Legal disclaimer

The opinions expressed by the authors on this blog and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of the Freedom2Choose organisation or any member thereof. Freedom2Choose is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by the blog Authors.

Monday 23 August 2010

An Interest To Declare

Fearing the end of a lucrative career, a bunch of disgruntled academics from the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies have written to the Lancet, complaining that the Coalition Government has frozen 'all mass media health campaigns, including those aimed at encouraging smokers to quit', is reducing the manpower at the Department of Health, and reconsidering the wisdom of implementing the tobacco display ban. If this is the line the Coalition Government is taking, it is a logical step considering that cuts are inevitable: tobacco control must be the most un-useful department of them all.

But what's this they say at the end of the letter ... 'We declare that we have no conflicts of interest'?

Well that's an interesting claim, considering that some of these characters feature on their own website's page entitled Competing Interests. Peter Hajek, Paul Aveyard, Timothy Coleman and Robert West all have declared commercial interests in smoking cessation medication, an interest that is central to their letter to the Lancet. What can these people mean? Do they imagine that by declaring their interest, that it is nullified?

In addition, Linda Bauld has connections with Cancer Research UK Tobacco Advisory Group, and John Britton with Action on Smoking on Health. 'No conflicts of interest'?

I sought a definition here:  'A competing interest exists when the interpretation or presentation of information may be influenced by the personal or financial relationship with other people or organizations.' How the work of these people could be construed not to constitute a conflict of interest beats me!

5 comments:

Smoking Hot said...

Panic at Mill lol

Leg-iron said...

Well, they're lying. It's no surprise.

It's all they've ever done.

Angry Exile said...

'Do they imagine that by declaring their interest, that it is nullified?'

Perhaps they think a lie is justified in the name of public health. Personally I think a lie is reason to be suspicious about everything else they say.

Frank Davis said...

frozen 'all mass media health campaigns, including those aimed at encouraging smokers to quit', is reducing the manpower at the Department of Health, and reconsidering the wisdom of implementing the tobacco display ban.

Glad to hear it.

Eddie Douthwaite said...

The UK and Scottish Government should hold an immediate INDEPENDENT REVIEW of ALL evidence that led to the introduction of Smoking Bans.

opinions powered by SendLove.to

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails

Pages on this blog