Up until very recently, it was not out of the norm to find tobacco industry-funded studies in prestigious journals.
In 2013, however, the British Medical Journal took a stand and decided to no longer consider for publication any study partly or wholly funded by the tobacco industry.
Highlights:
- “Critics may argue that publishing such research does not constitute endorsing its findings, but the editors believe this view “ignores the growing body of evidence that biases and research misconduct are often impossible to detect, and that the source of funding can influence the outcomes of studies in invisible ways.”
- “Far from advancing knowledge, the tobacco industry “has used research to deliberately produce ignorance and to advance its ultimate goal of selling its deadly products while shoring up its damaged legitimacy.”
- “They point to extensive research drawing on the tobacco industry’s own internal documents, that shows for decades the industry sought to create both scientific and popular ignorance or “doubt.”
This, of course, is not limited to the tobacco industry.
Plenty of documents show that the sugar industry has utilized the same tactics for decades:
Although the Sugar Association to this day sponsors some health organizations and funds studies, it’s very likely that in a not-so-distant future, that, too, will become a relic.
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