stanton plants only learned of this case through the documents we showed him. the approaches that they used to attack the person doing the research on linking cured meats with cancer were the standard things they do one is to go through her work with a fine tooth comb and find every little thing they could possibly complain about and because the issues tend to be fairly technical. you know if you're a politician or if you're a reporter or less sure a highly specialized reporter all you hear is well this person said there was something bad and this other person said that they didn't know what they were talking about and showed these efforts to go after the scientists and to discredit the scientists is a key element of

a much larger strategy to just gum up the entire policymaking process to the point where nothing happens that translates into hundreds of billions of dollars of sales and profits forever so the whole game is just slow down. in the documents on dr preston martin other even more machiavellian scenarios were studied. here it was suggested that talks be held with the scientist. and here a proposed seminar in order to lure her. to influence her and even shape the conclusions of her future studies. the common point of these documents they all come from the same lobbying firm multinational business services. already hired by philip morris to contest the

effects of passive smoking on health and headed by a certain jim thought see a master of influence. amazingly in washington the heart of american power this lobbyist is still well established. as he never answered our requests for an interview we went to see him without an appointment with our documents in hand and a hidden camera it's. to get into the u.s. who works here who are us i'm going to french and journalist i'm looking for and i'm working on the nothing in the g. deal here the new point meant no new i was just looking for him because i called from france but you can sound these on. the good news

american lobbyists can be welcoming. we even managed to have jim talk to you on his cell phone here here come in here please. jim can you hear me. i want to ask you some questions susan system not to. work. because you have this set up a strategy to discredit to work for us con man you are so i wanted to know more about this. what. do you not. i don't know if you're just talking about. me i have no idea who you're working for some going to have you know i can say no i'm going to have to as i say. understand you if you like the welcoming lobbyist

you love the angry one with no point enough to sleep now join each night leave you could lose your yes please please i am motoring you out can't just leave now that it's out. of here ok do you understand that you have a tough life. here and you cannot go back. to do you have to end like that. in the end mr trott's he did a great job well at least for the industrialist. back then and he pressed martin arguments were brought into the media spotlight. by this health journalist on a major national t.v. channel a few days after the publication of the famous study. let's get back to our hot dog study remember they asked the people did you eat a hot dog they didn't ask them did you put it in

a bun did you put ketchup on it did you put mustard on. you might be saying who really cares one way or the other but that's important because it may be that it's not the hot dog at all that's causing this increased risk of cancer or maybe it's the maybe it's the ketchup maybe it's the mustard so you have to be careful when you read these studies not to say oh this causes this. the powers that be didn't go any farther than nine hundred seventy s. nitrites file which could have resurfaced remains locked away. you're probably wondering what susan preston martin thinks the woman targeted by the lobby. we showed her the documents and what upset her the most was seeing that fellow scientists had played along with the industrialists. these professors will get paid a huge amount to do review by in this case probably the american media institute i mean thousands and thousands of dollars they probably get more from doing this

kind of thing than they do from their regular jobs. seeing your name like this in all. my goodness a i gave a lot of people a lot of work. were you aware of this well i was aware that the processed meat community was concerned. but not aware of all the extent of this. twenty years on and she had turned the page. not of interest anymore that's how. the public awareness of science goes it's interesting that it's not of interest seen in all that work today but it doesn't it doesn't matter i mean it's still in the literature and. it may influence people in future and it has influence people in the past and that's fine.

but another scientist involved in the case has enjoyed a much more flourishing career. a scientist paid by the american meat institute to shoot down susan preston martin's work. david clear fell. today david gergen is head of the u.s. government's nutrition program and he's invited all over the world for a scientific conferences where he gives his experts point of view. totally independent. to. introduce reasons why the need is important to be healthy diet has been just. on that day he was in front speaking to scientists from around the world about meat and the link between processed meat and cancer in order to denounce backed up by a power point the climate of fear panic and even hysteria. and we know because

we were there. it was right at the start of our investigation when we barely knew about nitrites and had the need of enlightened specialists to help us. so there are new reviews published this year that say nitrite is not harmful and others that say it is harmful. i don't think anybody really knows. definitively what what the answer is. a few months after this handshake when we have learned more about the industry of doubt. bells started ringing. so we took advantage of our trip to america to ask him for another interview. only this time i felt a lot more cards up our sleeve. do you remember. american meat institute no never no i was interested in the

