp). [C&B tobacco industry lawyer]

Holland:
On May 12, a symposium will be held by TNO, a semi-governmental scientific institution [which did a lot of work for Philip Morris in Europe]. They have a department specifically dealing with air. The subject of the one-day event will be passive smoking.

    We would obviously have preferred to organize such a symposium ourselves. However, as it was already decided [they would be organized] by TNO, we feel it important that industry representatives be included,

    Depending on the outcome of the symposium and depending also on the availability of AVCA, we shall try to organize an IAQ seminar later in the year. [Presumably one they could totally control]

• a briefing on moralist/prohibitionist trends in US society,
• an actual ETS field sampling demonstration,
• a scientific overview of the state of the research on ETS — a presentation by IAQ expert Gray Robertson.

1987 Mar 3: AD 'Clive' Turner and other key executives with the UK's Tobacco Advisory Council (TAC) have visited the UK government's Building Research Establishment (BRE). The BRE is doing work on sick-building syndrome which they define as "building illnesses of unknown aetiology." [which, by definition, excludes known pollutants]

The approach adopted by ACVA in the USA was outlined and interest was shown in the range of parameters used. BRE agreed to study the ACVA protocol and meet ACVA representatives in due course.

    The opportunity for TAC to fund a study in the UK of selected air conditioned offices, using ACVA, with BRE's assistance was raised.

    BRE agreed to consider the options open to them in relation to policy and practical implications. TAC representatives stressed the need for an independent case-study, rather than a detailed survey, which focussed on SBS and ETS in selected air conditioned offices..

    BRE agreed to circulate a note of the meeting, and Clive Turner agreed to arrange for an ACVA representative to contact BRE.

1987 Mar 3: Roger Mozingo complains to Sam Chilcote at the Tobacco Institute in Washington DC about the availability of scientific witnesses in the USA, due to the amount of foreign travel these 'experts' are doing. [Mainly ACVA staff, and also the Whitecoats contracted through the Indoor Air Pollution Advisory Group]

"We in State Activities are concerned about the extensive foreign travel of IAPAG and ACVA expert witnesses during February, March and April, our busiest legislative period .

Apart from difficult and time-consuming schedule juggling required to fill our requests, we have, in some instances, sent in "second-string representatives" when others like Witorsch, Schwartz or Robertson might have been much more effective. For example, we had to use the untested and very young Simon Turner (ACVA) in Helena, MT, last month because Robertson and Binnie were out of the country.

    It seems that TI-identified and TI-paid resource personnel should spend the bulk of their working time on TI-related matters.

1987 Mar 4: A badly-worded Hill & Knowlton's press-release for Gray Robertson in Hong Kong attempts to exploit the public mis-impression that

1. nicotine is the dangerous factor in passive smoking problems, and
2. that nicotine measurements in indoor air provide some sort of gauge of the amount of smoke pollution.

He noted that according to a research [study done] in New York city, a non-smoker had to [be] expose[d] to ETS in an office for 24 days and 24 hour a day (550 hrs), in order to get the amount of nicotine equivalent to one cigarette. Also, an individual had to be in a restaurant for 17.5 days (ie more than 40 hrs) to [be] expose[d] to ETS in order to get the amount of nicotine equivalent to one cigarette. The study was conducted in 48 offices in 23 different buildings and 48 restaurants.

    Mr Robinson said that the study on ETS exposure found that the amount of nicotine in air was very low and had only little effect on non-smokers. Because, in an 8-hour working day, a non-smoker [was] only exposed to 1% of the nicotine released by one cigarette. In a restaurant, a non-smoker was exposed to one-2000ths of the nicotine released by a cigarette in an hour. The finding was close to the report on [another] test of amount of nicotine in restaurants by Japanese scientist.

    Thus, Mr Robinson believed that, ETS exposure would not be hazardous to health, provided the ventilation system was well operated to keep the internal air clear.

1987 Mar 9: /E ETS Strategy in the Philip Morris EEC Region. Includes:

Indoor Air Quality: The fundamental reasoning behind the IAQ plan was to push this technology [Indoor airquality testing by 'independent' ventilation companies like ACVA/HBI] in the hope that a self-sustaining commercial niche could be created.

    The burden of pushing the "IAQ" issue would then fall to the companies involved, who would have a commercial reason for doing so. For some reason, all this has not happened. Efforts to organize testing and symposia have been sporadic and one-shot.

    Therefore, we should address this problem before all others. One possibility is to subsidize the creation of ACVA licensees, such as Nisses Ltd. in London, for a limited period.

    In any case, other potential ventilation companies have to be identified and then supported (with technical and marketing expertise) until they can stand alone. Specific budgets have to be set aside for this, objectives set and timing mapped out.

Indoor Air Quality: If any real progress is to be made on this issue, we have to make IAQ a union issue.

    Union representatives should be sent to Stockholm as observers to Healthy Buildings 88 and, generally, there should be a working, relationship set up between the industry and labor unions in all markets.

    Responsibilities for union, contacts and follow-up have to be assigned and managed. Specific communications materials for use with labor unions will have to be produced and distributed, preferably by the coalition of five US labor unions concerned with the IAQ issue in the US.

    There is also a need for a top-quality IAQ film, dubbed in various languages, for use with the media as well as the labor unions. This film should show as graphically as possible the "hidden dangers" present in the indoor environment [presumably other than tobacco!], and make the point [that] banning smoking is a common "smokescreen" for employers too lazy or cheap to solve the real IAQ problem.

1987 Mar 10: Memo from Doug Badler , the PR man at Philip Morris Australia, to Andrew Whist in the company's New York Corporate Affairs division. Gray Robertson and ACVA are establishing a company in Australia to service the Asian-Pacific region.

The TIA [Tobacco Institute Australia] conducted preliminary talks with Mr Robertson about opening an Australian branch of his firm. At week's end, Mr Robertson and his brother [Joe], who resides in Sydney and would manage the branch, had shaken hands on an agreement whereby the TIA vould provide seed money and a consulting contract with the firm.

    In turn the branch, ACVA Pacific, would work much the same way it does in the United States — analyzing and improving the environmental quality of buildings in
    Australia and speaking out publicly on the issue of ETS.

    [In Hong Kong] The hotel association presentation was extremely well-received . Upon being informed of the imminent creation of ACVA Pacific the hotel group was very interested in having a building or restaurant study done in Hong Kong . The TIHK [Tobacco Institute of Hong Kong] will pursue later this year

1987 Mar 11: Report on the media success of the UK National No-Smoking Day:

"Several of those speaking out against the Day in the media, claimed, among other things, that anti-smokers were dangerous do-gooders, that they interfered with people's freedom of choice, and that the evidence against "passive" smoking was doubtful.

    Barbara Amiel [wife of Conrad Black] in "The Times" refers to a study on exposure of smokers in offices and restaurants (conducted by ACVA Atlantic Inc. and RJ Reynolds) which concluded that hundreds of hours of exposure would be needed before a non-smoker absorbed the nicotine equivalent of one cigarette.

