Template:McGillETSConference
- Press Release issued by tobacco lawyers Covington & Burling [3]
- Proceedings with participants list. [4]
| McGill University ETS Symposium |
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| 1989 Nov: The McGill University ETS Symposium was totally controlled and funded by Philip Morris International (they deliberately excluded the Tobacco Institute). The Corporate Affairs Department of PM saw this as the way to control the fight over "smoking freedoms". Philip Morris was keen to set a new aggressive agenda when the other companies were more timid.
The Conference brought together the top industry tobacco lawyers, lobbyists, WhiteCoats, consultants and academic witnesses from around the world into one gigantic 'scientific' confab: Thirty-eight of the participants were flown in from Europe and many corrupt scientists and lawyer were paid to prepare papers. It was set up on a 'need-to-know-only' basis by Andrew Whist and the staff of Philip Morris International's Corporate Affairs division. This was a full-expensed-paid, by-invitation-only conference, and every person invited was in the pay of the tobacco industry in some substantial way. However, only the organizers knew this for certain (while many would have guessed). It was seen by Philip Morris primarily as a training exercise for mercenary consultants around the world. They were not dealing with legitimate scientific opinion; this was more a discussion of strategy than of science; participants learned the science tactics to be employed, and potential problems were discussed to ensure all participants carried the same messages and understood the industry's requirements. Proceedings: The proceedings of this so-called Independent Symposium of ETS Experts were published by a PM phantom organisation called the Institute for International Health & Development. The IIHD had been created by Andrew Whist and lawyers David A Morse and Paul G Dietrich: it was hidden behind the front of the Catholic University in Washington; it later became notorious for a series of attacks mounted on the World Health Organisation's anti-smoking programs. Conference proceedings were printed in large numbers and distributed by both the IIHD and the Tobacco Institute's auxilliary offices around the world. They were translated into different languages, and parcelled out as if they were trustworthy textbooks on passive smoking. This whole project was judged to be highly successful: very much worth the millions of dollars it must have cost. See document
This venture was followed by the Lisbon Conference (April 1990) and the Montreux Conference (May 1991), and Athens Conference (1992) all organised by paid pseudo-scientific groups -- with the main emphasis being on the publication and wide distribution of the conference proceedings, and also on the training of various academics to act as industry consultants. Pseudo qualifications: The fact is that any academic with even the most vague pretence of having a health or environmental qualification could be given the qualifications of an expert in indoor air/smoking or health, just by attending these conferences. They would be invited to speak and given help by the tobacco industry to write some semblance of a scientific speech - which might be given to a half-dozen other new recruits in a side-room. But by being included in the conference proceedings, this speech carried the weight (in scientific circles) of "publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal", and this gave the neophyte the status of an accredited and qualified expert. |
