Turning Science Into Junk: The Tobacco Industry and Passive Smoking

The stakes are high in the public policy arena. Public health scientists will continue to be called on to research society’s most vexing issues, and to inform and shape the public policy response. We need to be aware of the competing interests and to work for greater transparency to assure ourselves that we understand the purposes and funding sources of potentially invidious meetings and other activities.

Ultimately, transparency about funding and adherence to rigorous quality assurance and peer review practices will serve epidemiology far better than the proliferation of labels and the labeling of individual researchers as working for one side or another.