[Note the clever use of "nicotine" which breaks down quickly in the atmosphere into a substance known as cotinine. When the tobacco companies themselves checked IAQ, they used cotinine measurements, not nicotine]

1987 Mar 11: The Tobacco Advisory Council (TAC) of the UK reports that:

The overall strategy within TAC relating to ETS is to promote the 'no consensus' argument and to seek third party endorsement. The activities are aimed at ...

1. Maintaining doubt
2. Placing ETS into perspective
3. Determine public opinion on ETS

Survey of air quality in offices, restaurants and similar work, leisure areas. They will measure

• Particulates - piezobalance
• CO, CO₂
• Nicotine
• Temperature, humidity
• Microbial sampling

Results are to be made available October, 1987.

[presumably they know they will want to promote the results even before the study is commissioned!]

1987 Mar 16: A Philip Morris Europe internal report, shortly after the heavily-manipulated Imperial College/Perry Indoor Air Symposium, says:

"[Clive] Turner would like to mount study to show that tobacco related problems are minor. He would like to use a consulting from [firm] ACVA. ACVA, however, are very poorly equipped to deal with chemical analysis. They are essentially a US firm specialising in solving air conditioning problems."

1987 Mar 16: This is a FTR/Philip Morris Europe internal report shortly after the heavily-manipulated Imperial College/Perry Indoor Air Symposium. It says about the scene in Britain:

"[Clive] Turner would like to mount a study to show that tobacco related problems are minor. He would like to use a consulting from [firm] ACVA. [Clive's son Simon was a secret partner in the firm]

ACVA, however, are very poorly equipped to deal with chemical analysis. They are essentially a US firm specialising in solving air conditioning problems."

1987 Mar 16: BAT's London executive, Clive Turner, (who ran the UK Tobacco Advisory Council) is still attempting to promote his son's firm, ACVA in Europe. His persistence has finally got up everyone's nose.

    The minutes of a meeting of the TAC Chemical Working Group (which were sent back to Philip Morris) gives details of the nation-wide air-testing project being run by Professor Roger Perry of Imperial College London, and it says of ACVA:

Clive Turner (Public Relations TAC) is not to contact people on building problems/air conditioning . It is felt not relevant in GB [Great Britain] where use of air conditioning is not widespread.

    However, Turner would like to mount a study to show that tobacco-related problems are minor. He would like to use a consulting firm ACVA. ACVA, however, are very poorly equipped to deal with chemical analysis. They are essentially a US firm specialising in solving air conditioning problems.

1987 Mar 17: Shook Hardy & Bacon have asked Professor Samuel B Lehrer and an associate Dr Elliott Horner, School of Medicine, Tulane University Medical Center (one of the tobacco industry's favourite institutions) to review an ACVA report by Peter Binnie about airborne microbial flora in Florida Homes. This was a pilot study which was leading to a more substantial series of studies. They replied:

In essence, we both believe that the sampling procedures are a simplistic approach to a difficult problem.

    Furthermore, there are serious problems with the aampling methods described and a notable 1ack of concrete information regarding those microbial levels that are potential health problems. Certain levels of a particular organism may be related to health problems but this has not been shown.

[O]ur overall recommendation is that such a study should not be continued.

1987 Mar 19: Andrew Neimes, the CEO of Gallagher (as the representative of TAC), has accompanied Peter Binnie of ACVA to a meeting of the UK Government's Building Research Establishment (BRE). This was to do with a project promoted by Clive Turner, and designed to give ACVA some credibility in the UK via its association with BRE.

    He wanted the two organizations to work together on a study project. However there were problems which made the arrangement unattractive to both the BRE and TAC. Neimes wrote in his report:

They recognise that ACVA have the necessary expertise to monitor such environments but, because of the contractual procedure, it would be necessary to go to tender. [They are government funded] At the end of the day the ACVA tender may not be accepted.

    The Building Research Establishment will apprise TAC of their proposed research programme in April/May and establish whether, in conjunction with other funding bodies, TAC would contribute monies to fund such a programme. It is unlikely that such a programme would contribute significantly to a perspective on sick building syndrome in the short term, or match TAC's objectives.

    I suggested to Peter Binnie that he should contact researchers in the UK and develop some ideas for a short-term case study in the UK, and put the proposal to TAC. Building Research Establishment may be able to provide a list of suitable sites for such a study, but I doubt the usefulness of Building Research Establishment to TAC.

[The BRE probably would have agreed to this association if the tobacco industry had put up the cash. However the industry wouldn't have put up the cash without control over the research.]

1987 Mar 19: Roger Mozingo at the Tobacco Institute follows up on Peter Sparber's memo, pointing out the importance of ACVA and the IAPAG group (at Georgtown University) to the tobacco industry's witness program.

Especially since the Surgeon General's Report in December, the ETS and smoking restriction issues have been our toughest legislative problems to challenge. There is no sign of things getting better on this front.

The IAPAG — and ACVA — programs are the only resource of any real practical use on this issue. They have been successful in a hostile climate.

    We cannot afford any cut in this program as it pertains to legislative support.

1987 March 19: This report by Peter Sparber to Sam Chilcote, President of the Tobacco Institute, is an attempt to analyse the successes and failures of "ETS Scientific Witness program" which he says Covington & Burling were required to "rapidly create."

Although there seems to be a sense that these monies are just for the scientific witnesses, checks were drawn against that budget in 1986 for some 12 individuals or organizations in addition to the Center for Environmental Health and Human Toxicology (CEHHT), the group representing the witnesses.

1987 May 31: Monthly report of the FTR group in Switzerland

Tuesday 5th: HGA [Helmut Gaich] - Meeting at Brillancourt with Messrs. B.B. BROOKS and M.D. HORST [both from PM EEC in Brussels] on organisational matter concerning ETS.
HGA's main problem is the decision on identifying and deciding upon suitable intermediaries between PM and potential consultants, in view of the fact that, depending upon which country one is dealing with, other companies or NMA's would have to be involved. No solution to this problem has yet been found.

Wednesday 6th: HGA met in Lausanne with Mr. B.B. BROOKS in order to prepare for the Meeting on ETS planned for the following week. The exact organisational relationship was determined between PM, the TI and bodies such as IAPAG and ACVA.

[IAPAG was the US group of WhiteCoats consultants that did the industry's bidding around the world. ACVA was the air-testing company later known as Healthy Buildings International, which faked IAQ testing of buildings.]

    The purpose was to find ways on how to master the analogulous situation in Europe [presumably to that in the USA, where IAPAG and ACVA had been used extensively]. The necessity of a buffer organisation became even more evident.

1987 Apr 6: The PR and witness activities of the ACVA on behalf of the tobacco industry (in particular, Gray Robertson) are now becoming obvious to non-smoking groups and they make complaints to their legislative bodies. One such anti-smoking groups in Massachusetts "are suggesting that Gray [Robertson]'s testimony with media tours makes him an [unregistered] lobbyist." The Massachusetts Secretary of State writes to him:

It has recently come to our attention, through published newspaper accounts, that you may be engaging in lobbying activities without complying with state 1aw.

