Tobacco firm demands university's research on children and smoking

Stirling attempt to combat Philip Morris of the University to access the search of the freedom of information

University of Stirling is fighting attempts by one of the largest companies in the world of snuff to have access to their detailed research on smoking habits and attitudes of adolescents.

Philip Morris International, which makes Marlboro cigarettes, is that the university research center on the snuff back control of data on thousands of children who are smokers. The detail reveals their attitudes and reactions to snuff. Packaging and advertising

The company complained to the Scottish Information Commissioner, Kevin Dunion, after Stirling refused to respond to a request for access to information seeking access to research.

The university said

request of the company, initially anonymously through a London law firm was "humiliating" and rejected it. But Dunion has been canceled and ordered the university to meet the demand of Philip Morris.

Professor Gerard Hastings

, center director, said the mining company was snuff their investigations confidential data on the attitudes of children - the details of a company can not be charging for the reasons of medical ethics

"They wanted everything he had done on this," Hastings told The Independent. "This is confidential feedback on how young people feel about the marketing of tobacco snuff. This is the kind of research that would snuff a company in trouble if he did it himself.

• "Moreover, these children were sure that only bona fide researchers access to their data. In no way Philip Morris into this definition. "
• Philip Morris said it was not seeking confidential information that could identify respondents, and said that the results of research he wanted to see were anonymous.

Anne Edwards, director of external communications company said. "Under the provisions of the Freedom of Information [FOI] Act, private and confidential information about individuals should not be disclosed

"We demand to better understand a research project conducted by the University of Stirling in plain packaging for cigarettes."

Research Center

party snuff control was created by the research charity campaign against cancer, now Cancer Research UK, in 1999 at the Institute for Social Marketing University, and is network through the study of snuff and smoking British units.
The conflict throws the prospect of a long legal battle at the university and Philip Morris. If Stirling again sets the request of the company, the appeal could result in a hearing before the Court of Session, the civil courts of Scotland.

Find best price for : --Hastings----Dunion----Morris----Philip--