Taxpayer-funded research about what Victorian children think of smoking could be used by a tobacco company for marketing purposes.
British American Tobacco is trying to use Freedom of Information laws to access Cancer Council Victoria's database, which has informed public health campaigns and could be a rich source of marketing information.
"The concern with releasing this data under FOI is we effectively lose control over who has access to that data and what they use it for," Cancer Council Victoria CEO Todd Harper told AAP.
Federal Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash said the government had invested in reducing smoking rates because of the harm it caused to Australians.
"If tobacco companies are obtaining research on young people through state FOI legislation to increase their sales to children, then I am appalled," Senator Nash said in a statement on Thursday.
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