scientists was interesting martin yes do you know her i know who she gives i do not know her personally i do remember reading a paper on her desk for the american meat institute found this and it was prepared for the american newton says fruit. ok there. this is something different yes. this was done twenty years ago roughly so. i had forgotten about that do you remember how much you were paid for this evaluation though i do not as i said it was twenty or twenty five years ago you didn't know when you were working for the american it is you that philip morris was opening there. i'm not going to say yes or no at this point in time because it's more than twenty

years ago did you know that the tobacco strategy motto was doubt is our product no i never heard that no no don't trust your productive to. that was not mine and that was not my intent my intent was to do an evaluation. if i had read these papers and found that there were not shortcomings in the papers that there would not deficiencies in the papers i don't think i would have criticized them but don't you think that your point of view would be stronger than your arguments stronger if i hadn't found that you had been won by the american meat institute. no i don't i don't think that. would change it wouldn't change my point of view it might change your point of view that you tend to not believe what i'm saying because twenty five years ago i got some amount of money that i don't remember are. for making progress he can't remember how much

but he does remember getting paid. but you have to understand that the industry is a money making business so they're very risk averse they would not fund a study that. someone proposed to them that eating hot dogs increases the risk of childhood cancer why would they fund that you know they would only fund something that says proposes that childhood cancer is prevented by eating more hotdogs or there's no relationship you know they're not going to fund a study that. is bad for their business. well at least he's honest much of the meat industry is lobbying depends on collaboration with paid scientists and that's still how things work.

during a conference on processed meats and cancer. of french scientists confirmed that. there is no reference on the subject internationally renowned expert. he speaks and acts casually and doesn't block it telling us how things work at scientific events . it is just it was just a little supersede most that speak to me. it's a. good point. to be it's a deep. that's comes to me. because if you soon does. it it's because if you all just wanted to. do. you should she meet. me at the. fifty fifty split. it's not going to be what you did was an issue

she didn't put on the. oh. right. i.

leveled was selling you on the idea that dropping bombs brings police to the chicken hawks forcing you to fight the battles they're going. to do sox credit tell you that every gossip and public place files the most important day. off about telling me you are not cool enough to buy their product. all the hawks that we along with all the walking. a few days later professor corp a sent us some e-mails and photos of scientists he suspects of being close to the food industry. to americans he came across at a conference on meat and cancer. and nathan bryant. as we checked out these scientists profiles we discovered

a document which should certainly never have been on the web. internal report issued by the american meat institute. it lays out the strategy for influencing the decisions of high profile organizations. this organization is the i r c international agency for research on cancer little. this institution based in the old front is the worldwide reference on cancer. in two thousand and six. the scientists classified nitrites in the probably carcinogenic category of products group too. and that was bad for business. so lobbyists are fighting to

have this classification changed. page sixty four of the document. changing the r.c. nitrate nitrate classification from two to be. possibly carcinogenic. the strategy has a name i challenge. it notably involves the two scientists we were interested in andrew wilkow sweet and nice and bright. armed with our brand new file it was time to set off to meet the meet sectors heavyweights. welcome to nashville tennessee the capital of country music and notably the hometown of johnny cash. it's here that the american meat institute is holding its annual conference. in this

huge building to be precise. the meat industry in the u.s. is very very big business. all of the world's biggest players are here. smithfield number one imports with a turnover of fourteen billion dollars a year cargo the giant with thirty three billion dollars a year in crude alone. and tyson people all divisions record holder this year will mate with all of our divisions between or poultry and prepared between that thirty seven billion and forty billion dollars in revenue side so snow for many very small companies. we checked it's over forty one billion dollars. after half an hour we spot a face in the crowd that rings

a bell. that will and they're testing nibbles at every stand. that's right page ninety two of the i.r.c. challenge document here with the short hair the american meat institute senior vice president of public affairs janet riley. it's just a tease so you know i'm lieutenant trying to tell i'm something i'm looking for close to on to say ten ten certainly question about seduction type found. it's is this document it didn't do it i'm sorry. i wanted to supposed to. poke it and i didn't see it registered no no actually it wasn't just so but i have some important question that you keep your business yes of course i have mine step journalist caught just a question but i want you to know what do you know about the iata you know let me octet into your camera and silly know what i'm doing that it's about not touch and chances think you know this is mine so me and i want to know who came so much for

our interview not me why you disagree with you why you are. having been escorted outside. this is my press conference ok i've been ordered to show id we try one last time it's closed due. to buckle industry date for t.k. that's your opinion that's your opinion what we're doing is providing science based here if you doubt this that our products are safe and it's the same rate there but are you paying those scientists know you've got a camera a window you. look away for such cases we always have a plan b. . on the list of i.r.c. challenge scientists there was one who agreed to see us the first on the list. andrew wilkow scheme.

