Health

Smoldering Controversy

by Sheldon Rampton — February 13, 2008 - 11:32pm

"Here's a recipe for academic controversy," observes Richard C. Paddock: "First, find dozens of hard-core teenage smokers as young as 14 and study their brains with high-tech scans. Second, feed vervet monkeys liquid nicotine and then kill at least six of them to examine their brains. Third, accept $6 million from tobacco giant Philip Morris to pay for it all.

Main Source: 
Los Angeles Times, February 9, 2008

Seeking Protection for Whistleblowers That's Worth Its Salt

by Judith Siers-Poisson — January 30, 2008 - 2:01pm

The case of Pierre Meneton is fueling demands for legal protections for whistleblowers in France. Meneton is a researcher for the National Institute of Health and the National Institute of Health and Medical Research. He is going to court on January 31, 2008, to face charges of defamation. Several industrial salt producers are suing Meneton for a comment he made during an interview in March 2006. "The lobbying of salt producers and agribusiness is very active.

Main Source: 
Le Monde (France), January 29, 2008

Canada's Chalk River Nuclear Reactor Up and Running Again, but Safely?

by Judith Siers-Poisson — January 30, 2008 - 11:45am

Linda KeenThe fifty-year old nuclear reactor at Chalk River in Ontario, Canada, is running again after the Canadian Parliament overruled the president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

Main Source: 
Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada), January 29, 2008

They'd Like to Teach the World to Smoke

by Anne Landman — January 29, 2008 - 3:07pm

With marketing constraints increasing and cigarette usage declining in the developed world, Philip Morris (PM) is increasingly targeting smokers in other countries. PM now makes sweet-smelling cigarettes with cloves and other flavors that have twice the tar and nicotine as conventional products, created to appeal to smokers in developing countries.

Main Source: 
Wall Street Journal (sub req'd), January 29, 2008

CMD and Consumer Reports WebWatch Launch Full Frontal Scrutiny

by Judith Siers-Poisson — January 29, 2008 - 1:42pm
  • Topics: Astroturf, Internet, Front Groups, Third Party Technique, Corporations, Democracy, Environment, Health, Pharmaceuticals, Public Relations, Science, Secrecy, Tobacco

    • "The American public deserves to know when someone is trying to persuade them." — U.S. Federal Communications Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, Thursday, January 17, 2008

    Front Groups Beware of Full Frontal Scrutiny

    Today, the Center for Media and Democracy and our partners at Consumer Reports WebWatch launched an exciting new project: Full Frontal Scrutiny. The site seeks to shine a light on front groups -- organizations that state a particular agenda, while hiding or obscuring their identity, membership or sponsorship, or all three. Google the term "front groups" and the number one return is CMD's extensive articles on its SourceWatch site.

    Once Again, Drug Companies Caught Data Doping

    by Diane Farsetta — January 23, 2008 - 12:58pm

    The pharmaceutical companies Merck and Schering-Plough, which co-market the cholesterol drug Vytorin, "have gone into damage-control mode, taking out newspaper ads." The PR campaign follows the companies' reluctant publication of a study showing that neither of the drugs present in Vytorin "reduced the buildup of fatty plaque in arteries." The study "was co

    Main Source: 
    Advertising Age, January 22, 2008

    Corporate Responsibility or "Hidden Campaigns"?

    by Anne Landman — January 22, 2008 - 1:49pm

    The General Chairman of Indonesia's National Commission for Child Protection, Seto Mulyadi, called tobacco companies' corporate social responsibility programs "hidden cigarette campaigns." Mulyadi said that cigarette companies "do free advertising through their CSR programs." Mulyadi is proposing a complete ban on cigarette advertising in Indonesia, after a study by the country's Publi

    Main Source: 
    Tempo Interactive, Jakarta, January 18, 2008
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