Philip Witorsch

Philip Witorsch is a tobacco industry environmental tobacco smoke "expert witness." He is a Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., USA. He was a Managing Principal at the International Center for Toxicology and Medicine in Rockville, Maryland. Witorsch took as much as $60,000 from the tobacco industry between 1985 and 1995 to claim publicly there was no link between environmental tobacco smoke and cancer.

= Biography =

Philip Witorsch was a Managing Principal at the International Center for Toxicology and Medicine, Rockville, Maryland. It is alleged that between 1985 and 1995, the tobacco industry paid Professor Witorsch as much as $60,000 to give evidence in America and around the world claiming there was no link between environmental tobacco smoke and cancer.

On August 10, 1992, Dr. Witorsch billed the tobacco industry (through its law firm, Covington & Burling) $24,250 for 97 hours at $250/hour plus travel expenses for consulting and preparation of manuscripts for the tobacco industry. Other invoices can be seen at 

In April 2001 Professor Witorsch testified at a Port Kembla, New South Wales, Austrialia trial. A 62 year old, nonsmoking former bar employee Marlene Sharp sued her former employer on the grounds that she had contracted throat cancer after being exposed to passive smoking as a barmaid for more than 11 years. The defense called Philip Witorsch and Sorell Schwartz from the International Center for Toxicology and Medicine in Maryland, in the United States, as expert witnesses. An article in the British Medical Journal about the trial outcome says that "Professor Witorsch has appeared on many occasions for the tobacco industry internationally, although his online curriculum vitae makes no mention of any association." Under cross examination, the attorney for Mrs. Sharp asked Professor Witorsch whether he could name any reputable medical body anywhere in the world not sponsored by the tobacco industry which held that environmental tobacco smoke did not cause cancer. Professor Witorsch was unable to name one. The lawyer also confronted Witorsch with tobacco industry documents showing how much he had earned from the tobacco industry over the years.

Tobacco industry documents

 * Expert Stubs Out Claims by Anti-Smokers. Burns, A. Newspaper publication. March 1, 1987.  Perth, Australia.vvStates, "Professor Witorsch, a lung disease specialist, described many of the studies relied on by the anti-smokers as 'scientific garbage'"

Contact
Philip Witorsch, M.D. Georgetown University Medical Center Division of Clinical Pharmacology NE404, Medical Dental Building 3900 Reservoir Rd. NW Washington, DC 20057 witorscpATgeorgetown.edu (Replace the "AT" with an "@" sign.)