    As you can see "lobbying^ in Massachusetts is not limited to activities before the Legislature, it also includes efforts to influence decisions of the Governor and of exective agencies on rates, regulations, rulps and standards. The lobbyist law also applies to non-profit groups which expend funds without actually hiring an agent...

letter from Massachusetts Sec
The lobbying law
Tobacco Institute note
Getting a legal opinion

1987 Apr 15: Chip Foley at the Tobacco Institute is working to develop a new 'Ventilation Project' [IAQ testing] which involves scare-mongering and misinformation using the popularised claims of "sick building syndrome".

For more than a year, Gray Robertson and others have been describing to legislators and the media the many components of "sick building syndrome". They have succeeded in raising awareness of the broader issue. We have been less successful in encouraging legislators to deal with that issue — in part because there exists no easy solution to the complex problem of ventilation.

    Last month, a meeting was held to determine the feasibility of moving forward with a project that would promote indoor air quality/ventilation legislation at the state or local level.

• Chip Foley, TI Issues manager
• Peter Sparber, Issues Managment contractor (Sparber & Associates); Special Projects Director
• Susan M Stuntz, TI VP Issues Management in Washington
• Bill CarnellTI State Activities- - Legislative affairs
• Walter WoodsonTI (writer) Publications section
• Scott Stapf, TI media/public affairs and fire-fighting
• Katherine Becker TI State Activities
• Rich Marcus from Ogilvy & Mather
• Dennis Dyer TI VP and head of PR
• Ron Morris, TI Issues Management
• John Kelly TI State Affairs, TAN coordinator
• Michael F Brozek TI State Government affairs
• Ric Scanlan Public Affairs manager at TI
• Jim Savarese (James Savarese & Associates) Outside contractor.

As of this date the written proposal includes in detail the assumptions, strategies, goals and tactics that would lead to the introduction of legislation which sets standards for indoor air quality. This legislation would be in lieu of smoking restrictions or could provide the basis for repeal of existing smoking restrictions.

    In either case, the intent would not be passage, so much as to generate long term debate on the issue, and focus the public's attention on indoor air pollution in the workplace. The debate would turn attention away from the issue of workplace smoking.

    It is important that] the public awareness campaign must continue and be stepped up (ie ACVA).

1987 May: Helmut W Gaisch at FTR (PM's Swiss company Fabriques de Tabac Reunies) reports to his superiors.

Wednesday 6th May: HGa [himself] met in Lausanne with Mr B B Brooks [PM Europe executive] in order to, prepare for the meeting on ETS which was planned for the following week. The exact organisational relationship was determined between PM, the TI, and bodies such as IAPAG and ACVA.

    The purpose was to find ways to master the analogous situation in Europe. The necessity of a buffer organisation became even more evident.

1987 May 1: Fleishman-Hillard is sending Susan Stuntz at the Tobacco Institute the "interview schedule for the upcoming Maryland and Delawar tour" of ACVA staff. Accompanying this schedule is a copy of Gray Robertson's statement to a Connecticut Senator which says:

How much of the blame now heaped on ETS is misplaced? The government's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reported recently that in the 203 major indoor air quality complaints it has examined, just four — or two percent — were attributable to cigarette smoking. [This is a gross distortion of the NIOSH finding]

    My firm, ACVA Atlantic Inc., has inspected more than 37 million square feet of office space in 180 private and public buildings. We found tobacco smoke was the major contributing factor to air quality problems in only seven of these buildings.

    These consistent findings make it increasingly clear that tobacco smoke is blamed for poor indoor air quality simply because it is one of the few indoor air factors that we can see and smell. But high levels of ETS are nothing more than a symptom of poorly maintained and designed ventilation systems.

Schedule:
Stories generated:
New project proposal:
Robertson's Statement:

1987 May 1: Fleishman-Hillard staff Karen Doyne and Karil Kochenderfer (who organise and promote the media tours ) writes to Susan Stuntz at the Tobacco Institute pointing out that the last project on their ACVA Media Tours schedule in set for June 1-3 in Georgia. They present for selection a long list of nearly 100 cities in 26 states for Gray Robertson to visit in Round 2 of the ACVA Media Tours.

1987 May 1: At the same time, Gray Robertson is becoming increasingly aware that the work his company is doing providing witnesses to various legislative inquiries might be breaching anti-lobbying laws. [See Massachusettes above] He has sent this copy of these Lobbying Laws to the TI for consideration.

1987 May 1: Gray Robertson is now writing to US Senators on ACVA letterhead, promoting the tobacco industry's line of propaganda:

My firm, ACVA. Atlantic Inc., has inspected more than 37 million square feet of office space in 180 private and public buildings. We found tobacco smoke was the major contributing factor to air quality problems in only seven of these buildings.

1987 May 27: ACVA report on the Air Quality of the Bank of Finland Building in Helsinki — a relatively new building. This building houses 190 staff and

"Smoking is permitted only in the dining area and a very small number of work areas which are mostly maintenance type work areas."

1987 May 28: - 29 ACVA report on the Indoor Air Quality of the headquarters building of the PI Group (Electronics manufacturers) in Finland. It details how the testing was done, etc. and show how reports were presented. There is no significant mention of tobacco smoke in this report — it also looks to be an honest report. [Yet it was found in Philip Morris files!]

1987 June 22: Dee Ann Huss of ACVA has sent Sheryl Carter of the Tobacco Institute the "Itinerary list of ACVA Personnel for TI-related business during the month of May 1987" Gray Robertson and Simon Turner are the only two on this list, and both are touring in various states (under the promotional control of Fleishman Hillard Public Relations) giving evidence and helping make a videotape via Ogilvy & Mather.

1987 June 23: William Cannel, Vice President of State Activities at the Tobacco Institute writes to Simon Turner at ACVA, gushing over his recent propaganda efforts.

It may have been just another stop on the legislative circuit to you, but the US Conference of Mayors meeting was a very important session for us. I appreciate your arranging to be there and participating in the workshop discussion. [Philip Morris gave a generous grant to this organization]

    I do believe that Larry [Holcomb] and you achieved a balance — if that is ever possible — in the meeting. Your information, tone of voice and demeanor all serve for you to be viewed as a most credible witness.

    Thanks again for your very able assistance! You were super!

1987 July 10: The ACVA Group now has a very active competitor, the IT Corporation.

    This is a statement made by David Weeks, a long-term medical lobbyist [and IAPAG-member with Gray Robertson] at a public-smoking hearing in Tyler, Texas. He says

"I am here today at the request of The Tobacco Institute to discuss the implications of the IT Corporation's analysis of cigarette smoke in the air in over 70 Dallas offices and restaurants.

    To put it simply: The results of the Dallas study are very clear. The levels of nicotine matter found in local offices and restaurants indicate that smoking regulations are unnecessary in order to assure adequate indoor air quality.

