Confronting Pseudoscience and Threats from a Corporate Front Group: The American Council on Science and Health

1
Confronting Pseudoscience and Threats from a
Corporate Front GroupThe American Council on
Science and Health

• Martin Donohoe

2
Disclosure

• Previous regular column for Medscape
• Small payment per article
• While much of Medscapes content is supported by
  the pharmaceutical industry, my columns have been
  free of industry support
• No other funding sources or conflicts of interest

3
Outline

• Background Global Warming
• Definition of Corporate Front Group
• American Council on Science and Health (ACSH)
  history, staff, and funding
• ACSH Pseudoscience and Misinformation

4
Outline

• ACSH Attacks on Scientists and the Scientific
  Enterprise
• Implications for Science and Public Health
• Other examples of obfuscation of science by
  corporate interests
• Conclusions

5
Outline

• Corporate Front Groups
• American Council on Science and Health
• Corporate PR Tactics
• Conclusions

6
Corporate Front Groups

• Promote corporate agendas
• Strong financial and advisory links with
  corporations
• Disseminate misinformation/lies under guise of
  science
• Non-peer reviewed, cherry-picked/out of context
• Promote pro-business, conservative ideology

7
Background

• Essay describing health and environmental
  consequences of global warming for Medscape
• Described ACSH as a corporate front group and
  criticized its selection of author Michael
  Crichton as recipient of its 2005 Sound Science
  Medal
• Crichtons State of Fear questions existence of
  human-caused global warming
• Crichton also received the American Association
  of Petroleum Geologists journalism award

8
ACSH and Global Warming

• Leader referred to belief that burning fossil
  fuels has caused global warming as pseudoscience
• Criticized environmental scientists as
  doomsayers and fearmongers

9
ACSH Response

• Threatened litigation against Medscape
• Article pulled, then republished with additional
  material
• ?Loss of potential readership?

10
ACSHDr Elizabeth Whelan - Director

• Founded in 1978 by Drs. Elizabeth Whelan and
  Frederick Stare
• Whelans early writing career included
• Freelance writing assignment for Pfizer
  criticizing the FDA
• Consumer magazine pieces for Harpers Bazaar
  and Glamour (fashion magazines)
• Books Panic in the Pantry and Toxic Terror
• Whelans 2003 salary 326,612

11
ACSHDr Gilbert Ross - Medical /Executive
Director

• In charge of all scientific projects,
  publications, and personnel issues involving
  scientific staff at ACHS
• Spent 1996 in federal prison after being
  sentenced to 46 months for
• Medicaid fraud
• Perjury
• Obstruction of justice
• Not mentioned on his bio on ACSH website
• Barred by the DHHS for 10 years from
  participating in either Medicare or Medicaid

12
ACSHDr Gilbert Ross Career

• Defended Wood Preservative Science Council
  against health claims regarding arsenic in
  pressure-treated wood
• Wrote on behalf of the farmed salmon industry
  that PCBs in fish do not cause any health problems

13
ACSH

• ACSH Board of Directors includes anti-regulatory
  Individuals
• Prominent figures on board of advisors
• George Lundberg (Editor, Medscape), William Foege
  (former head of CDC), Patricia Buffler (former
  dean of UC Berkeley School of Public Health),
  others

14
ACSH

• Annual turnover of under 2 million
• Initial funding from right wing foundations,
  corporations
• E.g., Sarah Scaife Foundation, Dow, Monsanto,
  American Cyanamid, Mobil Foundation, Chevron,
  Bethlehem Steel, etc.
• Accepted money to write and disseminate
  pro-industry studies

15
ACSH

• Finances had been secret since early 1990s until
  internal documents obtained by Mother Jones for
  second half of 2012 show
• 58 of donations from corporations and large
  private foundations

16
ACSH

• Funders have included Bayer CropScience,
  Syngenta, Procter and Gamble, National
  Petrochemical and Refiners Assn, McDonalds,
  Altria, Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper/Snapple, General
  Mills, Nestle USA, National Soft Drink
  Association, others

17
ACSHSound Science

• Has spoken out re dangers of tobacco smoking
• Supported IOM recommendation re coverage of
  contraception as a preventive health service
• Criticized Oprah for pseudoscientific claims
  (The Secret, anti-vaccination promulgations,
  nutritional supplement promotions, etc.)

