In 1954, Richard Doll and Bradford Hill published
the first prospective evidence on cigarette smoking and
lung cancer [1,2]. In 1962, Framingham investigators published
data showing that smoking increased the risk of heart disease
[3]. Nevertheless, despite the strong evidence, uncertainty was
manufactured and enlarged. This strategy is a common practice
to reduce the public health implications from epidemiological
findings and was used not only by tobacco companies but also
by other industrial arms, including asbestos and lead factories
[4]. For almost half a century, the tobacco companies hired scientists
to dispute first that smokerswere at greater risk of dying
of lung cancer; second, the role of tobacco use in heart disease;
and finally, the evidence that environmental tobacco smoke increased
disease risk in non-smokers