    The Dallas research should come as a surprise to no student of the rapidly-growing field of indoor air quality. Similar results were reported in December 1986 in a systematic study of air quality in 100 New York City offices and restaurants.

    The overall findings of the NIOSH investigations of actual indoor air quality complaints have been borne out by a Fairfax, Va.-based firm, ACVA Atlantic, Inc., a firm specializing in the study and assessment of indoor air quality and its impact on worker health and safety. Of the well over 125 offices, banks, hospitals and government facilities investigated by ACVA since 1981, ETS was the major symptom of indoor air problems in only four percent.

    And when the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in these few buildings were cleaned or corrected, the indoor air quality problems were resolved.

1987 Aug: /E ACVA is taking part in PASS (Portable Air Sampling System) testing. In July 1 1986 the Mayor's Committee on Smoking & Health recommended smoking restrictions in public buildings in New York City. In order to counter these bans, the tobacco industry set about measuring 40 offices and 100 restaurants using ACVA as the so-called "independent expert service"

1987 Aug 24: At the ETS Review meeting of Philip Morris's EEMA division (Scandinavia, Switzerland, Middle East and Africa), one of the headings under discussion was:

• Sick building studies completed by ACVA (Helsinki and Stockholm areas).

1987 Aug 26: A letter from Clive Turner (father of Simon Turner) to Gray Robertson. Clive runs the Tobacco Advisory Council in London, and he wants some help critiquing a UK government HEA publication "Smoking Policies at Work".

    The TAC has also been discussing with Peter Binnie the use of ACVA's services to promote the the 'sick building syndrome' [SBS] idea in England. Clive writes:

I told Peter Binnie yesterday that our industry research committee sanctioned the proposal to carry out a programme of sbs [Sick Building Syndrome] work as an adjunct to what might be termed the Wythenshawe project [a UK hospital where they had a consultant], and we shall get down to identifying 20 suitable locations. But we await some further information from Peter before we can brief our 'location searchers'.

    It was very good to see you and we enjoyed your discussion with us which will help in our planning for your end-October media tour. I also very much enjoyed meeting Mike [Price] that same evening. What a very charming man.

1987 Dec: /E This is a Philip Morris International (probably Bill Murray) speech for the Corporate Affairs division. He is talking about countering the WHO-led attack on public smoking restrictions:

[Main points only]

• sponsored three major scientific conferences in Europe, Japan and Latin America.
• recruited 20 medical witnesses, (Now 50 — aim 100 during 1988).
• book entitled "Clearing the Air' [edited by Robert Tollison]
• air-testing in aircraft and 51 Hong-Kong restaurants (PASS)
• PM-USA and other members of the industry are setting up a Center of Indoor Air Research in Washington DC. It will undertake thorough long-term studies, and publish a scientific journal.
• A network of Indoor Air Quality engineers, largely financed by US, is spreading from the US to every continent. [ventilation companies like ACVA/HBI, etc.]
• Smokers mobilization programs based on the excellent PM-USA scheme [National Smokers Alliance (NSA)] and the UK's 30,000 member FOREST are rapidly being formed throughout Europe, in Australia and Argentina. We have scored a major political coup in recruiting Mr Uffe Elleman-Jensen, the President of the Council of Ministers of the European Community, to spearhead the European smokers movement.

1987 Oct 19: Tobacco Institute list of "Scientific Witness Appearance Requirements" for the various states on a regional basis. Gray Robertson, Simon Turner, Peter Binnie, are all on the automatic distriubution list,

Massachusetts — DECEMBER 2 & 16 — Dyer requests full-blown ACVA/IAPAG presentations slies, videos, whatever available) for 2-3 hour meeting before the Mass. Legislative Special Commission on Indoor Air Pollution.

New York, NY — OCTOBER 28 — Scanlan requests ACVA/IAPAG for Council Health Cmte hearing on the NY City restriction measure...Turner of ACVA is lined up.

Erie County, PA — OCTOBER 27 — Scanlan tentatively requests Turner for one-on-ones with county lawmakers. Turner could then fly down the evening of the 27th to New YorkCity.

Robertson media tour...RVPs/RDs: please let us know IMMEDIATELY if you have a problem with any of the localities/dates of the following scheduled media tours.

    Like the Robertson tour, truth squad spokesmen will be accompanied by public relations officials...but not by TI staff.

1988–89: [In the 2004 Statement of Reg Simmons - a HBI whistleblower].

"Throughout the period 1986-1989, when the company was going through massive expansion, Mr. Peter Binney was intimately involved with all operations. The work we were receiving from the Tobacco Institute covered virtually the entire United States and various foreign countries and included public (federal and state) and private buildings. As a result of public relations work done by Fleishman Hillard, we also began to receive calls from non-Tobacco Institute potential clients.

    Mr Binney had a number of instructions and ground rules for us to follow that applied to all of the buildings that we inspected, private and public:

• when taking air samples for nicotine tests, we were instructed to take air samples in lobbies and other easily accessible areas where the circulation was best, thus. reducing the readings.;
• if asked, always recommend to clients that any air*pollution problems could be solved by better ventilation;
• banning or restricting tobacco use or smoking was never to be recommended; and
• every inspection report was to be reviewed and undergo final editing by either Mr. Binney or Mr. Robertson before it was sent out."
  
      I worked on hundreds and hundreds of inspections in private and public buildings, and wrote some of the inspection reports myself, and yet never saw the final product of any of my work before it was sent to a client. The reports were always edited by Mr. Binney or Mr. Robertson.
  
      However, on many occasions involving inspections of both public and private buildings, I would later see the inspection reports in the main files and note that Mr Binney or Mr Robertson had changed the data and the conclusions. For example, recommendations to restrict or ban smoking would routinely be edited out of the inspection reports by either Mr Binney or Mr Robertson.
  
      It was also a standard practice for Mr. Binney to reduce the actual results of two
      significant tests that were done on buildings: (1) the test for airborne particle count ("APC"); and (2) the test for weighing airborne particles ("WAP").

1988: ACVA plans and projects with Whitecoats meeting

1988 Jan 4: Edelman public relations in London has been putting together a UK press tour for Gray Robertson, including some conferences. Before the schedule is finalised he says that it is imperative that his report has had full industry approval. [Some members of the Tobacco Advisory Council (TAC) are dubious about the 'air-conditioner' focus of Gray's message.]

1988 Jan 26: Sharon Boyse's CONFIDENTIAL report to BATCo on "an informal meeting between the ETS Advisory Group of the Tobacco Advisory Council (TAC) and RJ Reynolds." She states

"Our public relations committee at TAC have apparently been collaborating with Gray Robertson of ACVA, who has been used as a spokesman/expert witness by the US tobacco industry. RJR pointed out that although the abilities of Gray Robertson as a presenter are undeniable, this was not the case for his scientific abilities.

They felt, in particular, that his methodology could not stand up to scientific scrutiny, and that some of his data was questionable,"

Sharon Boyse memo

    See Max Eisenberg testimony

1988 Feb 3: Meeting of the TI's Communications Committee. Susan Stuntz gave a presentation

The minutes indicate that Susan Stuntz, responding to requests made at the Communications Committee's previous meeting, discussed a plan for a Tobacco Institute consultant company, ACVA, to publicize indoor air quality issues in a series of advertisements for its services.

