The corrupted tobacco economist network, Part 44: another example where the 'independent academics' allow the Tobacco Institute to alter the draft versions of their work.

Overview of previous posts here

Office of technology assessment on the costs of smoking: wrong again

In 1993 professors Robert Tollison and Richard Wagner wrote the paper The Office of Technology Assessment on the Costs of Smoking: Wrong Again. It was published by George Mason University's Center for Study of Public Choice. Once again, this was not an independent scientific publication. Tobacco Institute's Calvin George wrote





Everything Tollison and Wagner wrote had to be cleared by the Tobacco Institute's lawyers:

The LTDL shows indeed corrections were made by the industry.

 And yes, these changes do appear in Tollison's final draft

The tobacco economists network - part 42 - SAMMEC II

Overview of previous posts here

Sammec II

In the early 1990's the software SAMMEC II (Smoking-Attributable Mortality, Morbidity, and Economic Costs) was developed to calculate the social cost of tobacco. As to be expected, the Tobacco Institute planned to call the software flawed. Just like all the other ‘scientific’ output from the social cost consultants, the Tobacco Institute carefully read the drafts before allowing it to be released. Overall this letter of Tobacco Institute's Cal George gives a brilliant insight into the tactics:

The paper was written by Robert Ekelund and Richard Ault, both from Auburn university, a good but messer know university. Savarese found a solution 

A year later Cal George wrote another memo, proving Savarese's plan indeed was executed

(...)

The document was written during a period when the network was in decline (this will be explored in another blogpost), and the document might give one of the possible explanations. The 1993 EPA report stated that second hand smoking indeed as harmful for the environment, and attacking the EPA's report became a much higher priority for the industry.