title: Manufacturing credibility: the National Energy Management Institute and the Tobacco Institute's strategy for indoor air quality.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  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.
authors.affiliation: Community Health Program, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, USA. richard.campbell@tufts.edu
authors.forename: Richard B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.forename: Edith D
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: Balbach
mesh_terms: D016902:Air Pollution, Indoor / Q000009:adverse effects*; D016265:Conflict of Interest; D003253:Consultants; D006801:Humans; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D019460:Tobacco Industry / Q000941:ethics*; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014481:United States; D014691:Ventilation
chemical_list: D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution