EGIL

EGIL was a Swedish acronym for Expert Group for Indoor Air. According to a 2004 United States Department of Justice Factual Memorandum, it was was a Nordic Region front organization made up of tobacco industry consultants that acted on behalf of the tobacco industry on secondhand smoke and indoor air quality issues.

EGIL was a subsidiary of Nordic Area Whitecoats. These were mainly Scandinavian academics who were enlisted by a Philip Morris (PM) consultant named Torbjorn Malmfors, and formed by him into this science group. Malmfors himself became a member of the ARIA group also (Association for Research in Indoor Air).

Malmfors Recruitment
Malmfors was a toxicologist who had his own consulting business and worked as Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. He was also the ex-President of the European Society of Toxicology. He was recruited for Philip Morris European Whitecoats group by the Center for Environmental Health and Human Toxicology's, (CEHHT) Nancy Balter in Washington, D.C. in March 1987.

The tobacco industry faced one problem in the Nordic area that they were not use to dealing with in the USA or in Thatcherite England: They had active unions who worked to protect the health and safety of their members, and workplace smoking was a major issue. This created a new form of consultant, usually a politician. And in Sweden, the Magnusson Commission suggested severe workplace smoking restrictions in its recommendations presented in March 1990, while the newly-established National Health Institute (Fokhalsoinstitut) declared that workplaces should be smokefree.  As with all Whitecoat recruitments, the name or business of the ultimate client, Philip Morris, was not revealed to the scientist until the scientist had reviewed papers provided. The strategy of having the scientist review papers and then report verbally -- to see whether his views were compatible with the client's obejectives -- was central to Whitecoat recruitment techniques.

A report to PM from the Indoor Air Pollution Advisory Group, or IAPAG, makes the process clear:

We met with Malmfors when he was in Washington, to discuss, in general terms, his interest and ability to handle a project related to indoor air pollution, involving the identification and coordination of the activities of a number of academic scientists.

At that time, Malmfors indicated his interest in learning more about the project.

He appears to have solid connections within the scientific community. He is active in the European and Scandinavian Societies of Toxicology, has previously held governmental appointments, and his current work includes working with industry on regulatory matters.

We have just retained Malmfors to review a group of papers dealing with ETS and lung cancer, and [to] be prepared to discuss them during the week of April 13. We will make a recommendation on whether or not to pursue Malmafors Consulting AB as the local coordinator, after that discussion.

Nancy Balter of IAPAG was given the job of identifying the possible members of EGIL. and by July 1987 she had identified seven candidates, but they needed vetting. John Rupp of Covington & Burling wrote to Philip Morris saying: I am happy to report that Dr Torbjorn Malmfors has agreed, subject to your approval after meeting with him, to form and help manage a scientific advisory group on environmental tobacco smoke for the Nordic countries.

I am encouraged to believe that Dr. Malmfors' decision is the breakthrough that we have been looking for on the scientific side in the Nordic region.

Later Malmfors became involved in the infamous McGill Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) Symposium (100% trusted tobacco scientists -- both speakers and audience) and he did air-quality research work for the tobacco industry, and wrote some scientific reports which Chris Proctor at BAT vetted and modified before publication.

The EGIL Group
The first meeting of the EGIL group took place in Stockholm on 11 March 1988  and those scientists present, in addition to the US recruiters and lawyers, were: Later they were joined by:
 * Dr. Torbjorn Malmfors full-time consultant to PM, of Sweden (ARIA also)
 * Dr. Odd Nilsen (or Nilssen) a tobacco chemist in Norway (invoiced via University of Trondheim   ).
 * Professor Bo Mikaelson: expert in compensation law, Lipkoping Uni. of Sweden (ARIA also)
 * Dr. Daniel Thorburn; statistician, University of Stockholm, Sweden
 * Dr. Arne Westlin; Occupational hygienist, Sweden
 * Ms Annuka Leppanen; an ad hoc consultant on anything Finnish.

Since many of these new EGIL tobacco experts had no working knowledge of the relevant science, they were set to give papers, or to listen, at the Perry ETS Conference in June1988.
 *  Dr Tage Voss: (disputed) Danish heart disease specialist.

Achievements
One of the main tasks of the group was to fight against the Magnussun Commission (a parliamentary commission reviewing the dangers of ETS).  They obviously don't know it, but the "learned society" the group were thinking of using was actually an offshoot of Philip Morris's Associates for Research in Indoor Air (ARIA) organization.

They did one study on airline air quality with the Swedish airline SAS, but achieved no results of any significance.

The EGIL group was moderately successful for a couple of years, but it collapsed in 1992. A 1990 report to British American Tobacco marks the high-point of their activities: From 1988, following a Covington & Burling-initiated search for Nordic scientists, the "EGIL" group has been available as the Nordic source of scientific advice and communications. The group consists of seven Swedish, one Norwegian, and two Finnish scientists. Members of the EGIL group have, for instance, acted as scientific witnesses at hearings with the Swedish Magnusson Tobacco Commission, presented the SAS IFAQ [in-flight airline air quality] study to SAS management, and participated in various international ETS events. The group's major objectives for 1991 are to significantly increase the readiness to give public statements, and produce material for correcting scientific misinformation.

From the start, the tobacco companies had problems with their EGIL recruits. Malmfors, the leader, was not one to take direction quietly. He frequently objected to the quality of some of the scientific claims and air quality measures, and gradually the group dissolved. By December 1990, the rump of the group was being used mainly for journalistic junkets and the occasional debate over smoking bans. But even here they failed:
 * "In Sweden, PM is working to move the NMA (National Manufacturers Association or cigarette manufacturers) to challenge the Magnusson commission [looking into implementing smoking bans] to a public ETS debate featuring EGIL scientists."

