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This postprint is also in the postprint series of the following research unit(s):

• Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education

ABSTRACT:
In the United States, companies that use their own funds to test consumer products on their employees are subject to few regulations. Using previously undisclosed tobacco industry documents, we reviewed the history of that industry’s efforts to create internal guidelines on the conditions to be met before employee taste testers could evaluate cigarettes made from tobacco treated with experimental pesticides. This history highlights two potential ethical issues raised by unregulated industrial research: conflict of interest and lack of informed consent. To ensure compliance with accepted ethical standards, an independent federal office should be established to oversee industrial research involving humans exposed to experimental or increased quantities of ingested, inhaled, or absorbed chemical agents.

SUGGESTED CITATION:
Patricia A. McDaniel, Gina Solomon, and Ruth E. Malone, "The Ethics of Industry Experimentation Using Employees: The Case of Taste-Testing Pesticide-Treated Tobacco" (2006). American Journal of Public Health. 96 (1), pp. 37-46. 10.2105/AJPH.2005.071969. Postprint available free at: http://repositories.cdlib.org/postprints/1089