See Bennan Dawson Deposition

1988 Mar 10: Considered Krause project for $61k - doing testing on Washington offices. "IT would prefer to do a representative sample" ("Bill" [Cannell] has advised how many offices = 61) Chip Foley is no longer with the institute.

1988 May 10: Tobacco industrymeeting on research and PR for the Center for Indoor Air Research (CIAR). These are the draft handwritten minutes. They say:

" ACVA Pilot home studies — Followup? "

[They seems to have found...]

"... elevated levels as considered by the allergy community.
  ... more elaborate and sophisticated methodology needed."

[Apparently done by or at Tulane University.]

1988 May 23 - 25: This is an IAQ Conference in Washington DC with a very extensive list of experts — but none from AVCA/HBI for some reason. This must be a genuine conference, because there is only one observer from the Tobacco Institute. This conference demonstrates the division between genuine IAQ consultants/researchers, and the Tobacco Institute's cabal.

1988 June 16: A Tobacco Institute speech by the Issues Manager Susan Stuntz who is explaining what they do:

Just as the CIAR deals with these issues on a scientific level, it is our charge every day to deal with the scientific issues from a PR standpoint. The Institute's IAQ program is designed to demonstrate that ETS is but a minor part of indoor air pollution, and that improved ventilation is the best solution to all air quality problems.

    We are well on the way to establishing a network of ventilation and scientific experts to represent a variety of constituencies with this message. This network will provide opportunities for the establishment of new coalitions to speak out on the issues, and offer new opportunities for existing coalitions and allies to make use of the ventilation issue,

    To achieve our objective, we would expand substantially our current use of ETS and ventilation experts. We would expand the means we use to promote their messages. We must do more — much more — to ensure that smoking restrictions are no longer seen as the best solution to cleaning up the indoor air.

    To promote ventilation as the answer to IAQ problems, and to critically analyse all ETS research, our program recommends retention of several ETS and ventilation experts. We recommend training at least six new experts to supplement our current total of five, by the end of the year. Of these, at least one will be an industrial hygienist to assist us in work with organized labor.

    We have already begun to train Alan Kassman, a former industry scientist who now is an independent consultant, to do legislative and media briefings on the ETS issue.

    On indoor air quality, we have identified Environmental Air Controls, a relatively [well-known??] air quality analysis firm, that is a subsidiary of a $45 million ventilation manufacturing company, to join our group of spokespeople on the ventilation issue.

Environmental Air Controls is headed by a woman who holds a masters' degree in public health and a doctorate in environmental sciences.

    In addition to performing buidling analyses, Environmental Air Controls will promote the issue through the media, and through briefings sponsored by our allies. This firm already is recruiting additional spokespersons to supplement the work of the director.

    Our expanded team of experts will support the Institute and its allies with indoor air quality seminars, print, and possible broadcast advertisement [and] direct mail. This team also would support a coalition of industries whose products have been identified as contributors to indoor air pollution.
They will promote the idea that all air quality problems are best dealt with through ventilation [Not reduction in smoke]. Representatives from several chemical and ventilation companies have expressed an interest in joining with the Institute in such a coalition.

" Gray Robertson's air quality analysis firm [to] support the ongoing AVCA media tours and targeted advertising."

1988 July: The Issues Manager of the Tobacco Institute, Susan Stuntz, told her executive audience at the annual knees-up that they had recruited Environmental Air Controls, [later named ENV Controls] to assist them with countering IAQ (Indoor Air Quality) tobacco smoke concerns.

[On Indoor Air Quality — about air-testing firms]
They will promote the idea that all air quality problems are best dealt with through ventilation [increased rates of air exchange]. Representatives from several chemical and ventilation companies have expressed an interest in joining with the institute in such a coalition.

    We also will reach out to individual companies with direct mail such as this piece ... this is rough art for a direct mail solicitation for ACVA ... Gray Robertson's air quality analysis firm.

    Direct mail solicitations will support the ongoing ACVA media tours and targeted advertising."

1988 July: The Tobacco Institute's PR Plan for the year shows them virtually directing the air-quality testing business of ACVA (later HBI) and also providing both media and scientific training to their staff.

Response Analysis Corporation completed public opinion testing of ACVA's Harrisburg/Philadelphia advertising campaign. Results concluded the campaign was effective in Harrisburg but not Philadelphia. We have suggested modifications to the media placement and frequency strategy, and will make recommendations for additional advertising and public opinion testing.

    ACVA also has developed a direct mail piece targeted to the corporate community, building owners and managers. The direct mail piece will be targeted and timed to enhance the effectiveness of the media tour and advertising campaign. ACVA also is exploring feasibility of broadcast ads to increase visibility of the overall program.

1988 July: The Tobacco Institute's PR Plan for the year shows them virtually directing the air-quality testing business of ACVA (later HBI) and also providing both media and scientific training to their staff.

Response Analysis Corporation completed public opinion testing of ACVA's Harrisburg/Philadelphia advertising campaign. Results concluded the campaign was effective in Harrisburg but not Philadelphia.

    We have suggested modifications to the media placement and frequency strategy, and will make recommendations for additional advertising and public opinion testing.

    ACVA also has developed a direct mail piece targeted to the corporate community, building owners and managers. The direct mail piece will be targeted and timed to enhance the effectiveness of the media tour and advertising campaign. ACVA also is exploring feasibility of broadcast ads to increase visibility of the overall program.

1988 July 14: Stig Carlson writes an explanatory note about the "Healthy Buildings - 88" symposium to be held in Stockholm September 5 - 8 1988. This is a conference on building and construction techniques and equipment run by major construction companies and building equipment manufacturers. It has a slant on Indoor Air Quality and the problems of sick-building-syndrome.

    A four-way relationship has been established between:

• the tobacco industry
• Gray Robertson of ACVA/HBI
• Carl-Gustav Pettersson, the manager of (Anders) Nisses Building Development Company which has been promoting itself as a Healthy Building constructor.
• HIROSS, a manufacturer of indoor air filtering and processing equipment.

• Utilize the promotion of the "Nisses Solution" and Robertson's pafticipation in HB -88 to focus the attention of delegates on the overall IAQ issue and the minimal role of ETS in IAQ.
• Via Robertson/ACVA research reports included in Nisses' future advertising/videotapes/brochures, communicate the ETS message to the building industry, unions, government safety experts, and via the media to the general public.
• Use Gray Robertson's visit to Sweden in early September for media interviews, union briefings, speeches etc. Gray Robertson is scheduled to appear in Sweden September 5 - 7, in Finland September 8, and Norway September 9 (Svenska PR Byran).
• Establish a genuine interest among Nordic union leaders to correct the real causes of sickness in buildings. [The unions and Gray Robertson will be given special attention in an 8-page Nisses supplement in a Stockholk newspaper]
• A 10 minute video featuring Gray Roberston and the "Nisses Solution" will be made for the conference and for later union 'education'.
• Professof Jack E Peterson, Peterson Associates in Wisconsin will attend, and a media tour is bing arranged for him. [He is a long-term contractor to the tobacco industry on IAQ issues]
• ACVA will issue a survey of Swedish workplace environments (codename Eureca) to the media.

