Ragnar Rylander (12 September 1935 – 13 April 2016) was a Swedish

environmental health Environmental health is the branch of public health concerned with all aspects of the natural environment, natural and built environment affecting human health. To effectively control factors that may affect health, the requirements for a hea ...

scholar who served as professor and chair of Environmental Medicine at the

University of Gothenburg The University of Gothenburg () is a List of universities in Sweden, university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg. Founded in 1891, the university is the third-oldest of the current List of universities in Sweden#Public universities, S ...

. He was active in researching the

health effects of tobacco Tobacco products, especially when smoked or used orally, have serious negative effects on human health. Smoking and smokeless tobacco use are the single greatest causes of preventable death globally. Half of tobacco users die from complications ...

while secretly serving as a consultant to Philip Morris for many years.

Conflict of interest

Two

tobacco control Tobacco control is a field of international public health science, policy and practice dedicated to addressing tobacco use and thereby reducing the morbidity and mortality it causes. Since most cigarettes and cigars and hookahs contain or us ...

activists,

Pascal Diethelm Pascal Diethelm (born 1 December 1944) is a Swiss econometrician and tobacco control activist who is the president of the anti-smoking organization OxyRomandie. He formerly worked at the World Health Organization (WHO) from 1970 until his retire ...

and Jean-Charles Rielle, co-authored an article asserting that, while he was working at

Geneva University The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology unti ...

, Rylander had engaged in "scientific cheating without precedent" by receiving undisclosed tobacco industry funding for research downplaying the harms of

passive smoking Passive smoking is the inhalation of tobacco smoke, called passive smoke, secondhand smoke (SHS) or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), by individuals other than the active Tobacco smoking, smoker. It occurs when tobacco smoke diffuses into the ...

. Rylander subsequently sued Diethelm and Rielle for libel, but in 2004, Rylander lost the case on appeal. Also in 2004, Rylander was appointed to the Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks of the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

, an appointment which proved controversial due to his failure to disclose his ties to the

tobacco industry The tobacco industry comprises those persons and companies who are engaged in the growth, preparation for sale, shipment, advertisement, and distribution of tobacco and tobacco-related products. It is a global industry; tobacco can grow in any ...

. In response to criticism of this appointment, Rylander was removed from the Committee soon afterward. In 2005, he received the "Cockroach of the year" award, a mocking award handed out by the Swedish anti-tobacco organization Non-Smoking Generation.

References

Bibliography

* 1935 births 2016 deaths Swedish medical researchers Academic staff of the University of Gothenburg Philip Morris USA {{Sweden-academic-bio-stub