INDUSTRY-FUNDED RESEARCH AND CONFLICT-OF-INTEREST - AN ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH SPONSORED BY THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY THROUGH THE CENTER-FOR-INDOOR-AIR-RESEARCH
De. Barnes et La. Bero, INDUSTRY-FUNDED RESEARCH AND CONFLICT-OF-INTEREST - AN ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH SPONSORED BY THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY THROUGH THE CENTER-FOR-INDOOR-AIR-RESEARCH, Journal of health politics, policy and law, 21(3), 1996, pp. 515-542
The Center for Indoor Air Research (CIAR) was created by three United
States tobacco companies in 1988. Its stated mission is to fund high-q
uality, objective research related to indoor air, including studies of
environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). Because CIAR is financed by the to
bacco industry and funds research related to tobacco, it fosters an in
herent conflict of interest. We consider whether this conflict of inte
rest has affected the content, quality, or use of research funded by C
IAR. We hypothesize that the tobacco industry might be using CIAR to d
evelop scientific data to support its position that ETS is not harmful
to health. CIAR funds two types of projects: ''Peer-reviewed'' projec
ts are awarded after peer review by a group of scientists, whereas ''s
pecial-reviewed'' projects are awarded directly by tobacco industry ex
ecutives. CIAR's special-reviewed projects are more likely than its pe
er reviewed projects to be related to ETS, to support the tobacco indu
stry position, and to be used by the industry to argue that smoking sh
ould not be regulated in public places. Our findings suggest that the
tobacco industry is funding special-reviewed projects through CIAR to
develop scientific data that it can use in legislative and legal setti
ngs. The industry maybe financing peer-reviewed projects through CIAR
to enhance its credibility, to provide good publicity, and to divert a
ttention from ETS as an indoor air pollutant. CIAR's stated mission of
funding high-quality, objective research has been compromised by conf
lict of interest, and at least some of CIAR's projects are being used
to promote the tobacco industry's agenda.