Sugar industry's attempt to influence public health policy is 'a major issue'investigative report from The BMJ claims to expose "extensive links" - going much deeper than previously known - between public health scientists and the sugar industry.stead encourages its public research organizations to seek commercial funding, making researchers vulnerable to accusations of conflicts of interest:
He elaborated:
"Public health is the business of government, and not the business of big business. Industry's legal obligation is to its shareholders, for whom it must make as much money as possible. If it can do that while striking a socially responsible pose, it will do so, but when the bottom line is under threat, social responsibility is exposed as a tokenistic charade."
Gornell's report references research that has found evidence of pro-industry bias in some sponsored studies. However, he says that the main concern of the research was "the general principle" rather than documenting bias in specific papers:
"How can it be right for a researcher attempting to establish whether or not ingredient X is harmful to accept funding to do so from the manufacturer of ingredient X? Would society consider it acceptable if the salary or expenses of a judge ruling on a legal dispute were paid by one of the parties?"
Written by David McNamee