Montreux Conference

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

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The Montreux Conference on the problems of passive smoking was run by one of the tobacco industry's most productive recruiters and organisers, George B Leslie, who was hiding behind the twin abbreviations of IAI (Indoor Air International) and ARIA (Association for Research on Indoor Air), both pseudo-scientific associations, populated only by recruited WhiteCoats who were mainly academic scientists in the pay of the tobacco industry.

This was the third in a series of symposiums and conferences which were used to bring the corrupted scientists together to produce a coherence and standardised way to counter claims that passive smoking (ETS) was injurious to health. These conferences were also used as a form of training because the industry's so-called experts, often had no knowledge of the discipline of ETS or Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) research at all. By having participants make speeches at these conferences (often using ghosted material written or re-written by scientist from the cigarette companies) the published proceedings of the conference could be used as a form of 'peer-reviewed citation', providing them with entirely false credentials as indoor air pollution specialists.

These became annual events, fully funded by Philip Morris, British American Tobacco (via its US Subsidiary Brown & Williamson) and RJ Reynolds Tobacco. Japan Tobacco became a supporter also at a later date.

  • The first of these conferences was the McGill University ETS Symposium (Nov 1989) with about 200 participants. Totally controlled and funded by Philip Morris.
  • The second -- actually a back-to-back pair of Lisbon Conferences -- were held in Portugal (Apr 24-26 1990)
  • this Montreux Conference was the third. (May 1991)
  • The fourth was to be a Conference in Athens, Greece (1992)
  • The fifth was an unidentified conference also organised by Indoor Air International (IAI) (May 1993)

Documents & Timeline

1990 Oct The Second Newsletter of the Indoor Air International (IAI), sent to newly enrolled genuine scientist, those WhiteCoats who had been newly recruited, and to the tobacco industry's ARIA members, says

Several milestones have:been passed during the growth off our new Society since the first Newsletter in April 1990. A conference on Indoor Air Quality in Warm Climates sponsored by BOHS, IAI and others, was held in Lisbon in April followed by the first General Assembly of IAI. We now have a publisher for the IAI Journal, the title of which -- 'Indoor Enivironment -- effectively points up the appeal of the Society to "all connected in some way or other with the problems of indoor air quality of the total indoor environment."

http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/czf22d00/pdf

[Note: The BOHS is the British Occupational Hygiene Society which was run by Frank W Lunau, who also helped run the ARIA organisation and assisted George Leslie in running IAI]

1990 Oct /E Activity Report of the Corporate Affairs division, Philip Morris International. [They controlled the WhiteCoats program through Covington & Burling]

  • McGill Conference [Nov] 1989
    Twenty-eight Europeans were present. At least 400 copies of the book have been or are being distributed to journalists and parliamentarians, primarily in Belgium and Scandinavia. Use has been made of the Gray Robertson (HBI) chapter in a number of briefings to journalists.
  • Lisbon Conference (April 1990)
    A similar number of Europeans attended the Lisbon Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation, which was organised by some of our consultants. A book and one issue of Environmental Technology resulted. (Note: Edited by Roger Perry)
  • Montreux Conference (May 1991)
    Indoor Air International is organising a meeting on IAQ research next May at which many consultants will present papers. These will be published in Indoor Environment, the peer reviewed journal of IAI. Karger , a well respected European company is to be the publisher of this journal. (Edited by John Dilley)
  • Athens Conference (1992)
    Proceedings of the Athens IAQ conference will be published by Selper Press. [Note: owned by Roger Perry]

http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/brc78e00/pdf

1990 Oct Indoor Air International's Second newsletter carries a profile of the prominent council member Prof Fengsheg He [Note: An Asian WhiteCoat.]

"Priorities for Indoor Research and Action" Montreux Switzerland 29-31 May 1991 Plans for this first 'stand-alone' conference are now well advanced. There are arrangements for both oral and poster presentations, and abstracts will be published in an early issue of 'Indoor Environment'. Details will be circulated to all members this month (October 1990).

http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/czf22d00/pdf

1991 Francis Roe is listed as a member of the organizing committee for the "Indoor Air Quaity, Montraux (sic) conference" http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/dbs88h00/pdf

Conference took place May 1991 with George Leslie of IAI doing the organisation.

1991 May Montreaux Conference: Activity Report - Summary

  • Indoor Air International is organising a meeting on IAQ research next May at which many consultants will present papers.
  • These will be published in Indoor Environments, the peer reviewed journal of IAI.
  • Karger, a well-respected European company is to be publisher of this journal.

http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/brc78e00/pdf

[Note that George Leslie and Roger Perry control/edit the peer-reviewed journal Indoor Environments

1991 May 29-31 Papers from the First IAI Conference at Montreux,

  • A protocol for the analysis of confounding variables in epidemiologic studies of the respiratory system: Its use in studies of parental smoking effects. Witorsch RJ, Wu JM, Hood RD, Witorsch P: (Indoor Environ 1992; 1: 47-48 (abstract)). Presented at International Symposium, Indoor Air International, Montreux, Switzerland, May 1991, including Tables cited here. Full paper in preparation.
[Note: The Witorsch brothers, Wu and Hood were all members of the first WhiteCoats organisation, IAPAG at Georgetown University.
Indoor Environment was a 'peer-reviewed scientific publication' controlled by the so-called scientific society Indoor Air International (IAI), funded by Philip Morris. http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/qqf21e00/pdf
  • The Incidence of Chronic Disease among Homemakers, and Exposure to Hazardous Chemicais in the Home. David Sterling, Theodor Sterling, Chris Collett, Environmental/Occupational Health Program, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Va, USA. (Indoor Environ. 1992)
[Note: this one was from the Canadian Sterling family and their aide Chris Collett. They were the most notorious sham science-for-sale group in the business. Only Theodor Sterling had any links to the University (Computer lecturer)] http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/fqg22d00/pdf

1993 May (From a 1992 document about the Montreux Conference)

Unknown Conference:
Indoor Air International is organising a meeting on IAQ research next May (1993) at which many consultants will present papers. These will be published in Indoor Environment, the peer reviewed journal of IAI. Karger, a well respected European company is to be the publisher of this journal.

http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/brc78e00/pdf

[Note: it is not clear which indoor air conference this refers to.]
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