“We believe in operating with trust, integrity and respect, both as individuals and as a company.” “Our aim is to be known as a responsible company in an industry seen as controversial.” These quotes are from the websites of, respectively, Philip Morris and British American Tobacco. In the light of a report published last week (see http://filestore.who.int/~who/home/tobacco/tobacco.pdf ), such statements must refer to another planet. The report describes the tobacco industry's attempts to undermine science-based assessments of risks associated with tobacco. Valuably, it highlights how significantly the scientific community and regulatory processes were exposed to the threat of manipulation.

The 247-page report documents the results of a trawl by an expert panel appointed by the World Health Organization (WHO) through confidential documents released by the tobacco companies as a result of recent litigation. It describes in detail the case of a scientific consultant who, according to this report, concealed his links with the industry while taking part in a review of pesticide use and cancer that could have restricted tobacco agriculture. The report now raises questions about the resulting safety standards.

On a much larger scale, the industry planned to undermine a study of the environmental risks of tobacco smoke by the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer. The report documents partially successful attempts to delay the study, to establish contacts with scientists involved, to conduct and promote “counter research”, to manipulate the public's response to the study's conclusions via government and the media, and to cancel or influence the expected monograph. In the end, says the report, the industry failed to undermine the study, whose results were published in 1998, but succeeded in manipulating media accounts and obtaining confidential information.

This is just a small selection of the tobacco industry's attempts to weaken tobacco control described in the report. Its readers might well conclude that it is testimony to the strength of the regulatory and scientific process that both have emerged as little damaged as they have. But the WHO, other agencies concerned with tobacco, and scientific institutions and publications must strengthen their guard against conflicts of interest. Watch this space.