VCU helps Philip Morris clean up

Faculty and students alike have voiced outrage in the past months over research contracts with Philip Morris USA, which included clauses of secrecy granting the company unusually restrictive rights over publication.

The wastewater management contract in VCU’s department of biology is often overshadowed by the more controversial contract, which originated in the VCU School of Medicine and involves early detection of pulmonary disease.

Philip Morris approached the department of biology in 2006 with a proposal to decrease the wastewater stream at their Park 500 facility, situated along the James River.

“The company is spending a significant amount of money to create a major, constructed wetlands on their property,” said Leonard Smock, head of the department of biology. “So now the wastewater from their treatment plant runs through this rather large system, maybe 50 acres or so of wetlands, a known method of removing nutrients.”

According to environmental experts, excessive amounts of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, are often found in fertilizers used for tobacco production; this results in a form of water pollution called cultural eutrophication causes algae blooms and accelerates the death of plant and animal life that live in or drink from the water.

At a town-hall meeting in early September, faculty and others spoke out to defend the benefits of contracts such as the wastewater management at a town-hall meeting in September, saying there is no conflict of interest.

“While I do understand the sensitivity of dealing with the tobacco industry, this is a situation where the industry is gaining something positive: public relations,” Smock said. “We also have students gaining excellent experience in ecological studies, and the environment is probably benefiting because there’s likely a nutrient removal.”

Many participants at the meetings spoke out against restricting collaboration with the tobacco industry on a university-wide basis. Several faculty members referred to the slippery slope argument: banning one industry will inevitably lead to the banning of other industries that might pose a moral or ethical dilemma.

“Philip Morris should not tarnish other opportunities for research,” Chairman of the department of biomedical engineering Gerald Miller said. “We should be careful on how we deal with ethics across the board.”

Most who spoke at the town hall meetings agreed a school of public health or medicine should not accept money from the tobacco industry.

“We don’t have a set of moral standards, but we should,” said Mark Wood, a professor of religious studies, who suggested a standing committee to review corporate research agreements on a contextual basis.

The wastewater management study is ongoing and involves a number of governmental and non-governmental environmental agencies, industry neighbors and residents of the area.

Smock said Philip Morris shows no signs of halting publication and is eager to document the results and spread the word when the study is finished.