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The editor of the prestigious British
Medical Journal (BMJ) resigned
on May 18 from a teaching job at a university that had accepted
funding from a tobacco company after a
vote by readers on the Internet.
Dr. Richard Smith, unhappy over Nottingham
University's decision to accept £3.8 million ($5.4 million)
from British American Tobacco (BAT), asked BMJ readers to
help him solve his ethnical dilemma by voting on the World
Wide Web on whether he should quit or not.
Fifty-four percent of 1,075 journal readers
who voted online said he should step down.
More
than 80% thought the university should return the donation.
Nottingham University in central England
accepted the cash from BAT, the world's second-largest tobacco
company, to fund an international center on corporate social
responsibility.
"This is a serious
mistake and has damaged the university," Smith,
a former professor of medical journalism, said in his resignation
letter.
"I am resigning both because I said
that I would do what the BMJ's readers said I should do and
because I've argued so strongly that the university shouldn't
have taken the money," Smith added.
BAT, whose brands include Lucky Strike,
Kent, Dunhill and Pall Mall, referred all comments about the
resignation to the university.
A spokesperson at Nottingham said the
university was sorry to lose Smith but it had no intention
of returning the money.
"We have had messages of support,
as well as criticism," Philip Dalling told Reuters. "We
believe the decision to accept the money was justified."
In what is thought to be the first online
vote of its kind, BMJ readers from countries around the globe
voiced their opinions on whether Nottingham University should
return the money to BAT and whether Smith should resign if
it did not.
"Clearly this is not a 'clean' source
of funding for the university," said Dr. Mary Black,
of UNICEF in Sarajevo, who voted for the university to return
the money.
"Tobacco, like drugs and ammunition,
is responsible for killing and maiming millions of people.
No matter how humanitarian your project is or how ambitious
your plans are, no ambitions are lawful that live on cruelty
to mankind," said Dr. Syed Fayyaz Hussain, of University
Hospital in London.
Some voters thought taking the money was
wrong but voted against Smith resigning.
Medical studies have shown that smoking
is the single biggest preventable cause of cancer-related
deaths. It is also a major risk factor
for heart disease and other illnesses.
Reuters
May 18, 2001
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