Tobacco industry goes after confidential smoking data from UK’s Department of Health

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDSep 2 2011

The tobacco giants are urging the UK’s Department of Health to extract information about meetings between government officials and researchers who are investigating the public-health implications of new smoking policies.

One leading tobacco company has asked for the minutes of a confidential meeting between health department officials, cancer experts and foreign government officials. They were indeed given access that surprised those who attended the private discussions.

The Freedom of Information requests are part of a global campaign by tobacco companies to fight any further legal restrictions on cigarette sales and promotion, particularly the introduction of plain cigarette packets devoid of company logos and branding.

The world's biggest tobacco company, Philip Morris International (PMI), has demanded access to confidential interviews with British children about their smoking attitudes and behaviour, collected as part of a research project at Stirling University funded by the charity Cancer Research UK. It used the Scottish Freedom of Information (FOI) Act to request the information.

Jean King, Cancer Research UK's director of tobacco control, said, “We would question the tobacco industry's motivation for trying to access this information. Are they concerned about the health of young people and seeking to clarify the impact of tobacco marketing on the rates of youth smoking?”

Professor Gerard Hastings, of the Stirling University's Centre for Tobacco Control Research, said, “It is deeply concerning they are even trying to get this data. We are talking about children and this is data the tobacco companies themselves would never be allowed to collect.” He said it would be “catastrophic” if the centre lost its fight and was forced to hand over the data. “Most fundamentally this information was given to us by young people in complete confidence. We assured them we would treat it with absolute confidence and that it would be restricted to the research. There is no way that Philip Morris qualifies in that definition. It has enormous implications for academic freedom.”

A PMI spokeswoman said, “PMI made a Freedom of Information request to understand more about a research project conducted by the University of Stirling regarding plain packaging for cigarettes. With regards to this FOI request, the Scottish Information Commissioner confirmed in his decision of June 30, that we had a legitimate interest in seeking the information and asked the university to respond to the request. We are not seeking any private or confidential information on any individuals involved with the research. As provided by the freedom of Information Act, confidential and private information concerning individuals should not be disclosed.”

Earlier this year, Philip Morris also submitted FOI requests to the Department of Health in order to access government documents related to “tobacco regulation”, according to Anne Edwards, director of external communications at Philip Morris International, the makers of Marlboro cigarettes.

The Department of Health has been subject to a series of FOI requests from tobacco companies. Although tobacco companies can use FOI legislation to access government documents, the tobacco industry itself is not subject to the legislation. Critics of the industry point to the difficulty of extracting information from tobacco companies, which frequently refuse to open their own files unless forced to do so by a court order.

“Unlike official information held by government agencies, information held by private companies such as ours is often of a commercial nature and therefore cannot be released for competitive reasons,” Ms Edwards said.

Deborah Arnott, the chief executive of ASH, who attended the meeting, said, “We are concerned that this is a one-way street and that the tobacco industry is not in return being either transparent or honest. The industry wants access to government documents and academic research for one purpose only: to help it fight regulation – regulation which is essential to reduce the numbers smoking and dying from their addiction.”