Industry secretly sponsored silicosis research through a proxy institute to launder credibility
Evidence
The head of the Mellon Institute for Industrial Research, a corporate-funded research group, suggested to industry leaders that they locate research on silicosis at the institute, using it as a proxy. That would enable individual corporations to sponsor research surreptitiously, thereby avoiding accusations of conflict of interest: … If this work were to be centralized in Mellon Institute, it … could be carried out in a most confidential manner as to who was supporting the research and no one would know what industries or individuals were contributing to the fund. This would enable the organization to get soundly established, so that if later on it was desired to come out in the open this could be arranged. (Weidlein, 1935) The use of respiratory masks as the first line of defense against silicosis has long been a contentious issue in the dusty trades. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1803
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- SEED: Essay angle: the ‘laundered research’ model — how corporate funding hides conflict of interest through proxy institutions, from silica to sugar to climate.
- QUESTION: How much of modern academic research still flows through similar proxy structures where sponsorship is masked?