ey actors in the launch of the NCP, reveal an alignment of research agendas between the NIDR and the sugar industry in the early 1970s. The findings also suggest that the NCP was a missed opportunity to develop a scientific understanding of how to restrict sugar consumption to prevent tooth decay. Indeed, although tooth decay declined by 20% between 1971/1973 and 1980, 64% of children still developed caries a decade after the NCP was launched. Most importantly, these findings illustrate how the sugar industry has protected itself from potentially damaging research in the past; a similar approach has also been taken by the tobacco industry. These findings highlight the need to carefully scrutinize industry opposition to the proposed WHO and FDA guidelines on sugar intake and labeling, respectively, to ensure that industry interests do not interfere with current efforts to improve dental public health.
Please access these websites via the online version of this summary at http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001798.
- The US National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (the successor to the NIDR) provides detailed information on tooth decay (in English and Spanish)
- The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also provides information on dental caries
- The UK National Health Service Choices website provides detailed information about all aspects of tooth decay; it also provides an analysis of a recent news report concerning research supporting the proposed WHO guideline for limiting sugar intake
- MedlinePlus provides links to additional information about tooth decay (in English and Spanish)
- Information about the 2014 WHO draft guideline on sugar intake and about the changes proposed to the nutrition facts label by the FDA are available (in English and Spanish)
Citation: Kearns CE, Glantz SA, Schmidt LA (2015) Sugar Industry Influence on the Scientific Agenda of the National Institute of Dental Research’s 1971 National Caries Program: A Historical Analysis of Internal Documents. PLoS Med 12(3): e1001798. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001798
Academic Editor: Simon Capewell, University of Liverpool, UNITED KINGDOM
Received: October 30, 2014; Accepted: January 29, 2015; Published: March 10, 2015
Copyright: © 2015 Kearns et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Data Availability: The Roger Adams Papers, 1812–1971, Record Series Number: 15/5/23 are available for research at the University of Illinois Archives at 19 Library, 1408 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801.
Funding: This work was supported by the UCSF Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, a donation by the Hellmann Family Fund to the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, the UCSF School of Dentistry Department of Orofacial Sciences and Global Oral Health Program, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research grant DE-007306 and National Cancer Institute Grant CA-087472. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Abbreviations: FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization; FDA, Food and Drug Administration; ISRF, International Sugar Research Foundation; NCI, National Cancer Institute; NCP, National Caries Program; NIDR, National Institute of Dental Research; NIDCR, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research; NIH, National Institutes of Health; RFC, request for contracts; SA, the Sugar Association; SRF, Sugar Research Foundation; TIRC, Tobacco Industry Research Committee; TWG, Tobacco Working Group; WHO, World Health Organization; WSRO, World Sugar Research Organisation
Despite overwhelming consensus on the causal role of sugars in tooth decay  and recommendations by expert committees [2–4], quantitative targets restricting the intake of 