Maxwell W Layard

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This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation.

Maxwell Layard (usually called Max - but with various spellings of his surname) was a science-for-sale entrepreneur with his own one-man consulting company, Layard Associates. He was a statistician, but he ventured into general consulting in biomedical areas. He worked extensively with Maurice LeVois, and like Levois, he was known to "depend upon the tobacco industry for most of his income".[2]

(A couple of documents give him the incorrect middle initiative of 'S'.)

A biography in the tobacco archives says:

Dr. Maxwell William Layard.
Dr. Layard is a partner in Layard Associates, a firm of consulting statisticians in California. He has been in that position since 1989. Prior to that time Dr. Layard was at various periods, an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the University of California. Davis, a statistician employed by the National Cancer Institute, a Biostatistician at the U.S. Veterans Administration and a manager of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at Failure Analysis Associates in California. [3]

The most interesting thing about Layard is that he may actually have had an animal house and laboratory, and actually performed some experiments himself. Most of his associates didn't bother.

Documents & Timeline

  • Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the University of California. Davis,
  • statistician employed by the National Cancer Institute
  • Biostatistician at the U.S. Veterans Administration
  • manager of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at Failure Analysis Associates in California.

1989 Setting up Layard Associates,

1990 Sep 25 LeVois and Maxwell Layard now create a 67 page "Summary of Major Criticisms of the EPA ETS Risk Assessment Draft. They admit that they have been asked by the Tobacco Institute to comment on the methods and conclusions. They conclude:

  • In sum, the observed epidemiologic association between ETS exposure and lung cancer is'weak and inconsistent.
  • There are many weaknesses in the design and conduct of the ETS studies that permit plausible alternate interpretations.
  • There is a large discrepancy between the observed association and the dosimetrically predicted level of risk.
  • It is not reasonable to infer that ETS exposure causes lung cancer nor to predict risk based on these data.[4]

1990 Oct 11 The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) is holding hearings on the banning of smoking on interstate buses. These are the Tobacco Institute submissions: Critical comments were filed by

[Every one on this list was a life-long tobacco shill.]

1989 Nov 19 [Wrong date on document] The Environmenal Protection Agency (EPA) was in the process of publicly asserting that second-hand smoke (ETS) was a known carcinogen ("risk assessment").

This is a draft speech script prepared for a media briefing by Dr Don de Bethizy, sentior toxicologist at RJ Reynolds. They have lined up all the industry's favourite scientific touts who are being paid to attack

..."the scientific merit of two EPA draft documents -- the ETS risk assessment and the workplace smoking guide" [which he says] contain many major scientific shortcomings. The time we have today only permits us to scratch the surface.

[In fact they dug out the deepest slime in the pit. Every scientist mentioned here is a long-term tobacco industry science-for-sale entrepreneur or witness for hire.]

Today, you'll hear why

  • Gray Robertson, an internationally regarded expert on indoor air quality, believes the Workplace Smoking Guide is poorly conceived, with conclusions that are ill-considered.
    [Robertson was the owner of ACVA/HBI -- the most corrupt of all the indoor air testing company employed by the tobacco industry. He was one of the industry's main contract lobbyists.]
  • After Gray Robertson, you'll hear from Dr Phil Witorsch, pulmonary physician and a clinical professor of medicine at George Washington University Medical Center. He will detail the specific reasons he believes the EPA has drawn invalid from evidence concerning the relationship between ETS and respiratory diseases in children.
    [He spent most of his time as a tobacco consultant lobbyist, travelling around the world to provide witness services for the tobacco industry in court cases. He was a founding member of the notorious IAPAG (Indoor Air Pollution Advisory Group) which was a 'WhiteCoats' organisation run by tobacco lawyers Covington & Burling.]
  • Dr. John Wesley Clayton, professor emeritus of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Arizona, and former president of the International Congress of Toxicologists, will discuss the available toxicological data on ETS. None of these data appears in the Risk Assessment. And -- more important -- none supports the contention that ETS is a human carcinogen.
    [Clayon had then been receiving CTR grants for 15 years, and in return, on his retirement, he had become a professional witness who worked extensively for the Tobacco Institute (and probably any other industry with the funds). He was handled by lawyers Shook Hardy & Bacon.]
  • Dr Maurice E LeVois, a highly experienced epidemiologist who has designed large studies for the US government will detail some important omissions in the Risk Assessment. As Dr LeVois will point out,the draft arbitrarily omits important epidemiological, dosimetric, medical and statistical evidence that conflicts with the conclusions reached by the EPA.
    [LeVois was, at various times, the partner of Max Layard and also George Carlo -- both notorious science-for-sale entrepreneurs (Carlo also for the cellphone industry). During the 1990s they worked almost full-time for two industries -- tobacco and dioxin/herbicides -- mainly through infiltrating organisations like Veterams Affairs and conducting their fake studies]
  • Dr. Richard L Tweedie, the dean of information and computing sciences at Bond University in Australia, will present the findings of his own analysis of the epidemiologic studies conducted on ETS. And he will discuss some major differences between his conclusions and those reached by the EPA.
    [Tweedie and his girlfriend (also a long-term tobacco tout) Kerry Mengerson were rewarded with an endowed chair at the University of Colorado]
  • Peter N. Lee, a British statistician whose work is frequently cited by the EPA in the Risk Assessment, will explain why the misclassification adjustment made by the EPA is mathematically incorrect.
    [Lee spent his life as a full-time contractor in statistics to the Tobacco Advisory Committee (TAC) of the UK. He was retained to try to find holes in any adverse scientific finding.]
    Dr William J. Butler, a biostatistician, will focus on the EPA's failure to identify or discuss several important confounding factors that could account for most -- if not all -- of the increased risk noted by the EPA.
    [Butler was a contract scientific lobbyist from the company Failure Anaiysis, Inc. Butler and this company worked extensively for the tobacco industry: he was one of their regular witnesses used with State Assembly hearings. He also spoke at Philip Morris's closed McGill Uni. ETS symposium -- which only enrolled paid industry touts.]
  • Dr Joseph L Fleiss, the head of the division of biostatistics at the Columbia University School of Public Health, will discuss a number of considerations that make meta-analyis an invalid basis for drawing conclusions about ETS.
    [A regular Tobacco Institute consultant and speaker used at fake/closed conferences. (McGill Uni.)]
  • Dr. Paul Switzer, a professor of statistics at Stanford University, will focus on a number of statistical uncertainties, inconsistencies and biases that seriously undermine the scientific credibility of the Risk Assessment.
    [Another regular scientific witness who also played a key role in the loaded McGill University ETS Symposium,]
  • Finally, Dr W Gary Flamm, the president of the International Society for Regulatory Toxicology & Pharmacology, will talk about serious violations of scientific objectivity contained within the .document. [
    The Society was a front for a group of science-for-sale toxicologist who worked for a range of industries with poisoning and polluting problems. Flamm also lectured at McGill.]

