HCRA (Doc Index)
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This stub is a work-in-progress by the ScienceCorruption.com journalists's group. We are indexing the millions of documents stored at the San Francisco Uni's Legacy Tobacco Archive [1] With some entries you'll need to go to this site and type into the Search panel a (multi-digit) Bates number. You can search on names for other documents also. Send any corrections or additions to editor@sciencecorruption.com |
John Graham at the Harvard School of Public Health founded the Havard Center for Risk Analysis in August 1989 with funding from a few dozen oil, car,energy and chemical companies.
| RELATED HCRA ENTRIES |
|---|
| Harvard Center for Risk Analysis |
| Harvard Center for Risk Analysis and Big Tobacco |
| Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, the Fishing Industry and Mercury |
| HCRA (Doc Index) |
Derek Yach of the World Health Organisation later wrote about the HRCA:
One prestigious US institution that has received funds from Philip Morris and its subsidiaries is the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, whose former director, John Graham, has assisted Philip Morris with risk communication about environmental tobacco smoke and has on many occasions requested funds for the center.
Among several other sources of corporate support, the center currently has an unrestricted grant from the Philip Morris subsidiary Kraft Foods and a restricted grant from the Risk Science Institute of the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI).
In March 2001 President Bush nominated John Graham to be administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs of the Office of Management and Budget. This office reviews and approves—or blocks—all major federal regulations. The consumer advocacy group Public Citizen criticized the nomination on the basis of the links between Graham and corporate funding.[2]
Documents & Timeline
1989 Aug John Graham at the Harvard School of Public Health decides to get in on the Risk Science business. He establishes the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis and gets an amazing amount of funding from large corporations. He boasts of backing from car, oil, energy and chemical companies:
| INITIAL BACKERS OF THE HCRA | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Amoco Company, | Bethlehem Steel Corporation, | British Petroleum, | Chevron Corporation, |
| The Coca Cola Company, | Dow Chemical Company, | Eastman Kodak Company, | Exxon Corporation, |
| General Electric Corporation, | General Motors, | lnland Steel Industries, | Merck & Company ; |
| Mobil Oil Corporation, | Monsanto Company | Pepsico Incorporated, | Rohm and Haas Company, |
| Texaco, | Union Carbide Corporation, | Westinghouse Corporation | |
| Government support has also been provided by the | |||
| Centers for Disease Control, | US Department of Transportation, | National Science Foundation. | |
1991 Oct 28 John Graham makes an approach to Philip Morris, asking for $25,000 pa so he will continue to support their claims that passive smoking (ETS) is only a minor problem (if at all) and that the government agencies should focus on major problems. He points out that in 1989-90 they "exposed serious weaknesses in the federal government's risk assesment process on air toxics" - and introduced risk analysis techniques which which will "assure sound implementation of the upcoming amendments to the Clean Air Act." And in 1990-91 they "played a pivotal role in the congressional debate on fuel economy standards" (they opposed the emphasis on smaller fuel economic cars, because of their supposed "increased safety risk")
The HCRA wanted the tobacco funding to:
train young professionals how to think about risk in a balanced way, to target limited technical and human resources at the most important problems and to participate vigorously in public policy debates about risk. [3]
Robert Pages at Philip Morris is highly cynical about "Risk Sciences" but he advises Steve Parrish (a lawyer who has just become VP of Corporate Affairs):
Sure, he's after dollars to help support his Center, but whether or not PM decides to contribute it's more important to meet him and perhaps get 'looped in' better with his activities. From all that Mayada has learned, he is a key player in all this risk analysis stuff that's current going on in government. [4]
2001 March Despite Graham's notoriety, President Bush nominated John Graham to be administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) at OMB, the Office of Management and Budget. This had been the position occupied by the equally notorious obstruction-lobbyist, James J Tozzi during the Reagan administration. This office reviews and approves — or blocks — all major federal regulations.
