January 24, 2012   Tobacco companies conducted a carefully crafted, decades-long campaign to manipulate throat doctors into helping calm concerns among an increasingly worried public that smoking might be bad for their health, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford School of Medicine. Beginning in the 1920s, this campaign continued for over half of a century. In major cities all over America, throat specialists were taken out to elegant dinners and were implored to “prescribe” their brand of cigarettes to patients with sore throats and coughs. When the government, through the Federal Trade Commission, tried to intervene against “hucksterish” advertising slogans promoting the healthfulness of cigarettes, prominent otolaryngologists were recruited to defend the validity of the blatantly false claims. The authors pointed to this study as a reminder to the medical community of the need to adhere to the “highest standards of scientific validity” and to remain vigilant in advocating for patients’ interests while working with the industry.

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http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2012/january/tobacco-0123.html