Editing Hans Selye (section)

== Controversy and involvement with the tobacco industry ==
Although it was not widely known at the time, Selye began consulting for the [[tobacco industry]] starting in 1958; he had previously sought funding from the industry, but had been denied. Later, New York attorney Edwin Jacob contacted Selye as he prepared a defense against liability actions brought against tobacco companies. The companies wanted Selye's help in arguing that the recognized correlation between smoking and cancer was not proof of causality. The firm offered to pay Selye $1000 to make a statement supporting this claim. He agreed but refused to testify. Tobacco industry lawyers reported that Selye was willing to incorporate industry advice when writing about smoking and stress. One lawyer advised him to "comment on the unlikelihood of there being a mechanism by which smoking could cause cardiovascular disease” and to emphasize the "stressful" effect that anti-smoking messages had on the US population.<ref name="10.2105/AJPH.2009.177634">{{Cite journal|last1=Petticrew|first1=Mark P.|last2=Lee|first2=Kelley|date=March 2011|title=The "Father of Stress" Meets "Big Tobacco": Hans Selye and the Tobacco Industry|journal=American Journal of Public Health|volume=101|issue=3|pages=411–418|doi=10.2105/AJPH.2009.177634|issn=0090-0036|pmc=3036703|pmid=20466961}}</ref>

Publicly, Selye never declared his consultancy work for the tobacco industry. In a 1967 letter to "Medical Opinion and Review", he argued against government over-regulation of science and public health, implying that his views on smoking were objective: "I purposely avoided any mention of government-supported research because, being too largely dependent upon it, I may not be able to view the subject objectively. However, I do not use … cigarettes so let these examples suffice." In June 1969, Selye (then director of the Institute of Experimental Pathology, University of Montreal) testified before the [[House of Commons of Canada|Canadian House of Commons]] Health Committee against anti-smoking legislation, opposing advertising restrictions, health warnings, and restrictions on tar and nicotine. For his testimony Selye was funded $50,000 per year for a 3-year "special project", by William Thomas Hoyt, executive of [[Tobacco Institute|Council for Tobacco Research]], with another $50,000 a year pledged by the Canadian tobacco industry. His comments on smoking were used worldwide; [[Philip Morris USA|Philip Morris]] used Selye's statements on the benefits of smoking to argue against the use of health warnings on tobacco products in [[Sweden]]. Similarly, in 1977 the Australian Cigarette Manufacturers quoted Selye extensively in their submission to the [[Australian Senate]] Standing Committee on Social Welfare.<ref name="10.2105/AJPH.2009.177634"/>

In 1999, the [[United States Department of Justice]] brought an [[Racketeering|anti-racketeering]] case against 7 tobacco companies –[[British American Tobacco]], [[Brown & Williamson]], Philip Morris, [[Liggett Group|Liggett]], [[American Tobacco Company]], [[RJ Reynolds]], and [[Lorillard]]– plus the Council for Tobacco Research, and the [[Tobacco Institute]]. As a result, the industry's influence on stress research was revealed.<ref name="10.2105/AJPH.2009.177634"/>