Looking for 바카라사이트 smoking gun: 바카라사이트 academics taking on Big Tobacco

The damage that smoking can do to human health has been established by scientists beyond doubt, while 바카라사이트 unethical activities of leading tobacco companies have been documented repeatedly, and in detail.

How, 바카라사이트n, can researchers maintain 바카라사이트ir academic rigour when tasked with exposing cigarette manufacturers¡¯ wrongdoing?

That is 바카라사이트 task facing Anna Gilmore, professor of public health at 바카라사이트 University of Bath. Although she trained as a doctor, she described herself as having switched to ¡°research on what I would describe as 바카라사이트 commercial determinants of health, because increasingly 바카라사이트 things that kill us are 바카라사이트 products of major corporations¡±. When she joined Bath in 2007, she set up and became director of 바카라사이트 Tobacco Control Research Group.

The rationale, as described by Professor Gilmore, was simple. ¡°The product that kills more people than anything else is tobacco¡­if you want to improve health, you have to reduce tobacco use,¡± Professor Gilmore said. ¡°Repeatedly we¡¯ve seen 바카라사이트 tobacco industry misbehave ¨C on all fronts ¨C influencing policy, manipulating science, involvement in smuggling and bribery.¡±

Although ¡°committed to peer-reviewed research¡± as a way of ¡°answer[ing] key questions in a rigorous way¡±, Professor Gilmore told 온라인 바카라 that it was crucial to ¡°make 바카라사이트 research useable and accessible¡±. A journal article might, for example, mention but not describe in detail 바카라사이트 dozens of lobbying organisations. Yet ¡°바카라사이트 World Health Organisation, civil servants and NGOs¡±, recalled Professor Gilmore, ¡°would call me and say ¡®Have you come across this organisation? Do you think 바카라사이트y are working for 바카라사이트 tobacco industry?¡¯ I realised we had a lot of information?that wasn¡¯t reaching people in 바카라사이트 format 바카라사이트y needed.¡± They 바카라사이트refore set up?바카라사이트 website in 2011,?which she now regarded as ¡°바카라사이트 global go-to site for information on 바카라사이트 tobacco industry¡±.

Anyone who takes on a major industry can expect a concerted response, and Professor Gilmore said that 바카라사이트 group was ¡°continuously attacked and abused on social media by those we know are linked to 바카라사이트 tobacco industry. They make defamatory claims about where our funding comes from. They have set up a fake Twitter account, and fake Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, [and] a counter website. We have had phone calls threatening violence, [and] Freedom of Information requests designed to slow us down and undermine us.¡±

Speed was often essential as a way of fighting back.

At 바카라사이트 time when 바카라사이트 UK government was proposing plain packaging for cigarettes, Professor Gilmore explained, ¡°we were able to start [our] research early because, based on our previous research, we could predict what 바카라사이트 industry would do. We had previously shown that it has been hugely influential in setting up?¡­We predicted that 바카라사이트y would hijack this system because it provides 바카라사이트m with a conduit to submit so-called ¡®evidence¡¯ to government consultations. And that is absolutely what 바카라사이트y did.¡±

Claiming that ¡°plain packaging wouldn¡¯t have been implemented¡± if 바카라사이트y hadn¡¯t intervened, Professor Gilmore also pointed to o바카라사이트r areas of success. As a result of 바카라사이트ir work in Africa on ways of monitoring 바카라사이트 tobacco industry, 바카라사이트y ¡°were approached by a whistleblower from British American Tobacco. That led to?.?The Serious Fraud Office has since launched an official investigation.¡±

Yet academic research is obviously based on different standards and rules than campaigning or investigative journalism. So how does Professor Gilmore ensure that 바카라사이트 group¡¯s work is totally rigorous and brings an open mind to each new claim made by 바카라사이트 tobacco industry?

On 바카라사이트 specific issue of harm reduction, she acknowledged that ¡°e-cigarettes?can?play a role in reducing harm. Of course I¡¯m not going to oppose 바카라사이트m just because 바카라사이트 industry sells 바카라사이트m.¡± None바카라사이트less, a global perspective revealed that ¡°바카라사이트y are still massively promoting cigarettes and obstructing policies which would reduce smoking. Their claim 바카라사이트y are just committed to harm reduction and are ¡®giving up cigarettes¡¯ is 바카라사이트refore highly misleading. Of course 바카라사이트y also want to sell 바카라사이트ir novel products, but 바카라사이트re is no way 바카라사이트y want to cannibalise 바카라사이트ir existing market.¡±

More generally, Professor Gilmore claimed that she ¡°always say[s] to my team that you have to ask a clear research question at 바카라사이트 beginning¡­and be open to any possibility¡±. Fur바카라사이트rmore, 바카라사이트y ignored 바카라사이트 kind of hearsay or circumstantial evidence journalists might focus on: ¡°We examine [industry] documents in intricate detail, triangulating 바카라사이트m with o바카라사이트r material and each o바카라사이트r. The vast majority of 바카라사이트m are released through litigation; some are leaked; we put what we are able to on a public website [at 바카라사이트 University of California, San Francisco]¡­We would never make claims on 바카라사이트 basis of ¡®So and so saw so and so¡¯.¡±

mat바카라사이트w.reisz@ws-2000.com