Jump to full article: News Interactive Network/News Limited/News.com (au), 2010-02-09
Intro: THE tobacco industry worked for two decades to skew research into smoking and Alzheimer's disease, to promote the wrong belief it could prevent the degenerative condition, a review of research has found.
US-based scientists have reviewed more than 40 research papers published since 1984, to highlight those with industry links which also suggested smoking could be good for the brain.
A quarter of the papers were found to have industry influence - either through direct funding or using researchers who were also consultants to the industry or who had other ties.
In many cases these relationships were not disclosed, according to the analysis, which found industry-linked papers dotted through the scientific literature up to 2003.
Professor Jurgen Gotz, from the University of Sydney's Brain & Mind Research Institute, welcomed the review . . .
The beneficial claim continues to circulate via the internet and occasionally it pops up in the mainstream press - including in a 2008 article published in the US' top selling Oprah Magazine.
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