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.

The tobacco archives have no files of correspondence with Esterson — only those between Theodor Sterling and Ervin Rodin at the ALEPH Foundation. The ALEPH Foundation might be simply a device used by these professors to do consulting work — but as a non-profit, this not likely.

Sterling was perhaps the most useful scientist the tobacco industry had doing their dirty-work during the three decades post-1970. He worked at the University of Washington in St Louis, the University of Cinncinati, and then at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.

He and his sons also ran a successful consulting business on the side — and in the process, he became very wealthy. Almost all of his money came from tobacco.

1972 Feb 24: ALEPH Foundation is run by Ervin Y Rodin and Gerald L Esterson (Exec Director). They say they are a non-profit, "fostering international cooperation and dialog among professionals and scientific groups." They were willing to act as an 'intermediary' for Theodor Sterling running a tobacco funded workshop on smoking and human health, which he had integrated into a general Pollution: Engineering conference in Israel.

    Sterling, at this time, was at Washington University in St. Louis along with Rodin and Esterson.

    The letter says the foundation would make grants to the speakers "on the basis and up to the amount of a lump sum grant, which is to be made to our foundation." — which can serve no other purpose than to hide the source of the funds from the Isreali organisers of the conference
[Note there are many copies of this letter in the different cigarette company files, so it was distributed pretty widely among the tobacco companies. It was actually part of a wider plan to run another conference and workshop in Israel two years later.]

1972 Mar 1: Bill Shinn of Shook Hardy & Bacon is writing to the Committee of Counsel members, who handle the allocation of Special Account #4 money to hirelings.

The work which Dr. Theodor Sterling has been doing in connection with air pollution became unusually valuable following the President' s transmission on January 31 of an air pollution message to Congress, which you have received, that attempted to implicate cigarette smoking in 95% of lung cancer and 90% of chronic obstructive lung disease.

    Dr. Sterling has consulted with us in connection with this message and has also, at Jack Mills request, attended meetings in Washington. We would like for him to have every opportunity to continue his work in this area and he has recently submitted a request to us to help fund a panel on "Effects of Pollutants on Human Health." This panel will meet in connection with an International Meeting of the Society of Engineering Science in Tel Aviv, Israel, during June. A copy of the program, is enclosed.

    Dr Sterling is requesting a grant to the ALEPH Foundation, which will administer the funds. Copies of both the letter from Dr Sterling requesting support and the ALEPH Foundation's letter to Dr Sterling are also enclosed. We recommend a grant of $5,000 as a special project (non-CTR) and would appreciate your letting us know your views by March 10. [ie secret funding.]

    I have just received, and also enclose a copy of Dr Sterling's latest published article "The Incidence of Lung Cancer in the US Since 1955 in Relation to the Etiology of the Disease."

1972 June 12 - 17: Pamphlet for the conference "Pollution Engineering and Scientific Solutions" held at a hotel in Tel Aviv, Israel. The pamphlet shows that Ervin Rodin was also a Professor of Applied Mathematics at Washington University. His associate (as Exec Director) in the ALEPH Foundation, GL Esterson was a Professor in Chemical Engineering and served as "Chairman of the US Program Committee."

    The Conference organisers had the EPA , NOAA and Washington University listed as US co-sponsors, along with the School of Engineering, Tel Aviv University. This is obviously a genuine conference into which Sterling had infiltrated a "Human Health" sub-stream which he controlled himself and used to attack the claims about smoking being the primary cause of lung-cancer.

    The pamphlet has Theodore Sterling listed as "Convenor" of the section on "Effects of Pollutants on Human Health." His associate and co-researcher SV Pollack is also listed as one of the speakers.

CONTRIBUTORS:TRMU in22 JJHS