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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

Sung-Ok Baek worked for a number of years with two tobacco scientists PWW Kirk and Professor Roger Perry at the Imperial College, London (A subset of London University).

Perry conducted numerous air-quality studies for the UK tobacco industry. He was also a founder of the ARIA organisation, and a key recruiter for both European and Asian WhiteCoats. Perry worked on these WhiteCoat recruitment projects with two other ARIA scientists, George Leslie and Francis Roe.

In 1989 or early 1990 Sung-Ok Baek was home in his native Korea, and he began to be seen as an Asian WhiteCoat. He had excellent contacts and was able to act as an informant of various anti-smoking operations/programs in Korea. He was so useful in this role that the American lawfirm, Covington & Burling (C&B), recommended that he be placed on a retainer ... which took him out of the WhiteCoat category, into the realm of a secret consultant.

John Rupp of C&B recommended to the tobacco industry that he be asked to infiltrate the Society of Air-Conditioning and Refrigerating Engineers of Korea (SAREK) organization which, if he became active (as most members were not) he would be in a position to influence the standards which were set for building ventilation and the quality of indoor air. As with the American ASHRAE, SAREK established the local air quality standards (usually following ASHRAE but adapted for warmer climates) for factories and offices ... and these were used by Asian countries as far distant as Indonesia.

Some key documents

• Deparment of Environmental Engineering, Yeungnam University, Kyungsan, Korea

• Sung-Ok Baek worked on a number of tobacco industry projects with Roger Perry and PWW Kirk — one on Indoor Air Quality measurements in aircraft. Apparently his work with Perry was funded by the Korean tobacco industry (See Glantz below]

1988: "Environmental tobacco smoke in indoor air" In PW Kirk and R Perry, Eds.
    Indoor and Ambient Air Quality, London : Selper, pp . 99-112 .
    Their ETS study report on the measurement of particulates in air using the MiniRAM (portable air sampler)

A nationwide survey of ETS has been undertaken in the UK. Three components of ETS, namely particulate ecatter,nicotine and carbon monoxide were monitored in nearly 3,000 locations over 30 min periods in travel, work, home and leisure situations. Levels of the three components were generally low in comparison with UK Occupational Exposure Limits. In a follow-up study three methods of particulate measurement were compared in an intensive study of a few locations.

Conclusion: It is concluded that MiniRAM particulate measurements with no impaction as used in the main survey are an over-estimate of true particulate levels.

    A comparison of three methods for the evaluation of particulate matter, namely MiniRAM particulate dosimeters, piezobalance aerosol monitors and a gravimetric procedure in an intensive study of a small number of environments demonstrated that MiniRAM particulate monitors over-estimate the contribution of ETS to indoor particulate levels. This is likely to be related to the high reflectance of ETS particulates.

    Nicotine concentrations determined in follow-up studies with an improved detection limit, were in general lower than those observed in the nationwide field survey. This suggests that the nicotine levels reported in the field survey were somewhat over-estimated, particularly for the non-smoking locations.

1988: Kirk PWW, Hunter M, Baek SO, Lester JN, Perry R; Stankus RP, Lehrer SB in: Indoor and Ambient air quality, R Perry and PWW Kirk, eds .,
    Publications Division, Selper Ltd, London, 99-112, 303

1988: The above is cited in the Betting Shop ETS Study by C hris Proctor [WhiteCoat recruiter with BAT then C&B] (A study done with Perry and Kirk)

1989: "Environmental Tobacco Smoke," Proceedings of the International Symposium at McGill University" quotes the above study also. It has clearly become popular with the tobacco industry propagandists.

1990 /E: Asian WhiteCoats Project proposal of Covington & Burling has this entry:

  • ASHRAE/SAREK place Dr Baek on a retainer and ask him to join and be active in SAREK ($10,000)

[SAREK is the Society of Air-Conditioning and Refrigerating Engineers of Korea — like ASHRAE in the USA, they set the standards of ventilation needed to maintain good indoor air quality across Asia.

    Baek does not appear to have joined or influenced SAREK]

1991 Nov 28-29: 13th Asian Conference on Occupational Health in Bangkok, Thailand — had a special piggy-backed Satellite Symposium on 'Indoor Air Quality in Asia' It had a number of Asian WhiteCoats as speakers, together with well-known European tobacco science-lobbyists (along with at least one legitimate scientist and some unwitting associates):

• Indoor Air Quality of Urban Shopping Facilities — by Izhar M Fihir, Faculty of Public Health, University of Indonesia, Depok, Indonesia.
• Identification of the Source of Airborne Particulate Matter in Urban, Suburban and Industrial Areas, — by Sung-Ok Baek, Deparment of Environmental Engineering, Yeungnam University, Kyungsan, Korea
• "How Safe are the Maximal Exposure Levels of CO" — by Goran Krystic and Donald ('Max') Weetman, Sunderland Polytechnic, [European WhiteCoats]
• "How Do We Establish Priorities for the Amelioration of Indoor Air Pollution" — by Gordon Leslie [WhiteCoat recruiter]
• "Contol of Dust in Small Cement Factories with Shaft Kilns" — by Guang-quan Liu et al

1994 Jan 3: John Rupp of Covington & Burling is writing to Kim Kyu Tae, Chairman of the Korea Tobacco Association].
    He explains that Dr Sung-Ok Baek of Korea was a consultant for the tobacco industry's ETS Consultant Program:

"Professors Yoon Shin Kim and Sung-Ok Baek are consulting with [tobacco industry] in Korea, and will be involved in the Korean indoor air quality monitoring study..."

