Tobacco Documents Online

CENTER FOR INDOOR AIR RESEARCH P. 0. Box 26603 Richmond, Virginia 23261 February 24, 1988 Dr. Irwin H. Billick 456 Sutherland Lane Prospect Heights, Illinois 60070 Dear Dr. Billick: On behalf of the directors of the Center for Indoor Air Research ("CIAR"), I want to thank you for the time that you spent considering our offer to serve as CIAR's executive director. I regret that you have declined to accept our offer. We continue to believe that the questions that have been raised concerning environmental tobacco smoke can be answered to the satisfaction of the scientific community as well as members of the public only through scientifically credible research. We also believe that the CIAR, as currently structured, will both facilitate the search for those answers and confiirm the tobacco industry's commitment in this area. It would have been possible, as you suggested, to have organized the CIAR in a manner that minimized the involvement of the Board of Directors in reviewing individual research proposals and in identifying researchers qualified to undertake the projects described in the proposals. But a major deficiency of that approach is that it would not have taken full advantage of the scientific expertise of CIAR's directors. In the final analysis, acceptance of research results within the scientific community and by members of the public depends largely, in my view, on the quality of the research and the qualifications of the investigators. Our decision to preserve a substantial role for the Board of Directors in considering the quality of research proposals and the qualifications of candidate investigators was not meant to suggest, and certainly did not stem from, a lack of confidence in your abilities. Rather, it reflected simply a desire on our part to take full advantage of the substantial scientific expertise CIAR's directors have with respect to environmental tobacco smoke and indoor air quality.

. . Dr. Irwin H. Bi'llick 2 February 24, 1988 I can assure you that the CIAR Board of Directors wil'l, make decisions on individual research projects, and with respect to candidate researchers, solely on the basis of scientific merit. The use of any other criteria would, of course, be both inappropriate and self-defeating. In additioni, researchers wi'lil be encouraged to publish their results without limitation. That has been the industry's policy in the past. It will continue to be the industry's policy in the future. Again, I am sorry that you have declined to accept our offer to become CIAR's executive director. I certainly wish you continued success in your current position. Thoma~ S'. Osdene, Ph. D. Chairman, Board of Directors Center for Indoor Air Research bc: J. Rupp A. Spears M. Ward