[6]

1990 Dec 6The CIAR is running an Epidemiology Workshop with lawyers, staff, board members and Peter N Lee, Maxwell Layard and Maurice Le Vois. LeVois is teaching them about the "shift of strategy" on "anti" side, and the problem that people don't distinguish between active smoking and ETS. He and Layard were reporting on meetings with the EPA's SAB panel members - identifying holes in arguments. [7]

1991 Apr 9Layard and LeVois are sending copies of research papers to the EPA for inclusion in their Risk Assessment. They say they have conducted a "meta-analysis" of these and other studies which strengthens their conclusions that ETS is not harmful to health. This, they say, makes the EPA's draft report "untenable". [8]

1992 Feb 12 In-house lawyer, Mary Ward, of RJ Reynolds has written to the ETS Executive Committee (the industry umbrella group trying to resist action over passive smoking).

Covington & Burling's (C&B) staff lawyer, Melinda Sidak, has provided the companies with an outline of the ASHRAE activities and they are trying to load up the IAQ standards committees with their lobbyists.

"Layard, LeVois, Gross, and possibly Witorsch will apply for membership" [9]

These four are Max Layard; Maurice LeVois, Alan J Gross, and Philip Witorsch. ASHRAE is the American Society of Heating Refrigeration & Air-conditioning Engineers which effectively set worldwide standard for ventilation rates -- and therefore a primary target for tobacco influence.]

1993 Aug 9: The Issues Manager at the Tobacco Institute, Susan Stuntz is billing Philip Morris for the reimbursement of $35,214 for the services of: Dr. Philip Witorsch, Dr. Gio Gori and Dr. Maxwell Layard.

[Witorsch runs the IAPAG group at Georgetown University, and Gori is a disgraced NCI scientist who has his own Health Policy Center.
  • The invoices from Dr. Gori and Dr. Layard are for work related to their appearance at the news conference announcing the industry's lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency.
  • The second Gori invoice ($6,000) is for a letter to the Wall Street Journal.
  • The invoice from Dr. Witorsch is for the ETS briefing he participated in at Philip Morris's request for representatives of several of its advertising agencies. [10]

1993 Oct 20: Tobacco lawyers Covington & Burling have approached Max Layard to estimate a budget ($20,000) for a quick paper on dose-response data in ETS and lung-cancer. The Tobacco Institute is being asked to pay it. [11]

LAYARD APPEARS TO HAVE CEASED WORKING FOR THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY IN 1995 ALTHOUGH HIS NAME CONTINUED TO FIGURE ON SOME LATER DOCUMENTS.

1998 Aug 11 The Working Draft (Confidential) of a lawyer's list of tobacco industry helpers -- under the title: Expert / Consultant Submissions Regarding ETS to Regulatory Agencies on Behalf of Philip Morris

Maxwell S Layard of Layard Associates is one of the hundreds listed as having given evidence for the Tobacco Institute at various hearings, etc. [12]

References

<tdo>resource_id=16587 resource_code=layard_max search_term=Maxwell W. Layard</tdo>

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