Watchdog Celebrates Retirement of Taxpayer-Funded Anti-Science Professor

For Immediate Release
September 10, 2020
Contact: Grace Morgan
(202-855-4380)

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) celebrated the retirement of Professor Stanton Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco. During his tenure, Dr. Glantz spent tens of millions of taxpayer dollars publishing discredited anti-vaping studies that had to be retracted due to questionable science and false findings. Dr. Glantz was also accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women, prompting the University of California to make more than $150,000 in compensatory payments to settle claims “more likely than not” to be true.

“Stanton Glantz’s long-overdue retirement is a win for taxpayers, consumers, and public health,” said TPA President David Williams. “For too long, Dr. Glantz has wasted tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding to publish junk-science ‘studies’ that have been thoroughly debunked and discredited, making him a laughingstock in the scientific community. Dr. Glantz’s persistent spread of misinformation made it more difficult for smokers to kick their deadly habit through the use of reduced risk tobacco alternatives. His false claims about the dangers of vaping have led to onerous state and federal taxes and regulations, directly contributing to the preventable deaths of countless Americans. Dr. Glantz’s recklessly produced pseudoscience has about as much rigor and integrity as anti-vaccination ‘research.’ And, similar to anti-vaxxer claims, the professor’s fearmongering and promotion of retracted studies has directly led to preventable deaths and illnesses.”

Williams continued: “But taxpayer dollars have continued to flow to Dr. Glantz, despite discredited research and multiple credible sexual harassment allegations. In 2018, Dr. Glantz was accused of sexual harassment by two women affiliated with the university. These claims were found ‘more likely than not’ to be genuine, forcing the taxpayer funded University of California to make $150,000 in compensatory payments to settle these matters. Despite these gross improprieties, he was not removed from his position nor formally disciplined beyond a letter of censure. This inaction was a staggering dereliction of duty by university officials, particularly in the midst of the #MeToo era.”

Williams concluded: “Dr. Glantz has wasted tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds, using these hard-earned taxpayer dollars to promote quack research that has significantly stymied smoking cessation efforts. But unfortunately, university officials have turned a blind eye to his sloppy research and sexual misconduct. We hope that his retirement will herald a new era at the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education based on science, not ideology and sham science.”

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