Will Address Corporate Efforts to Manipulate Science, Scientists, Policy

Scientists, academicians, journalists, and policy advocates will convene in Washington on July 11 to address corporations’ use of science to manipulate public opinion and influence public policy on health and the environment. The landmark conference was announced today by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).

Sessions include panels on how corporate dollars thwart research on health risks, suppress information about toxic products, and shape the federal research agenda. Conferees will present remedies to prevent conflicts of interest, to improve the transparency of the federal scientific advisory process, to hold corporations accountable, and to enhance the media’s role in disclosing conflicts of interest.

Among the presenters are Drummond Rennie, M.D., deputy editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association; Marion Nestle, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Nutrition at New York University, and author, Food Politics; Alicia Mundy, author, Dispensing With the Truth; Sheldon Krimsky, Ph.D., professor of Urban and Environmental Policy at Tufts University and author, Science in the Private Interest; and Lisa Bero, Ph.D., professor of clinical pharmacy at University of California, San Francisco and co-author, The Cigarette Papers.

"The public is not aware that tactics used by the tobacco industry to manipulate science are also widely used by other industries," said Virginia A. Sharpe, director of CSPI’s Integrity in Science project. "This conference seeks to shed light on how pharmaceutical, food, chemical, and other companies fund scientific research in the service of those industries' short-term gain."

The conference, titled "Conflicted Science," will take place on July 11, 2003, from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Wyndham City Center Hotel, 1143 New Hampshire Avenue, NW in Washington. The full conference agenda, list of participants, and registration materials are available at http://www.conflictedscience.org