Tobacco Cash in Lung Study Stirs Flap

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE and STEPHANIE NANO , Associated Press Writers

(AP) -- The disclosure of hidden tobacco money behind a big study suggesting that lung scans might help save smokers from cancer has shocked the research community and raised fresh concern about industry influence in important science.

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Posted by WillB 03/27/08 00:29

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I don't understand what the big deal is. A donation is a donation. If the money helps a study that could potentially save lives. It'd be a crime not to take the money. Just because a donator has an interest in the results, does not mean the people who run the study is automatically wrong. Scientists are touted to be people of high moral standing. It's safe to assume they would not be inclined to alter the results to appease the donator. That's probably the reason they did hide this from everyone in the first place. The results of the testing should stand for themselves.

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Posted by Argiod 03/28/08 12:47

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Response to WillB:
The big deal is this: when the tobacco companies sponsor studies, the results are bound to be skewwed. Big money begets big conflicts of interest. While the scientists working at a lab might be 'honest', they are influenced by their admins. They work hard to get these primo, high paying jobs. Not surprising they will do anything to keep them and not be blackballed in the industry. regardless of what they're asked to do. So, all being human, and all needing to watch over their own vested interests; yes, big tobacco money has no place in the study of the effects of tobacco on people. It is a conflict of interest. You may as well open the field to bribery in Washington, saying that politicians 'are touted to be people of high moral standing'. After all, '... a donation is a donation...' But at heart, we are all human, and subject to the love of money. Money talks louder than words. If this were not so, there would be no such thing as poverty, in the face of so much concentrated wealth (Bill Gates, ets): and organized crime would have no power.

Of course, this is just my opinion; I could be wrong.