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Manufacturing credibility: The national energy management institute and the tobacco institute's strategy for indoor air quality

R.B. Campbell and E.D. Balbach

American Journal of Public Health, 2011, vol. 101, issue 3, 497-503

Abstract: Objectives. We studied tobacco industry efforts during the 1980s and 1990s to promote the National Energy Management Institute (NEMI), a nonprofit organization, as an authority on indoor air quality as part of the industry's strategy to oppose smoke-free worksite policies. Methods. We analyzed tobacco industry documents, conducted literature searches in Lexis-Nexis for background and historical literature, and reviewed relevant public health and policy literature. Results. The tobacco industry provided more than US $ 6 million to NEMI to establish it as an authority on indoor air quality and to work with it to undermine support for smoke-free air policies by promoting ventilation as a solution to indoor air quality problems. Tobacco industry support for NEMI was not publicly disclosed. Conclusions. NEMI was a valuable ally for the tobacco industry through NEMI's ties to organized labor, its technical background, and its status as a third-party actor. NEMI also helped the industry to portray ventilation to improve overall indoor air quality and smoke-free worksites as an either-or choice; in fact, both can improve worker health.

Date: 2011
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2010.199695_2

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2010.199695

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