ReviewAmerican journal of public health2001
Constructing "sound science" and "good epidemiology": tobacco, lawyers, and public relations firms.
Review in American journal of public health, 2001. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 80 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
80 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Evidence Synthesis of Observational Studies in Environmental Health: Lessons Learned from a Systematic Review on Traffic-Related Air Pollution.Environmental health perspectives · 2023Pooled it
- The Progress of Tobacco Control Research in Sub-Saharan Africa in the Past 50 Years: A Systematic Review of the Design and Methods of the Studies.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2018Pooled it
- What is known about tobacco industry efforts to influence tobacco tax? A systematic review of empirical studies.Tobacco control · 2013Pooled it
- Turning the tables on industry narratives: a health communication playbook for promoting health.Health promotion international · 2026Article
- Tobacco industry influence on breast cancer research, policy and public opinion: scoping the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents.Tobacco control · 2026Article
- Europe must learn from America's assault on science.European journal of public health · 2026Article
- "Keep it a secret": Leaked Documents Suggest Philip Morris International, and Its Japanese Affiliate, Continue to Exploit Science for Profit.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2025Article
- Is it about substituting an addiction with another? development and initial psychometric properties of the first heated tobacco products addiction questionnaire (HeaTPAQ).Addiction science & clinical practice · 2025Article
- Tobacco industry narratives of e-cigarette use in the UK: a qualitative framing analysis.Health promotion international · 2024Article
- The opioid industry's use of scientific evidence to advance claims about prescription opioid safety and effectiveness.Health affairs scholar · 2024Article
- Building a Systems Map: Applying Systems Thinking to Unhealthy Commodity Industry Influence on Public Health Policy.International journal of health policy and management · 2024Article
- Retailer Responses to Public Consultations on the Adoption of Takeaway Management Zones Around Schools: A Longitudinal Qualitative Analysis.International journal of health policy and management · 2024Article
- Conflicts of Interest in the Assessment of Chemicals, Waste, and Pollution.Environmental science & technology · 2023Review
- Influence of Disclosed and Undisclosed Funding Sources in Tobacco Harm Reduction Discourse: A Social Network Analysis.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2023Review
- Manufacturing doubt: Assessing the effects of independent vs industry-sponsored messaging about the harms of fossil fuels, smoking, alcohol, and sugar sweetened beverages.SSM - population health · 2022Article
- Successful countering of tobacco industry efforts to overturn Thailand's ENDS ban.Tobacco control · 2021Article
- Environmental epidemiology in a crossfire.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2021Article
- Toolkit for detecting misused epidemiological methods.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2021Article
- A Review of the Talc Industry's Influence on Federal Regulation and Scientific Standards for Asbestos in Talc.New solutions : a journal of environmental and occupational health policy : NS · 2021Review
- The Commercial Determinants of Three Contemporary National Crises: How Corporate Practices Intersect With the COVID-19 Pandemic, Economic Downturn, and Racial Inequity.The Milbank quarterly · 2021Article
20 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The tobacco industry has attacked "junk science" to discredit the evidence that secondhand smoke-among other environmental toxins-causes disease. Philip Morris used public relations firms and lawyers to develop a "sound science" program in the United States and Europe that involved recruiting other industries and issues to obscure the tobacco industry's role. The European "sound science" plans included a version of "good epidemiological practices" that would make it impossible to conclude that secondhand smoke-and thus other environmental toxins-caused diseases. Public health professionals need to be aware that the "sound science" movement is not an indigenous effort from within the profession to improve the quality of scientific discourse, but reflects sophisticated public relations campaigns controlled by industry executives and lawyers whose aim is to manipulate the standards of scientific proof to serve the corporate interests of their clients.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.