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 and built environment affecting human health. In order to effectively control factors that may affect health, the requirements that must be met in ...

scholar who served as professor and chair of Environmental Medicine at the University of Gothenburg. He was active in researching the

health effects of tobacco Tobacco use has predominantly negative effects on human health and concern about health effects of tobacco has a long history. Research has focused primarily on cigarette smoking. Tobacco smoke contains more than 70 chemicals that cause can ...

while secretly serving as a consultant to

Philip Morris Phil(l)ip or Phil Morris may refer to: Companies *Altria, a conglomerate company previously known as Philip Morris Companies Inc., named after the tobacconist **Philip Morris USA, a tobacco company wholly owned by Altria Group **Philip Morris Inter ...

for many years.

Conflict of interest

Two tobacco control 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, 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 secondhand smoke (SHS), or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), by persons other than the intended "active" smoker. It occurs when tobacco smoke enters an environment, causing its inhalat ...

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

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

, 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 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/use to ...

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