http://upalumni.org/medschool/appendices/appendix-70a.html
by Michael
Greger, MD and United Progressive Alumni
[ Medical School Resources | Appendices | Discussion
]
According to the World Health Organization, cigarette smoking
will kill 10 million people annually by 2025. Reported in a Lancet
editorial entitled, "Exporting tobacco addiction from the U.S.A.,"
70% of cigarettes sold by Philip Morris in 1996 were sold overseas.[826] The single
most lethal agent on Earth today is not a virus or bacterium, but rather
tobacco.[827]
As reported in JAMA, a review article written by authors
with affiliations to the tobacco industry is 88 times more likely to conclude
that passive smoking is not harmful than if the review article was written by
authors with no connection to the tobacco industry.[828] We now know
that this was part of a larger campaign.
According to the British Medical Journal, U.S. tobacco
giant Phillip Morris set up a network of scientists who were paid to cast doubt
upon the risks of passive smoking according to recently leaked confidential
documents. The European arm of the secret global campaign was code named
"Project Whitecoat."[829]
In 1964, AMA president Edward R. Annis spoke the fateful words,
"The AMA is not opposed to smoking and tobacco." A subsequent AMA
president Daniel Cloud finally admitted the awful truth:
[There was] a tacit
understanding... between the tobacco-state lawmakers and the AMA that the AMA
would lay off, if tobacco people would support us in the fight against [the
institution of Medicare].... We did have support [from the southern states] and
we got the support because of our laying off the tobacco issue.
Lung cancer and no health insurance for the elderly? The
AMA hard at work to prevent [doctor's salaries from] suffering.
Dr. Blum, founder of DOC, Doctors Ought to Care, publicized the
fact that the AMA owned $1.4 million in tobacco securities. Replying on behalf
the of AMA, the Chairman of the AMA Board's Finance Committee explained that
the purpose of the retirement fund was, "to make the biggest buck, not to
make a social statement."[831]
This is not unusual for the medical industry. Health insurance
giant Prudential, for example, owns over a hundred million dollars of Phillip
Morris stock. One critic likened this investment to a, "combined taxidermy
and veterinarian shop; either way you get your dog back."[832]
The AMA defends its public health efforts. In 1979 it
spearheaded a report on tobacco (using an 18 million dollar contribution from
the tobacco industry). In 1992 it did produce a program dealing with diet and
cholesterol (funded by the National Livestock and Meat Board, the Beef Board,
and the Pork Board). The AMA also points to recent educational programs on
alcohol (funded by $600,000 from the liquor industry).[833]
The AMA was finally nailed, though, for its unhealthy
politics - Appendix
70b.
[826]
"Exporting Tobacco Addiction from the USA" The Lancet
351(1998):1597.
[827]
Foege, WH. "Global Public Health." JAMA 279(1998):1931-1932.
[828]
Wise, J. "Links to Tobacco Industry Influences Review Conclusions." JAMA
279(1998):1566.
[829]
Dyer, C. British Medical Journal 316(1998):1555.
[830]
Wolinsky, H. The Serpent on the Staff: The Unhealthy Politics of the
American Medical Association New York: Putnam Publishing Group, 1995.
[831]
Robbins, J. Reclaiming Our Health Tiburon, CA: HJ Kramer, 1996.
[832]
Woolhandler, S and DU Himmelstein. For Our Patients, Not For Profits
Cambridge: Center for National Health Program Studies, 1998:86.
[833]
Robbins, J. Reclaiming Our Health Tiburon, CA: HJ Kramer, 1996:216.
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