sample="quota" bates="518805178" isource="rjr" decade="1990" class="ni" date="19970303" Townsend, David From: Green, Charles To: Burger, Gary T.; Davis, Layten; Ogden, Mike; Townsend, David; Smeeton, Brian Subject: Ad Hoc Committee: General Purposes of CORESTA Date: Monday, March 03, 1997 2:56PM At the Jan. 23rd CORESTA Board meeting in Paris, it was agreed that a sub-committee of Board and SC members, composed of Messrs. BAKER, BOURLAS, GREEN, LORGON and PAPENFUS would reflect on CORESTA's missions and give their contributions to the Board upon the June meeting. The first meeting of this group was held in London on Feb. 20th. Basically, Mr. Bourlas wants to establish mission statements for CORESTA, the Board, and the Scientific Commission. CORESTA was seen as not having an "open-ended" charter. The Board was seen as setting policy, strategy, and monitoring activities. The Scientific Commission was seen to exercise control of the cooperative research in an objective "peer-review" sense. The names of the four study groups were discussed. Mr. Bourlas desired some uniformity in the names, i.e., Agro and Phyto are scientific disciplines while Smoke and Technology are not. It was suggested that Smoke might be better named the Chemistry Study Group. No better name for Techno was suggested. Mr. Bourlas agreed to create a first draft of mission statements and proposed new names for the study groups. The ad hoc committee will meet in Neuchatel on June 10th, the day before the Board meeting. Additional Discussions: Discussed the problem about the entitlement of the Italian monopoly in CORESTA but their lack of participation. Mr. Bourlas felt that this was due to Mr. del Gisto. Mr. Bourlas would explore the possibility of talking to the Italian Minister of Agriculture about the Italian participation in CORESTA. H. Papenfus proposed that CORESTA take a larger role in disseminating information to its members. In particular, the European Union is going to levy a 1% tax on tobacco products that will go to 2%. The money from this tax is 50% directed to medical research on tobacco and the rest to agricultural research. CORESTA can help the agricultural community apply for grants. Mr. Papenfus also said that the Scientific Commission needs as part of its mandate to include dissemination of information. There was a lengthy discussion as to what subjects related to smoking & health could be presented at CORESTA meetings. The 2 papers by RJRT scientists at the Yokohama conference may have been ground breaking. Heretofore, biological studies had been a forbidden topic by a gentlemen's agreement. The prevailing view of this discussion was that papers submitted to the reading committees should be judged on their scientific merits rather than topic. This will be an agenda item on the June Board Meeting. D. Hoffman was suggested as a possible recipient of the CORESTA Prize. Henri Papenfus wants CORESTA to take a stand on genetically altered tobaccos; also on the use of genetically modified materials in cigarette products as ingredients. Editorial Comment: perhaps we would have a Biological Study Group to deal with this subject. The question of whether or not "government chemists" should be accepted as CORESTA members was discussed. No conclusion was reached. Dr. Klus, Baker, and Green wanted a clearer definition of what constitutes smoking & health research. In broad terms, standard smoking methods could constitute S&H research. Dr. Klus was especially disappointed that the ETS Sub Group was not permitted to investigate analytical methods related to the measurement of cotinine in body fluids. Other members of the ad hoc committee did not want to discuss S&H issues. It may become part of the Boards next meeting agenda. If you have any questions, please give me a call.