we had to madison wisconsin. the city in the north of the united states is home to andrew housekeeper and the company of hot dog king oscar meyer who we came across in the preston martin case americans and. the scientist worked for this company for thirty years. you know to. he's at the university. but he doesn't hide his proximity to the american meat lobby. presented with our i.r.c. challenge documents he acknowledges everything or almost. so did the meat industry paid you for this i received some compensation for my time as well as the others how much i am likely to say i don't know

thousands tens of thousands of dollars. small amounts. can we have an idea. and defending nitrite seems to be a very big thing for industry looking for a substitute. has been attempted. and was a tall sally. something as chemically simple as nitrite. and as unique as nitrate having a substitute has not been possible to anyone's ability but if there is more risk of getting cancer don't you think it's important to try to find a solution now as we're going to disagree because i do not believe that that risk is is true you think there is no risk at all. i think the risk is. if it is indeed. on hearing that we pulled this expression.

so for andrew wilkow ski the colorectal cancer or the hundreds of studies on the dangers of nitrites none of it exists if you go nothing to do with it. in the united states it's thanks to scientists like neil county that the meat industry has been able to cut another notch in its belt. surprisingly in the health conscious state of california. this imposing building is home to the state cabinet level california environmental protection agency. we have an appointment with sam dell sent deputy director for external and legislative affairs. to show us

a document that doesn't exist in any other american state with a shell or not. and. so me. so this is the lists yes it's a list of substances judged dangerous to man by the state of california. to do business here manufacturers are banned from using these substances or they are obliged to warn consumers and it's very restrictive because there are over eight hundred products on the list so good example that would be tobacco smoke. it's one of. those other things like benzene that will be something you know we have come in things like exhaust and then here we have an ounce of britain and then as aspirin you know it's a special note especially for pregnant women oh here's kind of an odd one but you know these are a breath of burn you know if you want to eat this go for it but be aware that you maybe don't want to eat it every single day so i'm doing fine i tried it i tried is

not on the list. it's been here since nitrites has been targeted but procedures have never been seen through when we believe the chemical meets the criteria for listing we post what's known as a notice of intent to list and that triggers a period in which people can submit public comments on whether it does or does not meet the criteria we review the comments before making a final decision to complete. the nitrites here are the comments that swung the scale of the seven contributions six come from food industry lobbyists. and with thirty one pages the winner is. before the interview we show sam belsen all our documents on the t.v. i challenge and the attempts at influence. based as an

avalanche of proof gathered during months of investigation he ends up taking out his cell phone to take photos. however in answering our questions he seems less inspired. we. it's their business if they think that they can. influence a decision beyond the science but we want the science to the talking do you think it might have been that some times you are many planted by the industry we. we do our best. to make decisions based soley on the science regardless of whatever. pressure or expense and persuasion may be made by any and so i do ok.

california will read examine the dangers of nitrites but not before next year. for the lobby it's a mini victory time gained and profits not lost. in europe a new study on nitrite was expected in december two thousand and fifteen almost a year later it still has not been.

yes we had book a good little place called the day police a key to keep. the phone going to. get him you know who are going to commit their we're here in the right bag so. much for the ball club with such coffee and you don't want to dodge myself over what he said i feel we should i should think muslims you powerful thank you for such but he's. a big guns.

the two thousand and eight economic crisis turns some countries into pigs these are the countries with we korea colonies that needed austerity policies if you are in a situation of flow bloat even the recession austerity is a very bad idea it doesn't work and it makes millions of people very unhappy those who are unemployed see their wages decline almost a decade how good are the results she saw at the new joint peaceful by the people gathered in greece to watch her all good people with your daughter june. traded beautiful blue she was i mean to for legal. challenge this she's not

wasting it she somehow they cannot get it. while the same measure is still in place to one of the consequences who's to weaken bluebirds food dispute over a will first one of the suits the truth of the consumer is the consequences are actually quite acceptable to the decision move. on the market that brought the second lesson and. a lot of money to them in the early going to iraq going to the store to. go to. that have to sell the. next one.

last time we chased. each one of carrying twenty kilos of. me. i don't know.

what. i was opening. and i have a habit. i did it once and she jumped as if she'd had an explosion. there among five children reunited with their relatives after the parents took them to iraq and they joined. you this hour islamic state suffers a major blow as the syrian army eliminates one of the terrorists' largest and most active groups in syria we'll have the details. of the iraqi army says it's recaptured the key town of tal afar off an islamic state.