Center for Indoor Air Research

The Center for Indoor Air Research (often abbreviated CIAR) was a non-profit organization established by three American tobacco companies—Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, and Lorillard—in Linthicum, Maryland, in 1988. The organization funded research on indoor air pollution, some of which pertained to passive smoking and some of which did not. It also funded research pertaining to causes of lung cancer other than passive smoking, such as diet. The organization disbanded in 1998 as a result of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.

The CIAR was founded in March 1988 by Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, and Lorillard. It was based in Linthicum, Maryland. The Swedish tobacco company Svenska Tobaks joined the organization in 1994. Soon after it was founded, it became the largest non-governmental source of funding for research on indoor air pollution. In 1998, a master settlement, known as the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, was reached between American tobacco companies and a number of American state attorneys general. This agreement required the tobacco industry to disband the CIAR, as well as the Council for Tobacco Research. According to Alisa Tong and Stanton Glantz, the CIAR has "been essentially reconstituted as the Philip Morris External Research Program."

The original stated mission of the CIAR was to conduct "high-quality, objective research" pertaining to indoor air, including the health effects of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). A confidential memo from 1988 described the CIAR as part of a plan to "carry out work on ETS to keep the controversy alive." In 1992, the reference to passive smoking was removed from the organization's mission statement. This was, in turn, followed by a decrease in the amount of research funded by the CIAR that pertained to the health effects of passive smoking.

The CIAR awarded both "peer-reviewed" projects after review by their Science Advisory Board, as well as "special-reviewed" projects awarded after review by tobacco company executives. The aim of the CIAR's peer-reviewed projects was mainly to divert attention from ETS as an indoor air pollutant, whereas special-reviewed projects were more likely to produce evidence that the tobacco industry could later use to argue against anti-smoking legislation.