Science and industry
At a conference held in Washington last month, sponsored by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, much disquiet was expressed over the growing problem of the interference of powerful industries with the publication in journals of results of scientific research which run counter to what the industry wishes to portray.
The increasing pressure on academic institutions of straitened funds
has, during recent years, offered a strong temptation to those institutions
to accept money from corporate sponsors, and at the same time to persuade
some research projects to suppress findings which the sponsors judge
harmful to their commercial interests. The inevitable outcome has been
that scientifically determined facts have been distorted and the picture
of pro- and contra-arguments has been confused .
Such behaviour can only serve to discredit the integrity of science
and research, something much too important to be permitted to be manipulated
by businesses for their own ends. A good argument has been made for completely
separating academic research from corporate financing, so that corruption
may be ruled out. It is accepted that pharmaceutical manufacturers, for
instance, have sometimes threatened researchers, interrupted trials,
and blocked publication of findings. Results of doubtful significance
have been reported in several journals, sometimes even with the shifting
of the sequence of researchers' names in attempts to disguise the repetition.
It is difficult to see how such tactics can successfully be countered.
In another sphere, it has been reported that industrial pig farms in
North Carolina have experienced intimidation of researchers who attempted
to discover the health effects of housing pigs in tightly packed quarters
without making any provision for the elimination of vast quantities of
animal waste. Exposure of workers and nearby residents to organic dusts,
ammonia, hydrogen sulphide and noxious odours was severe, and it was
found on investigation that research was being carried out into methods
of faster and cheaper pig rearing, but not into health and environmental
issues. The corporations responsible had recourse to legal advisers who,
in turn, made things unpleasant for the university to which the researchers
were affiliated. It was noted that scientific societies have done little
to help researchers in the face of intimidation by powerful industries.
The industries concerned with tobacco, lead and asbestos have proved
to be active in promoting public doubts about the adverse effect of such
products. Although firms concerned have collected data regarding toxicity,
the records have often been kept secret. As regards the publication of
scientific issues in the lay press, a former science editor of The
New York Times has remarked that what is called "the growing commercialisation
of science" has greatly complicated the difficulty of accurate reporting
of issues in the press and revealing the financial interests of people
whose views are published.
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I have to admit that the sight of someone striding about with a cigarette drooping from the lips, or holding a smoking cigarette in the air, revolts me. It is a stupid but at the same time arrogant gesture.
