tobacco companies are evil
Health Aff (Millwood). 2005 Jul-Aug;24(4):994-1004.
The power of paperwork: how Philip Morris neutralized the medical code for secondhand smoke.
Cook DM, Tong EK, Glantz SA, Bero LA.
Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), USA.
A new medical diagnostic code for secondhand smoke exposure became available in 1994, but as of 2004 it remained an invalid entry on a common medical form. Soon after the code appeared, Philip Morris hired a Washington consultant to influence the governmental process for creating and using medical codes. Tobacco industry documents reveal that Philip Morris budgeted more than $2 million for this "ICD-9 Project." Tactics to prevent adoption of the new code included third-party lobbying, Paperwork Reduction Act challenges, and backing an alternative coding arrangement. Philip Morris's reaction reveals the importance of policy decisions related to data collection and paperwork.
PMID: 16136637 [PubMed - in process]
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