This didn't turn out for the best, The anti-smoking organizations in the Nordic areas were often a match for EGIL scientists and the tobacco industry in general. They had effective tactics for countering the use of Whitecoats:
 * "A new strategy of sending in a larger group of witnesses to hostile meetings was tested in Norway at a Nordic Council ETS meeting in 1990, with the result that the expected adverse end resolution was fully blocked.  The anti's have noticed this strategy and even written articles in the media, which means that a rotation of scientists on an international basis is essential."

Decline
By 1991, the EGIL group were running into trouble, and needed to be re-briefed and retrained.  Then in the following year, the company's (the EEMA division in Neuchatel) view of EGIL was far more pessimistic, complaining that the scientists: "I have, however, not been able to fullfil. expected media work as the climate has been too hostile, which has demoralized the group to perform publicly. The group has instead functioned as a hearing body, and has participated in various international ETS events. The group has also been educated on the EPA issue by Thomas J. Borelli of Philip Morris Scientific Affairs. By fall of 1982, the group did not accept the task of carrying out public media debates."

Revitalization
In October 1992, despite incentives from Philip Morris, Malmfors and the EGIL group decided to disband. However Malmfors, and Odd Nilsen carried on as consultants  and one new Whitecoat, Tage Voss, was left in place to carry the "independent scientist with integrity" banner  ... but they forgot to pay him, and he turned nasty. Clare C. Purcell, Manager of Legal Issues for Philip Morris Management Corporation, wrote warning others of the problem: Dr. Voss was never in EGIL, although I understand that he attended some meetings where the EGIL scientists were, at H. Gaisch's request. The "consultant's program" has kept in communication with one or two of the EGIL group.

If the real problem is that Dr. [Tage] Voss did work for Stig, and Stig did not budget for it and will not pay him, then, in my humble opinion, he should find a way to pay him. That way will not be the ETS consultant's program.

I wanted to warn you -- if Stig decides to pay Voss, you may want to look closely at how he does so. Voss has apparently played a little fast and loose with the Danish tax laws in the past, asking for payments to third parties outside the country, etc. He seems to be a creative kind of guy.

Eventually Philip Morris (PM) decided to recruit a team of medical doctors to largely replace the EGIL academics: "Via PM HQ we have been working to get the Danish Medical doctors [to form a] more outspoken, and pro active witness group, independent from the EGIL group. Dr Gaisch is supporting this effort together with C&B (Covington & Burling), London." "We also hope to get the Nordic Group activated further through a worldwide coordinated plan for the three year usage of international scientific witnesses. PM EEMA [ie. PM Scandinavia] is driving this issue with PMI [PM International]."

The job of revitalizing EGIL was given to the lawyers Covington & Burling and some Philip Morris staff in 1990 and again in 1991. The strategies proposed for the new use of the EGIL Whitecoats were:
 * "Get at least one active public spokesperson out of the EGIL group for each Nordic country."
 * "Use EGIL group to publicly respond to scientific misinformation." (All adverse science was labeled "misinformation" or "junk-science" in the tobacco industry.)
 * "Have scientists available for journalist briefings at FTR [Philip Morris's Lausanne headquarters], and in London at Imperial College "(which housed Professor Roger Perry of ARIA) "for planned journalist tours."
 * "C&B and PR agencies to hold planning sessions for EGIL publicity in the Nordic region."
 * "Set up a direct link between PR agencies and C&B for actively correcting scientific misinformation in significant media."
 * "By March, have PM approval for B-M (Burson-Marsteller) plan to arrange an industry-hosted Workplace Smoking symposium in Sweden by mid 1991. Use EGIL scientists as witnesses."
 * "Within [the] first half year, get EGIL group, and/or other scientists like Gray Robertson, or [the] Redab Ltd expert group (both of Healthy Buildings International ), to carry out search for scientific facts about absenteeism, as well as cost-of-ventilation issues.  Via PR agencies start article-writing drive."
 * "Arrange industry-hosted 'solutions' briefings, including EGIL and other witnesses, in Finland and Sweden within first half of 1990. In stage one, focus on unions, plus two to three of the largest industrial conglomerates like KoDo in Sweden, and Nokia in Finland."
 * "With C&B, work out EGIL group congress-attending scheme."
 * "Link this to a global science conference plan suggested to PMI/C&B."
 * "Schedule EGIL members for major international events, and pre-plan attendance of leading non-Nordic scientists for Nordic scientific conferences."
 * "Via C&B and the EGIL experts, prepare a defensive response to a Swedish Air Quality book, published by Svenska Fahkt and the Industry Federation. The book makes incorrect statements regarding air quality and tobacco."

However the relationship between the tobacco industry, some journalists, and the EGIL scientists was exposed by an investigative journalist in Finland in early 1992, and their cover was blown. 

The EGIL group collapsed in 1992.

Other Whitecoats organizations

 * IAPAG and CEHHT in the USA - both based in Washington DC In 1986 they had a core group of 10, and overall more than 20 scientists.
 * ARIA and IAI in the UK, with links into Europe. In 1988 they had recruited 14 - 16 scientists.
 * ARTIST and APTRC in Asia had about 20 - 25 members (See ARTIST).

Related SourceWatch resources

 * Tobacco industry
 * Whitecoat Project
 * Environmental Tobacco smoke

External articles
EGIL