Tobacco Documents Online

r 11-09-90 09: 46 AM FROM BURSON MARSTELLER P02 Executive News Svc. APn 11/06 2357 EPA-Tobacco Lobby Copyright, 1990. The Associated Press. All rights reserved. By PAUL RAEBURN AP Science Editor NEW YORK (AP) -- Six scientists on an Environmental Protection Agency panel on smoking, including its chairman, have ties to a tobacco industry research group, but the EPA says that's no problem. "We went to our lawyers and said, 'Does this constitute a conflict of interest?' and they said no," said Donald Barnes, staff director of the EPA's scientific advisory board. "We were concerned about the appearance of conflict of interest," Barnes said. But he said the link between the panel members and the tobacco organization "does not cause any question to be raised about their technical capabilities." The 1b-member panel's task is to assure the accuracy and objectivity of two forthcoming EPA studies on the health effects of second-hand cigarette smoke. In addition to the six members with ties to the tobacco research organization, a seventh member of the panel was appointed at the urging of the Philip Morris tobacco company, EPA officials said. "They've stacked the deck with people who have close ties to the tobacco industry," said Dr. Alan Blum, a founder of the anti-smoking group Doctors Ought to Care. "It's pathetic." The panel members are linked to the Center for indoor Air Research of Linthicum, Md. The center is financed by Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Lorillard Corp., three of the nation's largest tobacco companies. Its board of directors is made up of employees of those companies, said Pamela Phillips, an administrator at the center. The chairman of the EPA panel, Morton Lippmann of Naw York University, is on the science advisory board of the tobacco industry center. Lippmann and another member of the EPA panel, Dr. Jonathan Samet of the University of New Mexico, helped devise the center's research agenda. Samet and three other members of the panel are listed as "peer reviewers" for the center. They help determine which research projects the center supports. Yet another panel member, Delbert Eatough of Brigham Young University, receives research funds from the center. A seventh member, Geoffrey Kabat of the American Health Foundation, had been recommended by Philip Morris, EPA officials said. Kabat said, "I have no direct contact with the tobacco industry at all, and I certai_n3.y don't see myself as being an agent of theirs in any respect." The makeup of the EPA pane3l aroused controversy when it was reported last month that the agency had dismissed Dr. David

11-09-90 09,46 nM FPOM BUP,SON MARSTELLEP P03 Burns from the panel after the tobacco industry lobbied to get rid of him. Burns, of the University of California, San Diego, was the author of the U.S. Surgeon General's report on passive smoking and is regarded by his colleagues as a leading authority on the issue. He was reinstated to the panel after his dismissal was disclosed. Lippmann said he didn't see any problem working with the EPA and with the tobacco research center. "It can always raise questions," he said. "I don't view it as any conflict." Samet's office said he was on vacation and couldn't be reached. Eatough, who has received research funds from R.J. Reynolds as well as the Center for indoor Air Research, said tha money does not compromise his objectivity. "I'm sure that it does raise questions in many people's minds," he said. But he said he is not constrained by the tobacco research funds. "What we do is what we do, and we're free to go down what seem the reasonable roads to go." The scientists serving as peer reviewers for the Center for Indoor Air Research are Michael hebowitz of the University of Arizona, Jan A.J. Stolw3jk of Yale University and James E. Woods of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Woods didn't return a call to his office. Lebowitz's office said he was out of the office until Nov. 16. Stolwijk said, "I review grant applications they send me. I don't have anything else to do with them."