Center for Indoor Air Research (CIAR)

Center for Indoor Air Research (CIAR) was a nonprofit, tobacco industry funded-and-formed research organization. CIAR was formed in March 1988 by tobacco companies "to sponsor "high-quality research on indoor air issues and to facilitate communication of research findings to the broad scientific community." According to Thomas L. Ogburn, Jr. of R.J. Reynolds, a basic goal of CIAR was to "broaden research in the field of indoor air quality generally and to expand interest beyond the misplaced emphasis solely on environmental tobacco smoke."

= Description =

CIAR was initially formed and funded by Lorillard, Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds, in late 1987-early 1988. The formation of CIAR was kept confidential. Many of the documents about hiring staff and recruiting scientists for it were stamped "confidential." Much of the work to form CIAR was conducted through Philip Morris' law firm, Covington and Burling, which allowed documents to be labeled "Attorney Work Product." A proposed budget was put together by Peter G. Sparber of the Tobacco Institute. John Rupp, an attorney with Covington and Burling, was hired to recruit other tobacco companies around the world to join CIAR.

CIAR was to operate "at arm's length" from the industry so the Tobacco Institute incorporated it as a completely separate, non-profit entity. The Institute rented separate offices for CIAR (near other respected scientific agencies) and hired a separate executive director.

The purpose of CIAR was to give grants to scientists who would in turn do research, produce and publish studies that would bolster the industry's arguments against regulation of environmental tobacco smoke. Another goal was the eventual creation of its own scientific journal, the contents of which could be controlled completely by the tobacco industry.

Seven of the nine members of the CIAR advisory board responded to Rep. Henry Waxman's survey. Only two agreed with the estimate that passive smoke is responsible for 3,000 lung cancer deaths a year. However, five agreed with the statement that environmental tobacco smoke/passive smoke is a "human lung carcinogen" and six agreed the statement that environmental tobacco smoke presents a "serious and substantial" health threat to children. (WP 7/25/94).

resource_id=6608 resource_code=ciar search_term=Center for Indoor Air Research (CIAR)