IAQ Diagnostics
|
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 |
 |
This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation. |
This is the (or perhaps 'one') European subsidiary of Gray Robertson's notorious fake IAQ testing company known as Healthy Buildings International (HBI).
Documents & Timeline
1988 Jan 29: A meeting of the ETS Advisory Group of the UK's Tobacco Advisory Council has been addressed by an RJ Reynolds executive and reported by Sharon Boyse, the Issues Manager of BATCo.
RJR elaborated on the Center for Indoor Air Research (CIAR) being set up by the US Tobacco industry. Apparently a suitable head has been identified for the Centre and it is hoped to open on 1st February. The approximate funding figure for research (after running costs etc.) was expected to be $5 million. It was noted that the CIAR would try to broaden the issue by focusing not simply on ETS. The aim would apparently be to keep the unit quite separate from the Tobacco Institute and therefore give it more scientific credibility.
The same document carries a report on 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 is 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. TAC are about to embark upon an indoor air quality program with the European Branch of ACVA, IAQ Diagnostics Ltd.; these criticism should perhaps be borne in mind. [2]
| Subcommittee on Health and the Environment - Majority Staff Report: Dec. 20 1994 |
|---|
| ENVIRONMENTAL TOBACCO SMOKE INVESTIGATION |
| Healthy Buildings International (HBI) began its relationship with the tobacco industry in 1985. At that time, the company was a small and obscure indoor air firm. In addition to the president and vice president, it had only two technical employees and operated under the name ACVA Atlantic. Over the next nine years, however, HBI grew to be an international presence in the indoor air field. This was due in large measure to the patronage of the tobacco industry. During this period, the Tobacco Institute, Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, and the Center for Indoor Air Research (a tobacco-industry research organization) paid HBI millions of dollars for its services. The tobacco industry went to great lengths to promote HBI. The Tobacco Institute paid the expenses of a public relations firm, Fleishman-Hillard, to arrange media tours for HBI throughout the United States. From September 1990 to November 1992, Philip Morris covered all the expenses of, and paid HBI a substantial fee for, the publication of a magazine entitled "Healthy Buildings International Magazine." The magazine, which included glossy color photographs, was published in eight languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Dutch, and Finnish) and disseminated worldwide. A report circulated within HBI in late 1991 or 1992 describes "the HBI concept" that the tobacco industry paid so much to promote. According to this document, "the key objective of the HBI concept is to broaden the debate on indoor air quality to deflect the ETS challenge." The document states that "HBI is now positioned as an authority on IAQ issues" [and has] "brought balance to the IAQ [indoor air quality] debate" [by promoting] "acceptance that ETS is in fact a minor contributor." 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 $200,000 by the tobacco industry's Center for Indoor Air Research (CIAR) to study ETS levels in 585 office environments. The results of this study were summarized 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 the 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. According to the records of the Tobacco Institute, HBI testified 129 times for the Tobacco Institute from August 1985 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 27, 1986, and March 17, 1994), before state legislatures, and before local governments. [3] |
