UC To Consider Ban on Tobacco-Funded Research
The University of California Board of Regents on Wednesday will consider a proposal to ban research funding from tobacco companies, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante (D), who is an ex oficio regent, in a letter to other regents wrote that UC should decline all research funding from tobacco companies, as universities including Harvard and the University of Washington have done.
Some UC cancer centers and medical, nursing and public health schools had banned tobacco research grants, but a 2005 measure approved by the university's Academic Senate overturned the bans and left the decision to the board of regents.
UC researchers have received about $29 million for research from tobacco companies since 1995.
Opponents of the measure say it would restrict academic freedom throughout the UC system (Schevitz, San Francisco Chronicle, 9/19).