Funding:

• Nisses SEK 1.2 million (about $250,000) including the 8-page supplement.
• Philip Morris has agreed to fund the PR side of the operations
• SwedishTobacco Company (NMA) is considering funding 1/3 of Nisses's costs to a maximum of SEK 380,000 ($75,000)

"attend HB-88 and participate knowledgeably in IAQ/ETS discussions — Q&A sessions" [and]

• "Monitor participation of antis, if any";
• plan for maximising publicity about the ACVA "Eureca" study and other material;
• finalize the script for the Nisses video;
• agree on the details of the "Nisses/HB-88 press conference" and
• assist symposium organisers in their planning/arrangements for global media coverage.
  [They plan to make the services of their PR company available via Nisses].
• "finalize a marketing plan for Nisses by which their messages will be publicized in the general media and union papers after the HB -88 conference ends."

1988 Aug 10: An executive at Philip Morris [probably Andrew Whist or Bill Murray (or both)] wrote "An Action Plan for ETS In Europe.." which shows that the company recognised that [underlined in original]

"many people spend most of their smoking hours in a workplace environment, and widespread workplace restrictions would severely affect the industry.

A second area of importance is in-flight smoking aboard commercial aircraft. In-flight restrictions receive broad publicity and encourage the adoption of other prohibitions elsewhere."

With respect to the ETS consultants, however, this does not mean that they should become, or even remotely appear to be, industry scientists, and coordination should therefore occur through Covington & Burling. [Do it through the lawyers]

    ETS is only one minor aspect of indoor air quality. The existing efforts to communicate that fact should be intensified. Several steps are involved.

• First, S+T [Philip Morris's own Science & Technology group in Switzerland] has initiated relationships with Battelle, TNO, and other recognized laboratories in Europe capable of indoor air quality monitoring. These relationships should be creatively utilized via large and small scale IAQ studies in the category 1 areas and markets.
  
  
• Second, full and effective use of ACVA and its findings should continue to be made throughout Europe.
  
  
• In addition, European firms should be developed that are capable of performing similar work.

1988 Sep 15: These handwritten notes were taken at one of the advisory committee meeting for the Center for Indoor Air Research (CIAR).

[While sometimes difficult to decipher, such notes are often most revealing since they are generally unguarded in their commentary.]

ACVA ETS measurements

• $47K for foliage study
• $550/site for 150-250 year [for] nicotine, RSP, CO, CO₂

CIAR [Center for Indoor Air Research] will not fund

Deciphered, this refers to proposed studies on:

• the "Role of plants in indoor air control" [which would include]
• test measurments of a large number of houses and small offices each year, testing for airborne particles (RSP), carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.

1988 Nov 18: Brett Gray at Fleishman-Hillard is writing to Kay Thomas at the Tobacco Institute (TI). They are helping promote Gray Robertson's ACVA business for the Tobacco Institute and organising media tours for the tobacco industry.

[It is impossible to interpret this in any other way than that the TI had an arrangement with ACVA which served the tobacco industry's purposes. ACVA was to promote the line that environmental tobacco smoke was not a serious problem in indoor air quality. ]

1988 Dec: This is a Boca Raton Action Plan document — run by Corporate Affairs of Philip Morris International. Andrew Whist and Don Harris have been given the job of developing Healthy Building seminars. They are planning a number of seminars which HBI will give around the world over the next year:

• 1989 Mar Hong Kong — under the auspices of the Australian Trade Commission
• 1989 Sep (Fall) — in Australia
• Italy, France, Belgium — negotiating with HIROSS (ventilation contractor)
• 1989 Apr UK — ACVA speaking tour
• 1989 Sept (Fall) London — negotiating with NISSES (who own the Healthy Buildings business name)
• 1989 Sept (Fall) Switzerland — IAQ/Workplace Seminar (needs a sponsor)
• 1989 Feb 6 - Mar 17 — IAQ (Indoor Air Quality) survey of 25 commercial buildings
• Iberia — format being modified for local needs
  • 1989 Sep (Fall) Iberia — IAQ/ETS scientific and media briefings
• Latin America — IAQ/ETS scientific and media briefings
  • 1989 April — Costa Rica
  • 1989 Oct — Venezuela
  • Brazil (open)
• 1990 — Japan, Korea, Taiwan or Philippines
• 1990 — More markets in the EEC (European Economic Community) region
• 1990 Spring — Sweden
• 1990 — also possible Australia, Iberia and Latin America

1988 Dec 12: Stig Carlson, a front-line operator on Smoking & Health issues for Philip Morris International in Europe (PM EEMA) sends a memo to Covington & Burling lawyer Charles Lister (effectively his boss): "Planning for next ETS steps; Nordic Area."

    He suggests a number of proposal using the EGIL ((Nordic Whitecoats/consultants group)) group (organised by Torbjorn Malmfors).

    ACVA has now effectively 'franchised' their tobacco-friendly IAQ/ventilation testing operations to other testing companies in other countires. Here they mention:

• Svenska PR-Byraan a PR company which is to be contracted to do some disinformation work at a conference.
• Jack E Peterson who runs a similar operation [Peterson Associates] to ACVA in the USA.
• Hen-Ry [which is a smokers-rights organization set up in Denmark (with tobacco money) by a couple of doctors.]

1988 Dec 30: Peter Binnie and Gray Robertson signed a contract with Max Eisenberg of CIAR to do some IAQ testing to prove that tobacco smoke is not a threat to children in the home. They are to perform 150 to 300 building samplings (for $550 each) between 2 January 1,1989 and December 31 1989. In total, ACVA or HBI would receive $82,500 for 100 samplings or up to $165,000 for 300 samplings.

    Also the grant's contract number [89-02] was awarded to HBI in the amount of $138,387 over the time period from January 1, 1989, to December 31, 1991. That award was made by CIAR before it was actually functioning as a supposedly "independent" grant-making body, and before its SAB was in place.

    CIAR's print-out of the payments made to HBI totalled $206,966. See Max Eisenberg testimony.

1989: One of the documents HBI staff used when briefing Congressmen:

"HBI Systems Experience 1980-1989."

• Total number of buildings studied — 412
• Total number of sq ft of occupied space — 63 m
• Estimated number of building occupants — 365,000
• Major air pollutants found
  • fungi       — 32%,
  • dust         — 29%,
  • bacteria     — 8%,
  • formaldehyde — 7%,
  • exhaust fumes — 5%,
  • tobacco smoke — 3%

1989: Tobacco Institute: Susan Stuntz "The Plan" for countering public-smoking ban hearings. She writes under "Action Neeeded":

To place the ETS issue in the broader context of indoor air quality.

