Medical journals continue to publish studies funded by tobacco companies.

It also found that of the 40 journals—the 10 most cited in general medicine and another 30 in areas affected by smoking—only 8 had policies prohibiting research funded in whole or in part by the tobacco industry.

Although the tobacco industry invests billions in medical research and has a long history of undermining science, most major medical journals do not have policies prohibiting research funded in whole or in part by the tobacco industry.

And even when publishers, authors and universities are willing to limit ties to the tobacco industry, they have difficulty identifying sources of funding because tobacco companies fund their projects through front groups.

The report also shows that even among journals that have restrictive policies on tobacco company-funded research, their enforcement may be difficult when subsidiaries or organizations associated with tobacco companies are involved.

Just last year, BMJ Open retracted an article after it became clear that the public funder was receiving sponsorship from the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, a group wholly supported and funded by tobacco company Philip Morris International.

Nicholas Hopkinson, professor of respiratory medicine at Imperial College London, notes that given “long history of dishonestyIt is “very easy” for industry researchers to cut ties with companies after they are acquired by Big Tobacco, as they would have done otherwise. “work with the tobacco industry” and contribute to its profits.

In a statement to the Scientific Media Center, Josep Maria Suelves, head of the service for the prevention and control of smoking and injuries at the Catalan Public Health Agency and member of the board of directors of the National Committee for Smoking Prevention, notes: “Since the beginning of the 20th century, companies involved in the production and distribution of tobacco products developed all types of activities to stimulate their consumption, actively hiding the accumulating scientific data on the harm caused by both active smoking and involuntary exposure to tobacco. smoke harms individual and collective health.

To continue to secure the economic benefit they gain from the suffering of millions of people (tobacco is estimated to cause 8 million premature deaths each year across the planet), he adds that “multinational tobacco companies have not hesitated to hide data that showed how nicotine is addictive, and the connection between cigarette use and numerous diseases. While continuing to oppose any policy measures to prevent and control smoking, tobacco companies do not hesitate to introduce new products to the market. that they promised to protect against self-inflicted harm, from the cigarette filter to the latest heated tobacco products and e-cigarettes, including light products. “They also do not hesitate to hire researchers and take control of companies in the health sector to whitewash their activities and spread biased information.”

Although the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO), calls on states to protect health policies from tobacco industry interference, action is still needed to ensure that the economic interests of tobacco companies do not undermine the tobacco industry’s advances. fields of science and public health. The motto chosen by WHO to celebrate World No Tobacco Day in 2024 once again speaks of the need to protect children from any interference from the tobacco industry.