How was tobacco industry-sponsored research used to cast doubt on the health effects posed by other independent research and how did the latter ultimately prevail?
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No big mystery here. Anyone can fund a scientific study. By manipulating the variables in the study and throwing out results you don’t like you can pretty easily get whatever results you want. This is a huge issue in science even to this day. However, you can’t stop other people from also publishing their results. Once it becomes clear that all neutral studies show an issue and only industry funded ones don’t the industry studies will lose all credibility.
The group that sponsors research gets to decide if the report is published, they also set the parameters for the research which can influence the results. The weight of evidence from genuine research basically meant that they eventually had to admit that cigarettes were dangerous. A similar thing has happened in modern times with the oil companies and climate change, delaying the adoption of alternative fuels. https://youtu.be/HqqQdWSX8wI
Too much evidence. I can sponsor studies that say getting shot in the head is harmless, but at the end of the day there will just be too much evidence that no in fact getting shot in the head tends to have some negative health outcomes.
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