Commentary
Warning: Anti-tobacco activism may be hazardous to epidemiologic science
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Correspondence: Carl V Phillips carl.v.phillips@ualberta.ca
University of Alberta School of Public Health, Edmonton, AB T6G 2L9, Canada
Epidemiologic Perspectives & Innovations 2007, 4:13 doi:10.1186/1742-5573-4-13
Published: 22 October 2007Abstract
This commentary accompanies two articles submitted to Epidemiologic Perspectives & Innovations in response to a call for papers about threats to epidemiology or epidemiologists from organized political interests. Contrary to our expectations, we received no submissions that described threats from industry or government; all were about threats from anti-tobacco activists. The two we published, by James E. Enstrom and Michael Siegel, both deal with the issue of environmental tobacco smoke. This commentary adds a third story of attacks on legitimate science by anti-tobacco activists, the author's own experience. These stories suggest a willingness of influential anti-tobacco activists, including academics, to hurt legitimate scientists and turn epidemiology into junk science in order to further their agendas. The willingness of epidemiologists to embrace such anti-scientific influences bodes ill for the field's reputation as a legitimate science.