According to Bloom, much of the work done at places like the HCRA or at the HSPH would not be done if not for support from industry.

He stressed, however, that the industry groups are never allowed to influence the design of a study or decide whether or not the results will be released.

"We should all worry about protecting the independence of universities," Bloom says. "In order to get the work done, we have to work both with the federal government and corporations."

"It is a classical stereotype and simplification to say that all corporate money corrupts," Ropeik says. "We recognize that perception is a problem and are therefore very careful about how we do our work."

The HCRA's website lists over 100 corporations and government agencies as funding sources, including AT&T Wireless, U.S. Centers for Disease Control, and Dow Chemical Company.

According to Ropeik, the HCRA has a total budget of about $3 million. Forty percent comes from unrestricted grants given by corporations and foundations. Thirty percent comes from the government and is earmarked for specific projects. Another 20 percent is given by corporations for specific studies. The remainder comes from the HSPH.

Although the HCRA is rare in the sense that there are very few similar centers, academics who do work in risk analysis routinely take money from industry.

According to M. Granger Morgan '63, chair of the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, the HCRA is not alone in accepting industry money. Morgan advised Graham on his doctoral dissertation at Carnegie Mellon.