Center for Indoor Air Research

Center for Indoor Air Research
Abbreviation CIAR
Formation March 1988[1]
Extinction November 16, 1998 (1998-11-16)
Type Non-profit
Legal status Defunct
Headquarters Linthicum, Maryland
Max Eisenberg
 Executive director[2]

The Center for Indoor Air Research (often abbreviated CIAR) was a non-profit organization established by three American tobacco companies--Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, and Lorillard—in Linthicum, Maryland, in 1988. The organization funded research on indoor air pollution, some of which pertained to passive smoking and some of which did not. It also funded research pertaining to causes of lung cancer other than passive smoking, such as diet. The organization disbanded in 1998 as a result of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.

History

The CIAR was founded in March 1988 by Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, and Lorillard.[1] It was based in Linthicum, Maryland.[3] The Swedish tobacco company Svenska Tobaks joined the organization in 1994.[4] Soon after it was founded, it became the largest non-governmental source of funding for research on indoor air pollution.[5] In 1998, a master settlement, known as the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, was reached between American tobacco companies and a number of American state attorneys general. This agreement required the tobacco industry to disband the CIAR, as well as the Council for Tobacco Research.[1][6] According to Alisa Tong and Stanton Glantz, the CIAR has "been essentially reconstituted as the Philip Morris External Research Program."[7]

Stated mission

The original stated mission of the CIAR was to conduct "high-quality, objective research" pertaining to indoor air, including the health effects of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS).[8] A confidential memo from 1988 described the CIAR as part of a plan to "carry out work on ETS to keep the controversy alive."[9] In 1992, the reference to passive smoking was removed from the organization's mission statement.[4] This was, in turn, followed by a decrease in the amount of research funded by the CIAR that pertained to the health effects of passive smoking.[4]

Structure

The CIAR awarded both "peer-reviewed" projects after review by their Science Advisory Board, as well as "special-reviewed" projects awarded after review by tobacco company executives.[8][10]:276 The aim of the CIAR's peer-reviewed projects was mainly to divert attention from ETS as an indoor air pollutant, whereas special-reviewed projects were more likely to produce evidence that the tobacco industry could later use to argue against anti-smoking legislation.[11]

Funding of scientific research

From 1989 to 1999, the CIAR funded at least 244 published studies.[1] According to a 2001 paper in the American Journal of Public Health, the CIAR "acted as a buffer between the tobacco industry and scientists," because many scientists, although unwilling to accept funds directly from the tobacco industry, were willing to accept funds from the CIAR.[1] The majority of peer-reviewed studies funded by the CIAR were unrelated to ETS, and served instead to divert attention from its health effects and focus attention on other indoor air toxins instead.[12]

In 1992, the CIAR awarded $72,760 to Antonio H. Miguel, Jari Cardoso, and Aquino Neto to study indoor air quality in offices and restaurants in the Brazilian cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.[13] The CIAR also awarded Miguel additional funding in 1998 for another indoor air quality study, this time measuring air quality in Santiago, Chile, and Sao Paulo, Brazil. This study was based on the hypothesis that particles transported indoors from outdoor air, rather than ETS, were responsible for a significant proportion of indoor aerosol concentrations.[13] The CIAR also funded research by Arthur Penn, of New York University, into the effects of exposure to tobacco smoke in chickens from 1990 to 1994.[7] After some of his studies found that this exposure caused increased plaque buildup in the chickens' arteries, the CIAR refused to fund any more of his work.[14][15] Another study funded by the CIAR was authored by Johns Hopkins researcher Genevieve Matanoski in 1995, and claimed that some cases of lung cancer previously attributed to passive smoking might actually be caused by other factors, such as diet.[2] Another was the "16 cities study", authored by Roger Jenkins and published in 1996, examining levels of second-hand smoke measured by subjects in sixteen different cities at work and at home.[16] The study concluded that homes were a greater source of exposure to second-hand smoke than workplaces, which led the tobacco industry to use its conclusions to argue that workplace smoking restrictions were unnecessary.[17] This study has been criticized for suffering from "serious biases" that led to low values of exposure being reported.[17]

