o industry interests . The tobacco industry also withheld knowledge about the biological effects of cigarette smoke and human smoking behavior, which negatively impacted the NCI’s efforts . Indeed, industry use of the TWG to block effective tobacco control strategies was cited by federal Judge Gladys Kessler in her 2006 ruling that the major cigarette companies and their research and lobbying organizations had formed an illegal enterprise to defraud the public in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act .
Litigation against tobacco companies has been a major factor in achieving meaningful policy change. Successful litigation could not have been achieved without industry documents research illuminating the strategies and tactics of tobacco companies. This analysis demonstrates that sugar industry documents research has the potential to define industry strategies and tactics, which may potentially prove useful in future litigation.
While we were fortunate to discover the Roger Adams papers, we recognize that it provides a narrow window into the activities of just one sugar industry trade association, particularly because other industries had an interest in the outcome of the NCP, including the chocolate and confectionary industries, the pharmaceutical industry, and food companies interested in developing food additives and sugar substitutes. To help compensate for limited access to industry documents, we used other historical materials to cross-validate findings as they emerged throughout the analysis. Another limitation was that we could not interview key actors.
This historical example illustrates how industry protects itself from potentially damaging research, which can inform policy makers today. While it may be valuable in theory for the industry to contribute data about their products to the research community, industry should not have the opportunity to influence public health research priorities . Regulatory science to support sensible and defensible policies to limit added sugar consumption was not pursued in the 1970s because of the alignment of the NIDR’s research priorities with those of the sugar industry. Actions taken by the sugar industry to impact the NIDR’s NCP research priorities, which echo those of the tobacco industry, should be a warning to the public health community. The sugar industry’s current position—that public health recommendations to reduce dental caries risk should focus on sugar harm reduction as opposed to sugar restrictions—is grounded in more than 60 years of protecting industry interests. Industry opposition to current policy proposals—including a WHO guideline on sugars proposed in 2014 and changes to the nutrition facts panel proposed in 2014 by the FDA—should be carefully scrutinized to ensure that industry interests do not supersede public health goals.
We thank Ernest Newbrun, Aubrey Sheiham, Ben Chaffee, Lauren Lempert, Rachel Barry, Lauren Dutra, Margaret Kulik, Randy Uang, and Clayton Velicer for helpful comments on the manuscript. We thank Linda Stahnke, Cara Bertram, and Willam Maher at the University of Illinois Archives for their assistance with the Roger Adams papers. We thank George Coy for his assistance locating documents related to the NCP at NIDCR.
Conceived and designed the experiments: CEK SAG LAS. Performed the experiments: CEK. Analyzed the data: CEK SAG LAS. Wrote the first draft of the manuscript: CEK. Contributed to the writing of the manuscript: CEK SAG LAS. Agree with manuscript results and conclusions: CEK SAG LAS. All authors have read, and confirm that they meet, ICMJE criteria for authorship.
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