The rise, fall, and the deadly persistence of the tobacco industry in US are a complex combination of selfish career goals of scientist, conflict of interest in the research community and manipulation of the scientific results. All these factors were intervention in the making of science.
The sophistry of the Tobacco Industry Research Committee, TIRC, became apparent when they seemingly exploited popular misconceptions about scientific procedure, causation and evidence, and catering to the understandable desire of millions of smokers for easy reassurance. The burden of the TIRC case rested upon a challenge to the scientists to demonstrate "conclusively" (i.e. to "prove") a necessary "causal connection" between cigarette smoking and lung cancer and other diseases.
A blow to the Tobacco industry was the 1954 publication of the results of a British Doctors Study, led by Richard Doll and Austin Bradford Hill, which lent very strong statistical support to the suspicion that tobacco smoking was linked to lung cancer. TIRC again played their sophistical card by asking for lab work to justify these epidemiological results.
In 1961 ALA (American Lung Association) and AHA (American Health Association) proposed President Kennedy to appoint commission to investigate the tobacco industry case. This committee was marked as no biased, full range of experts and no single discipline dominant. In 1964, committee’s report confirmed worst fear: smoking could cause lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, coronary artery disease. TIRC tried to influence committee members and continued their argument of “casual link mathematical aberration”. But ultimately all their influence s wore thin. The results of the committee lead to the government’s report which was most significant crisis for tobacco industry since 1953 (TIRC). This report and the scientific discoveries about the nicotine as an addictive ingredient in cigarettes led to assertive new authority and responsibility for the most important health issues of our time. The government established new authority for science and health in the consumer culture. Inherent in the report were powerful notions and strong regulations which led to the federal monitoring of the tobacco industry.