• Gray Robertson, ACVA Atlantic, Inc. is ready and willing. He should be a part of continued private briefings with Congressional staff.
  
• Frank Powell, Director of Engineering for the National Energy Management Institute (NEMI), is available to brief Congressional staff and members on ventilation standards and indoor air quality issues. He also is available to testify at hearings as appropriate.
• Briefings and testimony may include use of two videos on indoor air quality, one featuring Sheet Metal Workers union president Ed Carlough; one produced by the Service Employees International Union.

[Both videos were produced using tobacco industry money and under the Tobacco Institute's content control.]

1989: Speech by Chairman Jim Johnson to the Executive Committee of the Tobacco Institute:

The Business Council on Indoor Air (BCIA) was organised late last year with seed money from the Tobacco Institute. Today its members include companies whose products have been linked to indoor air pollution, Dow Chemicals, PPG, Monsanto — and companies whose ventilation expertise suggests that ventilation, rather than single source control [ie tobacco] is the best solution to all of the problems.

    The [Tobacco] Institute is not a formal member of the BCIA, That's by design. The BCIA represents a chorus of voices ... none of them with visible ties to tobacco .... carrying a similar message. Our effectiveness, as with other coalitions, is in the background."

We still have a say in the organization, however, because the ventilation companies that have joined, such as Gray's [Gray Robertson's ACVA/HBI] have done so at our request and with our commitment to pay their membership dues.

    We also provide support for the Executive Director of the group — with production of some materials and professional services from political and legal consultants, [and as a result] the BCIA joined organized labor in testifying on the Mitchell Indoor Air Bill.

    When the BCIA was invited to make a presentation before the EPA Advisory Board, [Tobacco] Institute consultants reviewed the presentation and worked to promote it.

    These people have credibility because they are speaking out apart from us. We don't seek publicity for their efforts ... nor is it in our interest to be linked to them. But rest assured, the Institute is behind the scenes directing the traffic.

1989: Speech by Jim Johnson, Chairman of the TI, to the Executive Committee of the Tobacco Institute:

The Business Council on Indoor Air (BCIA)was organised late last year with seed money from the Tobacco Institute. Today its members include companies whose products have been linked to indoor air pollution, Dow Chemicals, PPG, Monsanto — and companies whose ventilation expertise suggests that ventialation, rather than single source control [ie tobacco] is the best solution to all of the problems.

    The [Tobacco] Institute is not a formal member of the BCIA, That's by design. The BCIA represents a chorus of voices ... none of them with visible ties to tobacco .... carrying a similar message. Our effectiveness, as with other coalitions, is in the background."
We still have a say in the organization, however, because the ventilation companies that have joined, such as Gray's [Gray Robertson's ACVA/HBI] have done so at our request and with our commitment to pay their membership dues.

We also provide support for the Executive Director of the group — with production of some materials and professional services from political and legal consultants, [and as a result] the BCIA joined organized labor in testifying on the Mitchell Indoor Air Bill.

    When the BCIA was invited to make a presentation before the EPA Advisory Board, [Tobacco] Institute consultants reviewed the presentation and worked to promote it.

    These people have credibility because they are speaking out apart from us. We don't seek publicity for their efforts ... nor is it in our interest to be linked to them. But rest assured, the Institute is behind the scenes directing the traffic.

1989/E: ETS Strategy in the Philip Morris EEC Region.
This is a direction document for cooperation between Philip Morris's Corporate Affairs (CA) division in Brussels, Helmut Gaisch's Science & Technology (S&T) propaganda division in Lausanne, Switzerland, and PM's headquarters (HQ — with lawyers to check) in Neuchatel, Switzerland.
Airlines: A decision must be made on whether to use the
    "ETS" approach or the "IAQ" approach. The former is simpler to push on airlines but is riskier in what is actually found.

Indoor Air Quality:The fundamental reasoning behind the IAQ plan was to push this technology in the hope that a self-sustaining commercial niche could be created. The burden of pushing the "IAQ" issue would then fall to the companies involved, who would have a commercial reason for doing so. For some reason, all this has not happened. Efforts to organize testing and symposia have been sporadic and one-shot. Therefore, we should address this problem before all others.

    One possibility is to subsidize the creation of ACVA licensees, such as Nisses Ltd. in London, for a limited period. In any case, other potential ventilation companies have to be identified and then supported (with technical and marketing expertise) until they can stand alone. Specific budgets have to be set aside for this, objectives set and timing mapped out.

Scientific Consultants (France): Three types of consultant are needed here . The first would be a Gray Robertson typey preferably with a medical background, who could "carry" the IAQ issue in France practically single-handedly.

From the US government's 'Factual Memo' used in Medicaid litigation.     Air Conditioning and Ventilation Associates Atlantic (ACVA Atlantic) was a business concerned with indoor air quality that was run by Gray Robertson . Beginning in 1985 ACVA and Robertson helped disseminate the tobacco industry's strategy of avoiding known as discussion of the connection between passive exposure and disease by deflecting attention away from ETS to "the larger problem of all of indoor air." This was used as a basis to challenge existing laws and counter specific legislative and regulatory threats.     ACVA became Healthy Buildings International (HBI) and was an important part of the industry's ETS Consultancy Program (defendants' international effort to deny and distort the health effects of exposure to secondhand smoke). ACVA/HBl and Philip Morris publicized a concept they created called "sick building syndrome" to take attention away from cigarettes as a point-source of indoor air pollution. Payments for these services were made by TI, Covington and Burling, CTR Special Projects and Industry Lawyers Special 4 Account.

1989 Jan 31: Gaisch's monthly report says that himself, Marcovitch, Helmut Reif, PIC had a...

Meeting in Lausanne on the subject of IAQ, Switzerland with Messrs Gray ROBERTSON (ACVA), Chuck LISTER (C&B), [and Philip Morris European staffers Raymond] PANTET, [Ulrich] CRETTAZ and [Jean] BESQUES.

    The following decisions were taken:

• ACVA is to start a series of IAQ investigations on 25 buildings covering the whole area of Switzerland.
• S&T [Science & Technology at FTR] is to follow-up with the contacts already made, and to establish a work schedule for two ACVA teams.
• S&T is to organise one driver / guide for each of the two teams, as well as two mini-vans.
• ACVA estimates a testing rate of five buildings per week, making the whole investigation last for five weeks.
• Starting date around 6th February, 1989.
• The following parameters will be measured in the outdoor air respectively:
  • the air intake temperature,
  • high-molecular hydrocarbons,
  • low-molecular hydrocarbons,
  • RSP [Repiratable smoke particles] (PIESO, <3.5 micro meter),
  • microbial count,
  • carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and oxides of nitrogen.
• Inside the buildings the following parameters will be measured in addition :
  • Legionella in the water of cooling towers,
  • asbestos (if this seems indicated on a particular site),
  • radon (samples will be placed and collected after three months).
• Individual reports will be provided by ACVA to the individual clients. A comprehensive report will be given to Philip Morris. Expected date of delivery: mid-May, 1989. A separate report will follow three months later with the results of the radon measurements.

