title: The tobacco industry, researchers, and ethical access to UK Biobank: using the public interest and public good.
abstract: We have asked whether the strategic purpose of the tobacco industry is something that a public resource, such as UK Biobank, should support. Tobacco industry health research has been known to work irreconcilably with the purposes of such institutions, which can be surmised as for the public good and defined to improve the provision, diagnosis, and treatment of illness and the promotion of health throughout society. We have isolated possible conflicts of interest that underlie vested research agendas of the tobacco industry and that may extend to tobacco industry-funded researchers. With respect to research, we find that the tobacco industry is entirely at odds with the purposes of public biobanking.
authors.affiliation: Benjamin James Capps and Yvette van der Eijk are with the Centre for Biomedical Ethics, Dean's Office, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore.
authors.forename: Benjamin James
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Capps
authors.forename: Yvette
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: van der Eijk
mesh_terms: D018070:Biological Specimen Banks / Q000458:organization & administration*; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000941:ethics*; D016265:Conflict of Interest; D036281:Genetic Research / Q000941:ethics*; D006801:Humans; D019460:Tobacco Industry / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006113:United Kingdom