Philip Morris seeks to force university to hand over confidential health research into teenage smokers

The world's largest tobacco company is attempting to gain access to confidential information about British teenagers' smoking habits.

Philip Morris International, is seeking to force a British university to reveal full details of its research involving confidential interviews with thousands of children aged between 11 and 16 about their attitudes towards smoking and cigarette packaging.

The demands from the tobacco company, made using the UK's Freedom of Information (FOI) law, have coincided with an internet hate campaign targeted at university researchers involved in smoking studies.

Researchers appalled by demand for data on child smokers

Philip Morris International made its first FOI request anonymously through a London law firm in September 2009.  However, the Information Commissioner rejected the request on the grounds that that law firm, Clifford Chance, had to name its client.  Philip Morris then put in two further FOI requests under its own name seeking all of the raw data on which Stirling's Institute for Social Marketing has based its many studies on smoking knowledge, attitudes and behaviour in children and adults.

"They wanted everthing we had ever done on this," said Professor Gerard Hastings, the institute's director.  "These are confidential comments about how youngsters feel about tobacco marketing.  This is the sort of research that would get a tobacco company into trouble if it did it itself."

Professor Hastings added: "What is more, these kids have been reassured that only bona fide researchers will have access to their data.  No way can Philip Morris fit into that definition."

Stirling University is part of the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies, a network of nine universities, and is considered one of the premier research institutes for investigating smoking behaviour.

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By Steve Connor, Science Editor
The Independent - 1 Sept 2011