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The Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California (UCSF) is an internationally recognized collaborative effort dedicated to reducing deaths associated with tobacco and the tobacco industry, conducting research in the areas of how to treat tobacco addiction, the effects of second hand smoke, the efforts of the tobacco industry to promote its use and other tobacco-related topics. As an inter-disciplinary center, it serves as a focal point for research, education and public service activities for the Schools of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy, as well as with colleagues at UC Berkeley and UC Merced. The Center works closely with the UCSF Library on the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library to collect and preserve documents created by major tobacco companies related to their advertising, manufacturing, marketing, sales, and scientific research activities.
This fall, the two institutions worked together once again to process the UCSF Tobacco Control Oral History Collection OH 2013-6 and the resulting finding aid was posted on the Online Archive of California. This collection housed at the UCSF Archives and Special Collections includes interviews with 150 physicians, epidemiologists, public health officials, community-based activists and educators, lobbyists and policy makers–all working in the area of tobacco control. These interviews shed light on political activities, tobacco control programs, and the history of tobacco industry campaign contributions and lobbying activities. They cover a variety of topics, including public health policy and law, anti-smoking advocacy, second hand smoke, health education programs and cost-recovery lawsuits. This collection consisting of 181 audiotapes is open for research and can be accessed in the archives reading room.
Part of the processing plan included an interview with Stanton Glantz, Ph.D. Center Director and the American Legacy Foundation Distinguished Professor of Tobacco Control at UCSF. The interview revealed that the Oral History project, conducted between 1991-2001, was an integral part of his National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded project to travel to 24 states and complete detailed histories of tobacco control policymaking and efforts by the tobacco industry to thwart these policies. As Dr. Glantz, postdoctoral fellows, and other members of his research group travelled the country, they found key informants and recorded the interviews that would become part of this collection. In part, these interviews helped shape the resulting Reports on State Tobacco Policy Making. A number of the initial state reports listed, including those from Florida, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington were informed by the interviews.
The project continues. As state reports are continually researched, written and published, more interviews with individuals who can shed particular light on political activities and state tobacco control programs are conducted and recorded.
This joint endeavor is also representative of the Library’s commitment to oral history projects, a collection that includes The AIDS Oral History–interviews with physicians, nurse and scientists–and the Biotechnology Oral History Project, an on-going project initiated in 1992 and designed to document contributions to the field by major campus scientists.
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