James M Parry
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This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation. |
James M ('Jim') Parry was a toxicologist and Professor at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Wales, Swansea. He was also the founding editor of the journal Mutagenesis and the European Journal of Molecular Genetics and Toxicology, and he was an editorial board member of Mutation Research -- so he was a very important contact for the tobacco industry.
In February 1995 the new CEO of Philip Morris, Geoffrey C Bible took control of the tobacco industry's main fightback program and completely reformed the organisational structure of the company's lobbying and disinformation activities. Philip Morris virtually dominated the global tobacco industry's fightback program at this time and he realised that the problem had become global, rather than being confined to just the developed world.
Bible therefore merged the active lobbying/scientific-witness arms of both the domestic (PM USA) company and the international (PMI) division (with many national companies) and creating three new, closely-linked headquarter entities.
- Corporate Affairs (CA) now ran the main disinformation campaigns, and they looked after the 'grants' and 'donations' given to think-tanks and university institutions which housed scientific lobbyists for the industry.
- Worldwide Scientific Affairs (WSA) took over the old Science & Technology/Scientific Affairs operations. It now controlled the many academic and scientific consultants that had been recruited around the world: the open/admitted advisers who were paid by annual retainers; those who received grants and were open about it while always claiming to be "independent" of tobacco influence; and the numerous WhiteCoats who preferred to operate in secret, and were generally paid only on a services-rendered basis. WhiteCoats were usually paid through their own private consultancy firms, or via pseudo-scientific associations (IAPAG, ARIA, EGIL, IAI, ARTIST etc.) set up specifically to provide a money-laundry service and cover.
- Worldwide Regulatory Affairs (WRA), was an extension of the old Washington lobbyist in-house staff, but with experts in other countries, and now operating on a global scale. They did the political lobbying and wrote the wording of the bills. The were mainly lawyers.
As part of this restructure, the head office of the company requested information about the scientists who had been recruited and run over the previous few years by the regional divisions of the company. This document from the Swiss branch run by Helmut Gaisch and Helmut Reif gives us their evaluation of some of their contractors. See original document: http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/acs36b00/pdf.
Prof Jim Parry, Professor of Genetics, University of Wales, Swansea
- Biological Scientist. Editor of 'Mutagenetics'. Active commitee member of UKEMS, and past president of EEMS
- [Note: UKEMS = United Kingdom Environmental Mutagen Society]
- [EEMS = European Environmental Mutagen Society]
- [He also worked for BAT and Rothmans "in private" on inhalation and other animal studies.]
- Chair of the UK Department of Health's Committee on Mutagenicity and also Committee on Carcinogenicity.
- Is willing to meet, discuss and debate genetic problems/ideas. He is not specifically contracted but is given a grant of $10,000 a year.
- [Parry obviously tried to stay independent of tobacco influence while taking their cash and giving them advice. He kept his consultancy quiet, so it is difficult to know what wider influence this funding had.]
- Prof Parry has some reluctance to support the Tobacco Industry for fear of reprisals by grant-giving authorities within the UK.
