Donald Ecobichon

Donald Ecobichon was a Professor of Toxicology in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He held a Ph.D. in pharmacology and was the co-organizer and co-editor of a monograph of an international symposium on environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) clandestinely organized and funded by the tobacco industry and held at McGill University on November 3 and 4, 1989. The McGill ETS Symposium included over 90 scientific participants from throughout the world, involved an analysis of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) research, including chemical characterization, exposure markers, health effects studies and risk assessment. Conference participants concluded that the published data were inconsistent with the notion that ETS was a health hazard, that there were inadequate data upon which to base a valid ETS risk assessment and that more research needed to be done before any conclusion could be reached about whether ETS exposure causes disease in nonsmokers. These w positions were consistent with the tobacco industry's positions on secondhand smoke.

Ecobichon wrote the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency advising them to take into full account the proceedings of the McGill conference in reaching any final decision with respect to its draft risk assessment on ETS.

Along with tobacco industry consultant Joseph Wu, Dr. Ecobichon authored a paper summarizing the conclusions of the McGill ETS conference.