1996 Aug 9: Roger Walk [Philip Morris]. memo on the budget for the Joint Japanese Tobacco/Philip Morris ETS Consultant Program [part of a fax to Dr Y Akiyama, Japan Tobacco]. He is to receive support for the Nagoya Conference July 1996, estimated at US$3750, however, the invoice is open and he is also to
    receive US$5100 in funding to complete the Korean Indoor Air Quality Study,

1997: SO Baek and RA Jenkins have published a research paper which was funded by the Center for Indoor Air Research under contract to Yeungnam University in Korea. The Abstract reads:

"The objective of this study was to develop and demonstrate a methodology to determine human exposure to a variety of indoor air contaminants by personal monitoring. Target analytes included respirable suspended particulates, components of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and a wide range of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). A total of 60 non-smoking, non-occupational residents at homes in metropolitan Taegu, Korea, were recruited for this study. The subjects were classified into two groups, i.e. subjects living in homes with smokers and without smokers. Seasonal air samples were collected using three-channel personal samplers for each subject in two phases over a 24-hour period, i.e. awake time and sleeping time separately. Performance of sampling and analytical methods used for the simultaneous measurements of ETS and VOCs were evaluated with respect to sensitivity, repeatability and field application."

[Source University of Sydney]

1997: A Reference exists to this study, not in the tobacco archives.

Sung-ok Baek, Yoon-Shin Kim and Roger Perry: (1997). "Indoor Air Quality in homes, offices and restaurants in Korean Urban Areas - Indoor/Outdoor relationships". Atmospheric Environment, 31, (4), [pp529-544.]

1997 Sep 3: J Heck of Lorillard. memo about a CIAR board of directors' and general meeting, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 3 Bates No. [86618873/8874.]

    The minutes from the CIAR Board Meeting show that he was a prior recipient of CIAR funding.

1997 Sep 18: Baek'S FFax to Dr. Roger Walk, Philip Morris Asia. acknowledges receipt of travel funds for a Kuala Lumpur conference [Indoor & Built Environment Problems In Asia] and expressing

"thanks for the donation of US$50000 which was installed in the University account"

1999: email regarding "personal examples of interactions which furthered our objectives" stated: "Dr SO Baek of Yuengnam University whom we have interacted in relation to the air monitoring studies in Korea, had expressed interest in conducting assessment of ventilation effectiveness in venues where smoking takes place. Future interactions with Dr. Baek are envisaged to be useful in furthering our objectives in the accommodation core strategy".

1999 Jan: Philip Morris USA "Accomplishments" by the division of WorldWide Scientific Affairs. [After the MSA when documents were on the Internet]

Visited Dr. Sung-Ok Baek of Yeungnam University, Korea, to learn about his current research in personal monitoring studies and hear his report on project progress; met with Dr. Dong Wook Lee, Director, Division of Chemical Research of the Korean Ginseng and Tobacco Research Institute (KGTRI) and made a presentation on ventilation considerations for smoking lounges.

2004: An excellent scholarly overview of the ARTIST operation by Stanton Glantz and EK Tong (University of San Francisco) illustrates how this organisation functioned.

In 1996, Philip Morris led an organisation of scientific representatives from different tobacco companies called the Asian Regional Tobacco Industry Science Team (ARTIST), whose membership grew to include monopolies from Korea, China, Thailand, and Taiwan and a company from Indonesia. ARTIST was initially a vehicle for PM's strategies against anticipated calls for global smoke-free areas from a World Health Organization secondhand smoke study.

    ARTIST evolved through 2001 into a forum to present scientific and regulatory issues faced primarily by Philip Morris and other transnational tobacco companies. Philip Morris' goal for the organisation became to reach the external scientific and public health community and regulators in Asia.

For smoker and non-smoker exposure experiments, topics included review of personal monitor exposure studies (PM), smoker compensation for nicotine levels (Japan Tobacco), risk measuring indoor secondhand smoke levels (Baek, Korea's Yeungham University), and secondhand smoke levels for non-smokers in offices (Korea).

    For nonhuman discussions, topics included secondhand smoke neurotoxicity in rats (Korea), and cigarette beetle control (Taiwan). Baek was a consultant for the $225 000 industry funded Korean indoor air quality 1993—4 analyses with UK industry consultant Roger Perry, and had been budgeted for $110 000 from PM in 1997—8.

2004 Dec: issue of Atmospheric Environments has an article Characterization of trace organic compounds associated with aged and diluted sidestream tobacco smoke in a controlled atmosphere —volatile organic compounds and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons It is by:

• Sung-Ok Baek, School of Civil, Urban, and Environmental Engineering, Yeungnam University, Kyungsan 712-749, South Korea
• Roger A Jenkins, Chemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, TN 37831-6120, USA

  [and a well-known, long-term tobacco scientist]

2009 May 13: International Society of Exposure Science (ISES) list him as:

Sung-Ok Baek

email: sobaek@yu.ac.kr

Location: Korea

Areas of expertise: sampling and analysis of hazardous air pollutants (VOC and PAH)

CONTRIBUTORS:samf GWSG in22