ARIA (Doc. Index)
| Part 1: General Overview ARIA |
| Part 2: ARIA (Doc. Index) This page |
| From US government's 'Factual Memo' used in Medicaid litigation (Aug 2004). |
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Associates for Research on Indoor Air - ARIA was created in February 1988 by Covington & Burling as a Philip Morris initiative in the UK designed to generate favourable scientific comments on ETS issues, It was little more than a public relations program, not a scientific research operation. Funded by the industry, C&B acted as a buffer between the industry and the scientists to allow the members to retain the appearance of "independence". The group was headed by industry consultants George Leslie, Francis Roe and Frank Lanau, who set up another industry front to fund indoor air quality seminars, research and publications, such as IAI or Indoor Air International. https://www.industrydocumentslibrary.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/#id=xtwm0001 |
Documents & Timeline
1988 Mar Helmut Gaisch's Monthly Report to Philip Morris (from FTR in Switzerland). He has many ARIA/EGIL-relevant entries in this month:
- March 1 -- Evening meeting with:
Dr John FACCINI, an English medical scientist who has a second residence in France, Ms. BOURGOIS (the French NMA called AFCC - the Cigarette Manufacturers Assn,) and Mr David REMES (C&B lawyer).
Dr FACCINI, although being English, is a potential candidate to the position of chief ETS consultant in France. Dr. FACCINI was recommended to us through Drs (Francis) ROE and (George) LESLIE."- [NMA = National Manufacturers Association. EGIL = Scandinavian version of ARIA.
[[Francis JC Roe] and George B Leslie ran the ARIA operation in England.
- [NMA = National Manufacturers Association. EGIL = Scandinavian version of ARIA.
- March 10 -- [Reif, Gaisch and Rupp are meeting with],
Dr Nancy BALTER (IAPAG) and Dr Tors MALMFORS held a preparatory meeting for the first EGIL (Swedish acronym for 'Expert Group for lndoor Air') coordination meeting to take place in Stockholm the following day.
- [Dr Nancy Balter (Georgetown Uni) ran the first Whitecoat group, the Indoor Air Pollution Advisory Group (IAPAG) in the USA.
- EGIL = Swedish acronym for 'Expert Group for lndoor Air'
- Lawyer, John Rupp of Covington & Burling (C&B) acted as cut-out and shield for the IAPAG group.]
- March 11 -- Meeting in Stockholm of the Swedish group of ETS Consultants, Project EGIL, headed by Dr Tors MALMFORS. The following persons were present:
Dr. Odd NILSSEN of Norway, Drs. Bo MIKAELSON, Daniel THORBURN and Arne WESTLlN of Sweden, Ms Annuka LEPPANEN of Finland. [They met with tobacco lobbyists/staff] Dr BALTER, USA (IAPAG), Mr RUPP (C&B), REIF and GAISCH (both PM/FTR).
"The purpose of the meeting, was to brief the scientists on the current state of the science of ETS, to facilitate a discussion, and to plan for the future."
- March 14 -- [GAISCH] and Mr John RUPP met at the Athaneum...
... with Drs. Francis ROE and Frank SULLIVAN as well as Mr (Peter) BROWN of Rothmans lnternational. The ETS Project is driven in the UK, as elsewhere in Europe, by PME. Mr BROWN assured us of the fullest support of Rothmans, with the exception of financial support.
- [Rothmans was one-third owned by Philip Morris, so they wouldn't want to pay twice.
- Pharmacologist Frank Sullivan was a new ARIA recruit from Guy's Hospital and the University of London.]
- March 17 -- (Iancou) MARCOVITCH - contact with Dr (Claude) BIEVA (of Brussels) who informed that:
the Ministry of Health has agreed to give its patronage to the Indoor Air Quality Conference to be organised in February 1989. (Later known as the Bieva Conference on ETS)
He also reported on his meeting with Prof PERRY (London) who has agreed to participate in the Scientific Committee of this Conference.- Claude Bieve was a toxicologist with the Free University of Brussels, Belgium - and a tobacco tout.
- [ Professor Roger Perry was the leader of the ARIA group and he became the main Asian Whitecoat recruiter the following year.]
- March 21 -- IAM (MARCOVITCH) - Paris. Meeting with Prof Lucien ABENHEIM and Ms Helene BOURGOIS (AFCC/NMA).
Prof. ABENHAIM informed that he cannot do the review work on ETS himself. lt would be carried out by his team at INSERM. He will send a precise budget as soon as possible. [INSERM is a well-known French Medical Research Organisation.]
- March 23 -- HER [REIF] - Took part in a meeting with G WILLE (PM West Germany), Walter FINK (FTR Switzerland) and Prof ADLKOFER (VdC Germany) to discuss :
(1) - Plans concerning the European network of scientific consultants on IAQ,
(2) - New developments in ongoing research in Germany in the ETS / IAQ field, and
(3) - A modus operandi for organising public ETS events in a coordinated fashion in Europe. (To avoid collision of dates, etc).- [Franz Adlkofer of the Verband/VdC was the chief organiser of disinformation scientists in Germany, and he was working on an Austrian Whitecoats project for Philip Morris.] [1]
1988 Apr 18 Helmut Gaisch's ETS Plan and Budgets for four years. [Note: Paraphrased - Gaisch ran PM Europe's FTR operation out of Switzerland]
- Aim: to maintain the argument: There is no convincing scientific evidence that ETS is a health risk for non-smokers.
- Scope: Management of experts as scientific spokespersons (extra mural research - scientific events)
- Experts: total of 22 excluding Germany: Abenheim, Bieva, Brun (A Brun -Alzheimer Researcher), Chiappino, Faccini, R Fresenius (consultant recruiter), Lambert (unknown), Leppanen, Leslie, Malmfors, Mikaelsson, Neurath, Nielssen (spelling), Roger Perry, Roe, Schneider (6 possibilites), Scholz (unknown), Thorburn, van der Val (unknown), Wahren, Werko, Westlin
- Program: (see document too extensive to paraphrase)
- Annual Budget: $6 million
[Note: Gunter Wille MD was Chairman of German Cig. Mfts Assn, and worked for Philip Morris, He died "a tragic death" (no further mention);
Franz X Adlkofer was a corrupt scientist who worked for a number of industries, at this time, for tobacco via the Verband (aka VdC - German research group) http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ugh22e00/pdf
