http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7332/257/a

BMJ 2002;324:257 ( 2 February )

News

Academics face court clash with tobacco giants

Charles Marwick, Washington

Nine major US universities are preparing to go to court to contest a demand by US tobacco manufacturers that they turn over documents going back over 50 years relating to research on smoking by faculty members. The institutions describe the demands as a "fishing expedition."

The universities concerned are Harvard, New York University School of Medicine, four universities in the California state system, the universities of Arizona and Kentucky, and Johns Hopkins University. One institution, North Carolina State University, has complied with the tobacco industry's request.

The tobacco companies, which include industry leaders such as Philip Morris and R J Reynolds, served subpoenas on the universities for the documents late last year. The companies maintain they need the information as a defence against a US Justice Department's suit filed in September 1999 and scheduled for trial in 2003.

That suit alleges that in 1954 the tobacco companies agreed to wage a long term public relations campaign based on fraud and deception. It states that the companies consistently denied that smoking was a health hazard, denied that cigarettes were addictive, and pursued marketing strategies that encouraged minors to smoke. One part of the original indictment was thrown out in earlier court hearings, but the main charge, that the industry tried to cover up the deleterious effects of smoking on health, still stands.

"The subpoena that was served on Johns Hopkins was exceedingly objectionable, and we will fight it. If [tobacco company] attorneys want to enforce this subpoena, they have the burden of going to court. We will be delighted to explain to the court why we find it so objectionable," said Estelle Fishbein, Johns Hopkins University's general counsel. "It is over-broad and exceedingly burdensome to require the university to devote so much of its scarce resources to this kind of search for documents that go back 55 years, that relate to 60 studies done by our faculty, and even ask us to look and see if we can find any others that relate to tobacco."

The worst part of this subpoena, Ms Fishbein said, was the demand for records by individuals who may have been in touch with their elected representatives, members of the Congress, or government agencies. "Our faculty is not required to submit their letters to anyone for prior approval," she said.

The American Association of University Professors also backs the move to quash the subpoenas.

A spokesman for Philip Morris maintains that the subpoenas "were very narrowly tailored to define those documents based on the research that these institutions have done. We believe that access to this information is important to the defence of the case."

© BMJ 2002

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