1989 Mar 16: A team of scientific witness is urgently needed. ACVA representatives and ETS scientists are being asked to testify before the Committee on Health Care, followed by one-on-one meetings with legislators.
    Simon Turner, and David Weeks will be in attendence with these one-on-ones.
    Details of Gray Robertsons media tour. Those being sent the memo are:

• Simon Turner, Peter Binnie, Gray Robertson (all of ACVA ... later HBI)
• John Rupp (Covington & Burling), Matt Jacobs and Rich Marcus (Lawyers and lobbyists)
• Listed SWT (Scientific Witness Team) members are Josh Douglas, Larry Holcomb, David Weeks, Jack Peterson, Allen Kassman
• IAPAG (Indoor Air Pollution Advisory Group ) contact is Jan Cook at Georgetown University

1989 Mar 16: A Tobacco Insitute document by Diana Avedon, headed "Scientific/Other Witness Appearance Requirements." A team of scientific and academic/profession witness is urgently needed in various regions to appear at ordinance and legislative hearings, etc.

  • Region I: Boston, MA — March 27-28 — [Regional Vice President] Dennis Dyer requests ACVA representative and ETS scientist to testify before Committee on Health Car, 11:00 am March 27. Witnesses would then be available for one-to-ones with legislators the afternoon of the 27th and all day the 28th. [Simon] Turner and [David] Weeks will attend.
    • Region VI: Myrtle Beach, SC — March 19-21 — Flue-Cured Tobacco Seminar to be held. Simon Turner, ACVA, to make presentation.

1989 July: In his testimony (2004] Gregory Wulchin says this is when he did the IAQ job on Imperial Bank Building in San Diego. He says Robertson altered his figures. href="http://www.justice.gov/civil/cases/tobacco2/01_Wulchin%20Direct%20Test]
    " Target=_blank>

1989 Sept 21: In a speech Bill Murray the CEO of Philip Morris International says:

• Environmental Tobacco Smoke,or ETS, is probably the greatest threat to our industry, [and it] is the driving force behind smoking restrictions in the workplace, on airlines and other forms of public transport, and in virtually all public areas.
• If present trends continue smokers will have fewer and fewer opportunities to enjoy a cigarette. This will have a direct and very major impact on consumption.
• To date, our principal defense [Slide says "Healthy Bldgs"] has been the position developed by indoor air quality scientist Gray Robinson. He points out that many things contribute to poor air quality, and tobacco smoke is just a small part of the problem.

1989 Oct 16: Philip Morris's EEMA Regional Annual Report states:

3 - HEALTHY BUILDINGS SEMINARS
  In cooperation with PMI, PM EEC and C&B we are working with the HIROSS ventilation company and Healthy Buildings Limited (a UK company owned by C-G Pettersson. C-G Pettersson was one of the principal architects of the Healthy Buildings '88 Symposium in Stockholm) to expand the list of available sponsors for IAQ conferences

    C-G Pettersson, a PM consultant, made a major presentation in June on air quality and ventilation to the Swedish National Building Board. In March Mr. Pettersson also addressed the Norwegian Builders' Association annual conference in Oslo, and this speech was publicized by BM. [Burson-Marsteller]

    In July Gray Robertson at the request of C-G Pettersson was interviewed by UK TV in front of Pettersson's Millbank building project.

    In a related development TCO [The Swedish white collar union] published three newspaper supplements which featured articles by Bo Mikaelsson [A Tobacco industry medical consultant through ARIA and EGIL] C-G Pettersson and Gray Robertson.

    In January PM persuaded the Swedish NMA to sponsor ACVA IAQ studies of 20 leading restaurants in the three largest cities. In March, PM arranged for ACVA's Peter Binnie to brief the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Association on this study. The Association then used this study as part of their presentation in March to the Magnusson Commission [Which was examining Swedish policy on second-hand smoke].

1989 Nov:

1989 Nov 4: Tobacco Institute memo to Bill Trisler from Bill Orzechowsk has attached [Page 5] a speech made [probably by Fred Panzer] at a "Lobbyists meeting"

There are three important points that I'd like you to remember.

• First, banning smoking does not solve indoor air quality problems. It may even make them worse. Tobacco smoke is only one of many indoor pollutants.
• Second, Ventilation is the best way to prevent all IAQ problems. and
• Third, we can educate the public and the lawmakers. Indoor Air Pollution is a sickness. And ventillation, not smoking restrictions, is a remedy.

The symptoms of poor indoor air quality often referred to as 'sick building syndrome' include:

• headache,
• eye irritation,
• fatigue,
• sore throats and nausea.

Symptoms — like tobacco smoke accumulation in the air — are "warnings" that there may be problems in the:

• design,
• operation or,
• maintenance of a building's ventilation or air handling system.

Tobacco smoke plays a minor role in the total indoor air pollution picture.

    What does cause these symptoms are things you can't see, such as:

• office machines and furnishing contaminants
• chemicals from photocopiers
• also fungi and bacteria may accumulate and circulate through the building.

The key to reducing concentration of all contaminants simultaneously is increased ventilation. This is the key component of our indoor air quality bills for 1990.

ASHRAE maintains that increased ventilation is the best way to prevent indoor air quality problems. The old standard set two ventilation rates — one for smoking and one for non-smoking areas. The new standard, officially adopted and approved, sets one standard for minimum outside air ventilation rates, regardless of smoking activity. We have our friends at Covington & Burling to thank for this development.

    This year in the State of Washington we saw the adoption of what could be called an "Industry model" IAQ bill. It was a bill we drafted, but labor took the lead. Most importantly it was passed without the industry's fingerprints on it. Paul Jacobson led an excellent effort on this bill.

    I'm sure you are all familiar with Gray Robertson and his team from ACVA Atlantic — these gentlemen give excellent presentations, before a group and one-on-one with legislators and the media. [Gray is changing his company's name from AVCA to HBI]

Stan Boman and Ken Nance will recall the eye-opening results of AVCA's work [in testing the air of] the Oklahoma State House. In fact, ACVA has been asked to advise officials in Columbus Ohio on approaches to IAQ improvements.

    There are also ETS experts like Larry Holcomb and David Weeks [who] can be sponsored by a third party, if sponsors are identified well in advance.

1989 Dec: The Center for Indoor Air Research (CIAR) has been used to launder contracts for ACVA/HBI to perform hundreds of building IAQ tests over this year. These appear to be the original data-sheets with corrections and notes.

[Note: These were the final results of ACVA series of studies for the CIAR which appear to have been later annotated by Alfred Lowrey of the US Naval Resarch Laboratory for the Subcommittee on Health and the Environment [See date of 1994 — and note that he has used the HBI name, rather than ACVA]

    Note also the RSP [respirable smoke particulates] discrepencies — this column of the document has conspicuously lower figures which have been added by hand alongside. Lowrey reported that he found 80:1 cases of under-reporting of RSPs.]

CONTRIBUTORS:samf in22 srs2