Epidemiologic studies

In 1995, the journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology published two studies funded by the CIAR examining the association between ETS and heart disease. Both studies concluded that ETS exposure from spouses did not increase the risk of heart disease, and that previous conclusions to the contrary were due to publication bias.[7] Both of these studies have been criticized for suffering from exposure misclassification, because both studies failed to distinguish between current and former smokers.[7] In 2003, a study funded by the center was published in the BMJ. Authored by James Enstrom and Geoffrey Kabat, the study found little association between secondhand smoke and coronary heart disease or lung cancer.[18] This study has been criticized for failing to distinguish between those who were exposed to second-hand smoke and those who were not, because, according to the American Cancer Society, the study's participants were enrolled in 1959, "when exposure to secondhand smoke was so pervasive that virtually everyone was exposed to ETS, whether or not they were married to a smoker."[9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Muggli, ME; Forster, JL; Hurt, RD; Repace, JL (September 2001). "The smoke you don't see: uncovering tobacco industry scientific strategies aimed against environmental tobacco smoke policies". American Journal of Public Health 91 (9): 1419–23. doi:10.2105/ajph.91.9.1419. PMC 1446797. PMID 11527774.
  2. 1 2 Shane, Scott (17 May 1998). "Center tied to tobacco industry". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  3. ↑ Associated Press (10 November 1990). "6 Members of Panel on Smoking Have Ties to Tobacco Group". New York Times. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 Bero, LA. (2005). "Tobacco industry manipulation of research". Public Health Rep 120 (2): 200–8. PMC 1497700. PMID 15842123.
  5. ↑ Murphy, Michelle (2006). Sick Building Syndrome and the Problem of Uncertainty. Duke University Press. p. 82. ISBN 0822336715.
  6. ↑ Schick, S. F; Glantz, S. A (1 June 2007). "Old ways, new means: tobacco industry funding of academic and private sector scientists since the Master Settlement Agreement". Tobacco Control 16 (3): 157–164. doi:10.1136/tc.2006.017186. PMC 2598497. PMID 17565125.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Tong, EK.; Glantz, SA. (Oct 2007). "Tobacco industry efforts undermining evidence linking secondhand smoke with cardiovascular disease". Circulation 116 (16): 1845–54. doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.107.715888. PMID 17938301.
  8. 1 2 Barnes, D. E.; Bero, L. A. (1 September 1996). "Industry-Funded Research and Conflict of Interest: An Analysis of Research Sponsored by the Tobacco Industry through the Center for Indoor Air Research". Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 21 (3): 515–542. doi:10.1215/03616878-21-3-515.
  9. 1 2 "American Cancer Society Condemns Tobacco Industry Study for Inaccurate Use of Data" (PDF). American Cancer Society. 15 May 2003. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
  10. ↑ Bero, L (2003). "Implications of the tobacco industry documents for public health and policy" (PDF). Annual Review of Public Health 24: 267–88. doi:10.1146/annurev.publhealth.24.100901.140813. PMID 12415145.
  11. ↑ Hirschhorn, N; Bialous, SA; Shatenstein, S (September 2001). "Philip Morris' new scientific initiative: an analysis.". Tobacco control 10 (3): 247–52. doi:10.1136/tc.10.3.247. PMID 11544389.
  12. ↑ Brandt, Allan (2009). The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America. Basic Books. p. 294. ISBN 0465070485.
  13. 1 2 Barnoya, J; Glantz, S (December 2002). "Tobacco industry success in preventing regulation of secondhand smoke in Latin America: the "Latin Project".". Tobacco control 11 (4): 305–14. doi:10.1136/tc.11.4.305. PMID 12432156.
  14. ↑ Butler, Kiera (16 October 2007). "Tobacco Industry Cover Up". Mother Jones. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  15. ↑ Stolberg, Sheryl (28 May 1994). "Researchers Try to Separate Smoking Fact From Fiction". Los Angeles Times. p. 3. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  16. ↑ Jenkins, RA; Palausky, A; Counts, RW; Bayne, CK; Dindal, AB; Guerin, MR (1996). "Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in sixteen cities in the United States as determined by personal breathing zone air sampling.". Journal of exposure analysis and environmental epidemiology 6 (4): 473–502. PMID 9087866.
  17. 1 2 Drope, J (1 March 2004). "Tobacco industry efforts to present ventilation as an alternative to smoke-free environments in North America". Tobacco Control 13 (90001): 41i–47. doi:10.1136/tc.2003.004101. PMC 1766145. PMID 14985616.
  18. ↑ Enstrom, JE.; Kabat, GC. (May 2003). "Environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco related mortality in a prospective study of Californians, 1960-98". BMJ 326 (7398): 1057. doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7398.1057. PMC 155687. PMID 12750205.
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