Arthur Furst

Arthur Furst, Ph.D., Sc.D. (Toxicologist, U of CA, San Francisco, Industry Expert)

= Biography =

Arthur Furst was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on December 25, 1914. His family moved to California in 1919. He attended Los Angeles City College from 1932-35 and the University of California Los Angeles from 1935-40, obtaining a Master's degree in chemistry. He earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford University in 1948. After he retired, he ran a consulting business in toxicology and did work on behalf of industry, trade associations and governments. He died December 1, 2005.

Arthur Furst was a tobacco industry consultant, a Council for Tobacco Research (CTR) Consultant, CTR Contractor and CTR Special Projects recipient.(PMI's Introduction to Privilege Log and Glossary of Names, Estate of Burl Butler v. PMI, et al, April 19, 1996) He is an Expert of General Causation and Specific Causation and he gave a deposition that was 242 pgs on 12/3/86 for the Cipollone v. Liggett, et al case.(PMI's Revised Initial Disclosure, June 27, 1996).

In 1969 and 1970, he took a one year sabbatical from his position at the University of San Francisco and served on CTR's staff as a research consultant.

Furst was a toxicologist and Graduate of Stanford University. After he retired, he continued to consult for the cigarette industry. He testified that smoking had not been proved to cause lung cancer. Much of Furst's research was paid for in full or in part by the tobacco industry-funded Council for Tobacco Research, before 1965. He testified for the defense in the Galbraith trial, admitting that smoking was a risk factor for cancer.(Jenkins, pp. 165/66). He testified for the defense in the Rose Defrancesco Cipollone case.

Furst was used as a support to the Microbiological Associates' mouse study, which found no squamous-cell carcinoma (although the lab's director of inhalation toxicology, Dr. Carol Henry, says the study built a very strong case that cigarettes can induce cancers in animals). Furst also used as support the Bio-Research Institute hamster study, which found only "microinvasive tumors" (although BRI's founder, Dr. Freddy Homberger, who used this milder wording under pressure from the Council for Tobacco Research, says it was cancer beyond any question.)(WSJ 2/11/93).

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