John Luik

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John Luik is a senior fellow of the Democracy Institute.[1] Luik is a tobacco industry consultant who advised American and Canadian tobacco companies on passive smoking. Luik has written numerous articles on the over-exaggeration of the health effects of second-hand smoke, has spoken at tobacco company conferences and workshops, has been employed as a anti-smoke-free spokesperson, and is a featured columnist on the smokers' rights website FORCES. Luik co-authored a book with Gio Gori, published by British Columbia's Fraser Institute, called "Passive Smoke: The EPA's Betrayal of Science and Policy" in which they blame the EPA for producing "junk science". Luik lobbied on behalf of restaurants in 1999 during Toronto's smoke-free bylaw campaign in 1999, criticising a report by Toronto's Medical Officer of Health that linked lung cancer and passive smoking.[2]

Academic credentials

According to The Montreal Gazette:

(Luik) taught philosophy at the Canadian Nazarene College in Winnipeg from 1977 to 1985, when he was dismissed from the college for Discrepancies on his resume. He claimed to have a doctorate from Oxford University. He eventually received his doctorate from Oxford but not until 1986.
He applied in 1985 to Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., and was accepted as an assistant professor in the philosophy department, where he taught applied and professional ethics. Brock knew about his misrepresentation at the Nazarene College but chose to give him another chance, believing that one mistake should not destroy a man's career. But, in 1990, Brock discovered that Luik's one mistake had turned into a flood as he continued to misrepresent his academic qualifications.
"It is not any single misrepresentation ... so much as the apparently uniform pattern of misrepresentations engaged in since 1977 that suggests that Professor Luik is not capable of fulfilling his duties and responsibilities as an assistant professor at Brock University," a 17-page faculty report says[3].
The report further states that Professor Luik showed "no particular signs of contrition or even embarrassment on being confronted with his misrepresentation. ... This suggested that what was involved was indeed faulty moral judgment."
Luik claimed on his resumes to have held a full-time position at the University of Manitoba and to have taught three graduate courses at the University of Winnipeg. However it transpired that he never held a full-time job at the University of Manitoba and the graduate course he claimed to have taught at Winnipeg didn't even exist, according to university spokesman Catherine Unruh. She said the university has never offered graduate courses in philosophy[4].

A CBC Television report in June 2001 claimed that Luik has made false statements about his academic credentials.[5] The report stated that during Luik's professorship at Brock University, the Dean of Humanities, Cecil Abrahams, discovered that Luik had made false statements about visiting professorships at other academic institutions and had added books or articles to his list of publications that did not exist. Abrahams (who is now Vice-Cancellor at West Cape University in South Africa) made the following statement about Luik during an interview for the CBC investigative report:

I certainly would not trust anything John Luik says because he must be the worst case of fraud that I have come across and I've been an administrator at universities for a long period of time, both in North America and in Africa, and I think he's by far the worst case of fraudulent behaviour.[6]

Tobacco industry connections

In 1987 Philip Morris created "Project Whitecoat," to counter claims that passive smoking (described by the tobacco industry as Environmental Tobacco Smoke or ETS) was harmful to health. The project strategy was to "go beyond the establishment of a controversy concerning an alleged ETS health risk but to disperse the suspicion of risk".[7]. John Luik was an 'active player' in Project Whitecoat.[8] In 1993 documents from the Confederation of European Communities Cigarette Manufacturers (CECCM) show the strategy adopted by Luik and the tobacco industry in trying to publish papers designed to rebut the passive smoking claims in other scientific journals[9].

Luik has also made his work-in-progress available to tobacco companies and organisations prior to publication. For example, in 1993 Luik was in correspondence with The Confederation of European Community Cigarettes Manufacturers Limited regarding the publication of his paper, "Pandora's Box - The Dangers of Politically Corrupted Science for Democratic Public Policy", informing the Confederation that his article had been submitted for publication to Philosophy and Public Affairs Journal. In an internal Confederation memo dated 9 September 1993, the author of the memo instructs the tobacco company representatives that "until it [Luik's paper] is formally received, members should NOT [emphasis theirs] make use of the article for external lobbying purposes".[10] In a subsequent memo to the Confederation, dated 9 November 1993, the author informs the Confederation members of Luik's concerns over proposed changes to his paper by the Philosophy and Public Affairs Journal, and relates Luik's request for input on how to proceed.[11]

In 1999, with the support of Brown and Williamson, Luik and Gio Gori co-authored a book titled Passive Smoke: The EPA's Betrayal of Science and Policy.[12] The book was published by the Canadian Fraser Institute and challenged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencies classification of second-hand smoke as a Class A carcinogen - a cancer causing substance. Gori was one of 13 scientists paid by the tobacco companies to write letters-to-the-editor downplaying the risks of second-hand smoke. After Luik and Gori's book attacking the U.S. EPA's report was published, tobacco holdings in the Fraser Institute increased from 1.3 percent ($31,740 to $76,180) of the institute's total annual budget from 1996 to 1998, to 5 percent ($229,300) in 1999.[13]

