Health-harming products including fossil fuels, plastics, petrochemicals, tobacco, alcohol and ultra-processed foods are contributing to a rise in chronic disease
Industries that produce health-harming products have waged a decades-long assault on science and regulations designed to protect health, ultimately rigging rules in their favor, say scientists behind a new Center to End Corporate Harm at UC San Francisco.
Products, including fossil fuels, chemicals, alcohol, tobacco and ultra-processed foods are now responsible for approximately one in three deaths worldwide. In the US a rise in chronic diseases including cancer (175%), diabetes (283%), Parkinson’s (133%), and dementias (75%) have led to what the scientists say is an “industrial epidemic” of disease.
The Center to End Corporate Harm brings together scientists who study various health-harming industries, and, in collaboration with the UCSF Industry Documents Library, are working to identify, analyze, and prevent industry-driven disease and develop strategies to counter the destructive influence of polluters and poisoners.
“The increase in many chronic diseases is the manifestation of a global economic system that prioritizes products and profit over health, and it is producing an industrial epidemic of disease,” said Tracey J. Woodruff, PhD, director of the new Center to End Corporate Harm.
“Health-harming industries such as fossil fuels, plastics, chemicals, tobacco, and ultra-processed foods have rigged the regulatory and political systems in their favor and it’s critical to public health to hold these industries accountable,” she said.
“Most health-harming industries have taken a page from Big Tobacco’s playbook – deny health harms, manipulate science and regulatory bodies, and lie to the public about the real risks and costs,” said Pamela Ling, MD, MPH, who leads the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research & Education. “The 
good news is that when the public health community pushed back on tobacco, it worked; although the work continues as tobacco companies move into e-cigarettes, vaping and ultra-processed food.”
“Time and again health-harming industries have lied about their products, hiding the harms from the public and regulators and now many of these industries are, collectively, the leading cause of death and disease globally,” said Nicholas Chartres, PhD, lead scientific advisor to the new center who specializes in researching industry influence and the role of corporate conflict of interest in science.
Prior to its launch, researchers behind the new center hosted or sponsored scientific symposiums at UC San Francisco and at the University of Sydney with a combined more than 100 scientists who follow trends and tactics by corporate actors to manipulate science and regulation. They include Lisa Bero, PhD, University of Colorado, who studies how industry-funded science 
can skew an entire body of evidence and Laura Schmidt, PhD, UC San Francisco, who has documented how the tobacco industry influenced the food industry by developing products with highly processed (and addictive) flavorings like Hi-C, Lunchables, and Oreo cookies.
“Research tracking health-harming industries has proven critical for understanding why people overeat ultra-processed foods, leading to rising rates of obesity and cardiometabolic disease globally,” said Schmidt. “I look forward to continuing this work through the Center to better understand how corporate tactics undermine health.”
The new Center includes scientists, researchers, and physicians from all five UCSF schools, UCSF Industry Documents Library, as well as the Center for Climate Health & Equity, Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, 
Institute for Health Policy Studies, and the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment, all based at UCSF, as well as researchers from University of Colorado, University of Sydney, and more.
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