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The Center for Indoor Air Research (CIAR)
The Center for Indoor Air Research (CIAR) was set up by Philip Morris, RJ
Reynolds, and Lorillard Tobacco Company in 1988. CIAR funded two types of
projects through the mid-1990's: peer-reviewed and so-called "special" projects that bypassed independent scientific review.
CIAR served Big Tobacco's political and legal interests. These studies were designed to enhance the tobacco industry's credibility and to divert attention from secondhand smoke as an indoor air pollutant. Research projects designed to support Big Tobacco's political agenda bypassed scientific peer review and were approved by tobacco company executives or lawyers directly, through the "special" review process.
Investigators on CIAR projects would often testify that secondhand smoke was not harmful to health, exposures were too low to be of concern, and smoking could be accommodated through ventilation.
CIAR was dismantled following the Master Settlement Agreement that ended lawsuits brought by state attorneys-general against the tobacco industry. But Philip Morris has set up a similar operation through its Philip Morris External Research Program. In 2000, the Society for Research in Nicotine and Tobacco recommended that university-based researchers should not apply to this program for funding.
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