Lauren V. Ackerman
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{{#badges: tobaccowiki}} Lauren V. Ackerman, M.D. was a a top surgical pathologist, and Professor of Pathology at Washington University, and at the University of New York, Stony Brook. [1] He appears regularly as defense expert witness for the tobacco industry, and, while still an industry consultant when at Washington University, he received institutional grant. He was associated with the Fischer Cancer Hospital which also received money from CTR.
Throughout the 1970s he acted as a tobacco industry lobbyist, and was paid by the Council for Tobacco Research through the tobacco industry's secret Special Account #4 which was handled by the Ad Hoc Committee of company lawyers. This was to ensure that the scientist/academic remained 'untainted' and could be used as a witness in court cases, or present himself at Congressional or local ordinance hearings as an authority who was 'independent' of tobacco industry influences.
The Council for Tobacco Research (CTR) was a scientific front group set up to maintain the pretence that research into all aspect of smoking were being carried out. Some of their grants were open and publicised, to prove that the industry operated ethically, but other grants were laundered through these Special Account #4 (SP#4). Because they were handled only by lawyers, the could hide the payments from any "discovery" processes if he was called as a witness in possible court-room or legislative hearing. This allowed everyone to lie about research and conceal any adverse results.
Ackerman was a close friend of Sheldon C Sommers, another pathologist who became the Scientific Director of the CTR's Scientific Advisory Board. His name also appears on a list of 'Court-declared' scientists who were funded by the Tobacco industry to fake scientific results. See list at CTR Special Projects
Documents & Timeline
1967 May 2 Alex Holtzman (the main science lawyer with Philip Morris) is reporting to David Hardy at Shook Hardy & Bacon about a group of "Special Projects" (secret research or funding for services) which he looked after for the Council for Tobacco Research's (CTR) Committee of Counsel. Special Projects are given "SP#code numbers.
- SP#110 -- Dr. L. V. Ackerman
Dr. Ackerman reported on July 1, 1966 that he had collected three examples of lung cancer in nonsmokers. Since then, I believe, only one more case has been found.
On January 30, 1967, he sent me a review of the cases of lung cancer in both men and women at Barnes Hospital for the period July 1, 1966 to January 1, 1967. This gave a breakdown of the pathologic classifications, but nothing in regard to smoking habits.
Around that time he told me that it did not appear worthwhile to continue searching for cases of epidermoid lung cancer in only one institution. He has not had much success in getting Tom Burford (another Special Account #4 recipient) to request cases from surgeons at other large cancer centers.
Ackerman suggested some time ago that he could assign a young pathologist to go to the leading cancer institutions and collect such cases together with the charts and slides. Ackerman would then be willing to review the slide material and then write up a report on all of the cases collected.
He told me also that Dr. Kreyberg is seeking to collect cases of lung cancer in non- smokers and had requested Ackerman's cooperation. [2]
- [Ackerman and Burford were collecting these cases for the tobacco industry for only one reason -- so that they could manipulate the statistics which showed most people who got lung cancer were smokers. There were occupational causes of lung-cancer also, but it was rare to find workers in high-dust conditions who didn't also smoke, and smoking and dust-diseases were synergistic]
1970 Mar 3 The general counsel for Philip Morris in New York, Alex Holtzman, is corresponding with Andrew Whist, the key disinformation expert with Philip Morris Australia. Holtzman has been sending out corrupt scientists (Rune Cederlof and Lars Friberg, etc) to conduct media tours in Australia, where they claim that there is no justification for anyone having concern about the health effects of tobacco smoke.
Holtzman has just learned that Sheldon ('Charlie') Sommers, the Acting Research Director at the Council for Tobacco Research (CTR) is planning to visit Australia in June -- and he has agreed to ...
"... devote part of his time to participating in whatever activities you might arrange."
Lauren V Ackerman, Professor of Pathology at Washington University, St Louis and a good friend of ours [who] has an international reputation in the cancer field" [might also join Sommers.] "He has a wider reputation than Sommers, and is the associate editor of the ACS's journal, Cancer -- so his objectivity could not be questioned."
Ackerman, unfortunately, believes that smoking ...
"might be implicated in some cases of lung cancer, but that its contribution to lung cancer overall is fairly small.
I hesitate to make a strong recommendation on Ackerman since as you and I know from the Cederlof/Friberg situation, it can be difficult to handle two scientists who have somewhat divergent views.
Ackerman is entirely willing to, leave the discussion of smoking and health questions in Sommers hands and to make only such remarks on this subject as might be considered helpful. Also, he is very critical of the Auerbach [smoking beagle] study and will be in a very good position to discuss its shortcomings.
