- APCO are the shonky science/public relations organisation which specialises in secret grassroots organisations and the corruption of science. Margery Kraus and Tom Hockaday are the two key APCO executives in charge of the Philip Morris account.
- Matt Winokur was a second-level executive at Philip Morris. At this time, he was in charge of its efforts to limit the impact of passive smoking regulations.
EASY-READ VERSION APCO to Philip Morris -- May 31 1994
European Sound Science Program
Thank you for sending a copy of the survey on epidemiology. We agree that the results could be a good basis for a European scientist meeting. We will follow-up with Tom Borelli to discuss the survey in more detail.
[Theoretically, APCO had nothing to do with this survey. It was said to have been done by Carlo, and funded by Thorne Auchter's IRP. So this is a clear admission that they whole process had been funded by Philip Morris through APCO. We also have other evidence.]
For your information -- Dr George Carlo, Chairman of Health and Environmental Sciences Group, Ltd, who coordinated the survey, is a member of TASSC Science Advisory Group. Tom met with Dr. Carlo recently, and he has indicated a willingness to play an active role in the coalition.
[Philip Morris had used Carlo before, but through Newman Partners Ltd. APCO may not have known this.]
We have provided Chuck Lister a list of the European scientists recommended by TASSC members as potential participants in a European meeting, He has forwarded us information and an initial assessment of the list and will be providing further thorghts on these suggestions.
[Lister was the European executive in charge of the science corruption area in Philip Morris International which was setting up a European version of TASSC. The TASSC members who would have helped prepare the list, would have been Carlo's group, plus a few other members of the Advisory Board.]
We are working on the proposal for the European scientist meeting and should have a document for your review shortly. [Philip Morris was to fund it]
If you have any questions, please do not hestitate to give us a call.
- Having a loaded study done by Dr George Carlo through Thorne Auchter's Institute for Regulatory Policy (IRP -- a fake policy organisation) which purported to establish bias among epidemiologists (and some other scientists) against tobacco smoke.
- Form a 'coalition' of scientists to promote these ideas in Europe. The term 'coalition' changes meaning a bit in these documents: here it means a coalition controlled by all the tobacco companies which was to run a European version of TASSC. TASSC was, itself, a 'coalition' of science-for-sale shonks, some far right-wing zealots who thought they made decisions, 500 or so genuine, but gullible, scientist who were just there for the names/credibility they provided, and a few corrupt public relations people who actually ran the operation. It was all very cleverly done.
- TASSC (The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition) was promoted as a "sound-science" and "grassroots association" of scientists who were trying to promote better standards. They were recruited by being asked to sign a motherhood statement supporting sound science ... usually at various scientific conventions. Nearly 500 of the more gullible signed up.
Typically they found Reply Paid postcards on their table, and were asked to sign after hearing a speaker (usually a paid speaking spot during the lunch break) promoting the importance of strict scientific principles and integrity. The come-on was usually in the form of hints that members would possibly be invited to conferences and paid travel allowances, and/or have access to large corporations who may be interested in sponsoring their research.
TASSC was run from the start by APCO with New Mexico ex-Governor Gerry Curruthers at its head. A science-shonk called Steve Milloy was doing the actual work behind the scenes, presumably while he was still employed by either Thorne Auchter or through Jan Mare's EOP Group.
Later Milloy took over as Executive Director (although without any staff to execute) and for the first few year TASSC was housed in APCO premises, although with its own phone number. At this time APCO seems to have bought the "Junkscience" Internet operation into the TASSC organisation (It had been nominally controlled by another fake APCO-owned astroturf organisation) -- and later, when rumours began to circulate about the APCO-TASSC relationship, they shifted it out to another location, and tried to pretend that they'd never heard of the organisation.
TASSC still exists (in 2000), at least nominally. It was funded in its early years entirely by Philip Morris, but later APCO widened out the financial catchment to include a 'coalition' of other companies with poisoning or polluting problems. The organisation and its offshoots were so successful that they took a lead role in opposing the Kyoto Protocols in 1999. TASSC and ESEF have spawned other similar groups in Asia and Australia.
TASSC still officially owns the Junkscience name and operation, but what you see at the site is actually just the public tip of APCO's iceberg -- their IssuesNet operation, which is a global news monitoring service. The Junkscience site just provides a quick reaction to any adverse publicity that APCO's clients may experience. The operators also have a well-developed and highly efficient syndication system among many American newspapers for Milloy's comments (and also Fumento and Gough)
- The proposed meeting of European scientists discussed here did eventuate, and the coalition (The European Science and Environmental Forum - ESEF) was formed, and run by both APCO and Burson-Marsteller in some sort of partnership. Later the same fake-"sound science" group held a conference which formulated what were called GEP (Good Epidemiological Principles), later known as the London Principles.
The aim of the tobacco industry in these operations was to recruit scientists to their cause (even when they didn't know their names were being used) and also to set the bar of "proof" so high that regulators like the EPA, FDA, OSHA, etc, (and their European equivalents) could never jump over them.
In order to regulate potentially dangerous substances, the regulator would need to establish some form of totally-acceptable (no major scientist objecting) "proof" that the produce was dangerous. Without this proof they would be prohibited from applying common-sense precautionary principles based on the evidence available..
If this had happened, the US drug overseers at the FDA would not have been able to stop the use of the drug Thalidomide for pregnant women, etc. and tobacco smoke would still be considered OK in office buildings.
[TASSC INDEX] : [SECTION INDEX]
EXPLANATION
Philip Morris were fighting a battle to limit the impact of a number of epidemiological studies which had implicated ETS (Environmental Tobacco Smoke - passive smoking) in slightly increased rates of lung-cancer (in non-smokers). They were attempting to discredit the regulatory efforts of the EPA, FDA, OSHA by: