Open AccessInventing Conflicts of Interest: A History of Tobacco Industry Tactics
Author(s) -
Allan M. Brandt
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
american journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.284
H-Index - 264
eISSN - 1541-0048
pISSN - 0090-0036
DOI - 10.2105/ajph.2011.300292
Subject(s) - tobacco industry , normative , assertion , uncertainty , public health , public health interventions , scientific evidence , conflict of interest , public relations , scientific misconduct , political science , public interest , environmental health , business , engineering ethics , engineering , law , medicine , epistemology , alternative medicine , computer science , philosophy , statistics , mathematics , nursing , pathology , programming language
Confronted by compelling peer-reviewed scientific evidence of the harms of smoking, the tobacco industry, beginning in the 1950s, used sophisticated public relations approaches to undermine and distort the emerging science. The industry campaign worked to create a scientific controversy through a program that depended on the creation of industry-academic conflicts of interest. This strategy of producing scientific uncertainty undercut public health efforts and regulatory interventions designed to reduce the harms of smoking. A number of industries have subsequently followed this approach to disrupting normative science. Claims of scientific uncertainty and lack of proof also lead to the assertion of individual responsibility for industrially produced health risks.