Sommers' visit, incidentally, would be entirely under his own auspices without any support from the industry. As to Ackerman, we would have to arrange to pay his expenses, but I am certain that many academics in Australial would be anxious to arrange speaking dates for him.
He also suggests John P Wyatt and Ray Rosenman [both fully in the industry pay]
Finally, I am enclosing a very recent article by Dr Carl C Seltzer of Harvard University which represents an excellent criticism of the scientific information in relation to cigarette smoking and heart disease.
- [This triggered Seltzer's later career as the main international travelling salesman for doubt about smoking and heart attacks.] [3]
1970 Mar 10 Alex Holtzman, the general counsel to Philip Morris, reports to Paul D Smith (head of Committee of Counsel):
Lauren Ackerman telephoned me at 4:30 p.m. this afternoon to say that Auerbach's manuscript has not yet been received at the editorial office of Cancer. [4]
- [Ackerman was the associate editor of the Journal and he was tipping them off about the threat from Dr Oscar Auerbach's famous Beagle Smoking Dog study which established that animals could get lung cancers from breathing smoke.
1970 Mar 16 A second exchange of information between Holtzman and Paul Smith is Unavailable -- it is classed as "Privileged Content" MEMORANDUM BETWEEN PHILIP MORRIS COUNSEL REGARDING AUERBACH STUDY; SECRET.
However the indexing reveals that it also deals with Lauren Akerman and Sheldon Sommers and it mentions both the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and the journal 'Cancer' which Ackerman co-edits. [5]
1971 Feb 28 The audit for the CTR's secret Special Account #4 (six months only) shows:
Disbursements :-
Consultants' Fees and Expenses :-
- Dr Carl Seltzer $4,200.00
- Dr Louis Soloff. 3,543.93
- Dr Milton Rosenblatt 2,500.00
- Dr Wilhelm C Hueper 2,000.00
- Dr Alexander Brownlee 1,398.60
- Dr Lauren Ackerman 675.39 ,
- Dr Ray H Rosenman 600.00
- Dr Irvng Zeidman 500, 00
- Information Intersciences, Inc. 1,614.37
- Auditing ...................$ 225.00 ........... $17,257.29
- Cash in Bank - Feb 28 1971 ........ $54,674.64
- Auditing ...................$ 225.00 ........... $17,257.29
- [Note: there was also a $500 reimbursement to the Canadian Tobacco Industry for a sum advanced to Dr Rene Cederlof [6]
Court-declared list of scientists
Note: this is just a partial list of the scientists, academics and 'consultants' who were being paid via Special Project accounts. It deals only with the scientists known to the courts at the time it was compiled. Many other academics and professionals were paid via these accounts as revealed at later dates.
These are CTR Special Project grantees now known not to have been included in the above list: [10]
- SP#1 Kurt Enslein, Computers, Uni of Rochester NY
- SP#33 S H Friedall, Cancer Research Inst, New England Deaconness Hospital, Boston.
- SP#42 Doris L Herman, pathologist, Uni of Southern California, Los Angeles(worked with Lyman Brewer.
- SP#44 William H Alban, pathologist, Houston Dept of Public Heath/Baylor Uni (worked with Eleanor MacDonald
- SP#45/63 Douglas M Sprunt, pathologist, Golightly Found. + Uni of Tennessee, College of Medicine, Memphis
- SP#46, SP#24, SP#25, Marcus M Mason, research lab owner, Mason Research Institute, Worcester, Mass
- SP#48 William J Bair, animal inhalation exp., Battelle Memorial Inst, Richland, Washington
- SP#49 David M Kissen psychologist/psychosmatic, Uni of Glasgow, Scotland
- SP#52 Frederick J Stare, Nutrition Dept, Harvard Un (laundering payment for Carl C Seltzer
- SP#53 Travis W Winsor, Memorial Heart Res. Foundation, LA CA
- SP#54 A Clifford Barger, Prof.Emeritus, Harvard Medical School, Boston
- SP#55 Lars T Friberg Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden (Partner with Rune Cederlof)
- SP#57 Hans Selye, Institute of Exp. Med. and Surgery, Uni of Montreal, Canada
- SP#64 William L Dunn, Philip Morris executive.
- SP#66 Jerome Kleinerman, pathologist, St Lukes Hospital, Cleverland OH/Western Reserve Uni.
- SP#68 ]]H Hugh Fudenberg]], University of California, San Franciso. (Working with John V Wells
- SP#69 Claus B Bahnson, East PA Psychiatric Institute, Philadelphia
References
(PMI's Introduction to Privilege Log and Glossary of Names, Estate of Burl Butler v. PMI, et al, April 19, 1996)
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