In 1999 the World Health Organization brought together experts from around the world to examine the effects of second-hand smoke on children's health. The experts agreed exposure to second-hand smoke caused a wide variety of adverse health effects in children, including lower respiratory-tract infections, such as pneumonia and bronchitis. Other ill effects included reduced birth weight and decreased lung function. Ultimately, experts concluded, second-hand smoke caused death and suffering.[14]

John Luik became a tobacco industry lobbyist who lent his "sometimes invented" credentials to the task of discrediting sound science. A doctor of philosophy, Mr Luik refashioned himself as an expert on tobacco, publishing in an alumni magazine an article that had been edited and vetted and funded by the tobacco industry[15].

Obesity views

Obesity

According to the Western Mail, John Luik and Patrick Basham of the Democracy Institute argue that:

There is no evidence to support claims that children are getting fatter or that they will suffer long-term health problems as a result of their weight; Such a public fixation with weight and food could exacerbate the problem of eating disorders and people's obsession with their own weight.

Dr Luik told the Western Mail,

In the US about 25% of adolescent girls are dieting constantly and 5% have anorexia or bulimia. But this fixation [with food and body image] is not just for girls, but women under 45. The message people are getting is one about an obsession with their bodies - 20 years ago feminists would never have allowed such a public discourse about women's weight. And yet it seems that the health establishment think because it is done under the cover of talking about people's health, it is all right.

Dr Luik added:

The people who live the longest in both the UK and the US are the pleasantly plump - the people who are most likely to die from a weight-related disorder are those who are either too thin or at a normal body mass index. People who are between a BMI of 26 and 32 are those who are living the longest, yet according to the obesity debate, those are the people who should be dying in the greatest numbers.[16]

External resources

  • John Luik Interview, Interview Transcript, C.B.C. Television, 21-June-2001
  • William Marsden, Niagara-on-the-Lake man is big tobacco's point man: Since 1987, John Luik has been paid by the industry to travel the globe de-bunking cancer-smoking links, The Standard (St. Catharines, Ontario), June 22, 2001 Friday Final Edition

Publications

Books

Popular press, magazines articles and web publications

Tobacco industry documents - correspondence to or from John Luik

Tobacco industry documents - correspondence regarding John Luik

Affiliations

Democracy Institute | Spiked | Fraser Institute | FORCES | Niagara Institute | Janus Global Consulting[17]| The American Spectator | Janus Center | International Center for Alcohol Policies [18]

Notes

  1. ↑ Patrick Basham and John Luik, NYC: The City That Never Smokes, Democracy Institute, 26-October-2009, Accessed 10-February-2010
  2. ↑ Consultants, John Luik, Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco, Accessed 10-February-2010
  3. ↑ "The recommendation of the Department of Philosophy that the employment contract of Prof. J.C. Luik with Brock University not be renewed," Brock University, [1990?]
  4. ↑ William Marsden, Luik lied to universities about his qualifications, The Montreal Gazette, 21-June-2001
  5. ↑ CBC T.V. News and Current Affairs, June 21, 2001; CBC Television
  6. ↑ CBC T.V. News and Current Affairs, June 21, 2001; CBC Television
  7. ↑ Project Whitecoat, Project Whitecoat, Philip Morris, Tobacco Archive Documents
  8. ↑ John Luik, Get the facts, No Smoke, Accessed 02-April-2011
  9. ↑ Telefax, Tflb CONFEDERATION OF EUROPEAN COMMUNITY CIGARETTE MANUFACTURER LIMITED, CONFEDERATION OF EUROPEAN COMMUNITY CIGARETTE MANUFACTURER LIMITED, 22-June-1993
  10. ↑ Consultants, John Luik, Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco, Accessed 10-February-2010
  11. ↑ Consultants, John Luik, Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco, Accessed 10-February-2010
  12. ↑ Gori GB, Luik JC. Passive smoke: the EPA’s betrayal of science and policy. Vancouver, Canada: Fraser Institute, 1999
  13. ↑ Marsden, W., "Big tobacco's shell game with the truth," Montreal Gazette, June 21, 2001
  14. ↑ Montreal Gazette, Blowing smoke, Cornwall Standard Freeholder (Ontario), 2-July-2001
  15. ↑ Montreal Gazette, Blowing smoke, Cornwall Standard Freeholder (Ontario), 2-July-2001
  16. ↑ WMail Edition, 'Scaremongering over child obesity may rebound', The Western Mail, 16-October-2007, sub req'd to access full article
  17. ↑ William Marsden, Big tobacco's shell game with the truth, The Gazette (Montreal Quebec), 21-June-2001
  18. ↑ Alcohol, Ethics, and Society, John Luik, International Centre for Alcohol Policies, Accessed 10-February-2010
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