Professor resigns in tobacco protest

Richard Smith: Money was "a serious mistake"

A professor of medical journalism has resigned over a university's acceptance of funding from a tobacco company.

Dr Richard Smith, who is also editor of the British Medical Journal, is to leave his post as a professor at the University of Nottingham.

The decision to resign, in protest at the acceptance of £3.8m from British American Tobacco (BAT) follows an online vote among readers of the medical journal.

These readers voted overwhelmingly for the university to return the funding - and a smaller majority said that Dr Smith should resign if the university decided to retain the money.

Dr Smith, in a letter to the university's vice-chancellor, Sir Colin Campbell, says that taking BAT's money has been "a serious mistake and has damaged the university".

Social responsibility

"I am resigning both because I said that I would do what the BMJ's readers said I should do and because I've argued so strongly that the university shouldn't have taken this money," wrote Mr Smith.

The funding from BAT is to set up an international centre for the study of corporate social responsibility.

Mr Smith's decision to resign has been applauded by the anti-smoking campaigners, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).

"We think he has done the right thing by pulling out. The university establishment is not interested in the arguments or in defending its decision, and they made a feeble case for taking BAT's money," said ASH's director, Clive Bates.

The resignation is the latest in a series of protests against the university's decision to take the "tobacco money".

In December, a business student about to graduate from the university refused to accept a student of the year cash award, in protest against the acceptance of the funding from BAT.

Instead the student, Jon Rouse, gave the prize to the Cancer Research Campaign.