18
ACSHPseudoscience and Misinformation

• Attacked the precautionary principle
• anti-science and anti-technology phobia
• fundamentally reactionary and elitist
• more on the order of theology than science

19
ACSHPseudoscience and Misinformation

• Minimized the effects of environmental tobacco
  smoke (ETS) on human health
• 40,000 deaths/yr in U.S.
• Opposed FDA regulation of e-cigarettes

20
ACSHPseudoscience and Misinformation

• Promoted smokeless tobacco, snus, and
  e-cigarettes as smoking cessation aids
• Opposed graphic tobacco package warnings

21
ACSHPseudoscience and Misinformation

• Denied many of the adverse neurological effects
  of lead exposure
• Denied endocrine-disrupting effects of PCBs
• Claimed court ordered-cleanup of Hudson River by
  GE based on false claims of PCBs causing cancer

22
ACSHPseudoscience and Misinformation

• Minimized health concerns of 9-11 responders
• Opposed EPA attempts to strengthen clean air
  standards
• Opposed TSCA reforms
• Denied health risks of certain cosmetics
• See Environmental Working Groups Skin Deep
  list of safe cosmetics

23
ACSHPseudoscience and Misinformation

• Claimed uncertainty regarding effects of
  agricultural antibiotics
• Denied health and environmental risks of GM crops
• Called warnings regarding tuna consumption by
  pregnant women unfounded health scare
• Turned Alar concerns into manufactured
  cautionary tale of overzealous regulators run
  amok

24
ACSHPseudoscience and Misinformation

• Critiqued health concerns re trans fatty acids
• There is no such thing as junk food
• There is insufficient evidence of a relationship
  between diet and any disease.
• Rejected AAP recommendation for fast food
  television advertising ban
• Opposed ban on sales of energy drinks to minors

25
ACSHPseudoscience and Misinformation

• Claimed irradiated food is safe, wholesome and
  nutritious and no radioactive isotopes are
  involved
• Promotes fracking
• Whelan Fracking doesnt pollute air or water
• 1992 memo by Whelan ACSH is the great defender
  of petrochemical companies
• Promoted nuclear power and benefits of low dose
  radiation hormesis

26
ACSHPseudoscience and Misinformation

• Denied link between dioxins and pesticides and
  adverse health effects
• Pesticides are not toxic to humans of any age
• Supported use of human volunteers in pesticide
  toxicity studies
• Denied health consequences of PBDEs (fire
  retardents) and PFOA (Teflon)

27
Pesticides

• EPA U.S. farm workers suffer up to 300,000
  pesticide-related acute illnesses and injuries
  per year
• NAS Pesticides in food could cause up to 1
  million cancers in the current generation of
  Americans
• WHO 1,000,000 people killed by pesticides over
  the last 6 years

28
Phony Health Scares

• Mercury in tuna and other fish
• Enjoy it without worry
• Flame retardant traces found in blood and breast
  milk
• PCBs in the Hudson River
• Diesel exhaust fumes from school busses
• Arsenic in drinking water
• Phthalates in medical devices and childrens toys

29
ACSH Attacks on Scientists and the Scientific
Enterprise

• ad hominem attacks
• environmentalists toxic terrorists
• Whelan criticized Dr. Barry Levy and
  citizen-activist Erin Brockovich as individuals
  whopursued self-serving financial opportunities
  through litigation
• Called HSPH a hotbed of pseudoscience and
  political agitation

30
ACSH Attacks on Scientists and the Scientific
Enterprise

• Threat of litigation against Medscape
  antithetical to the rules of science
• require the free exchange of information and
  opinion in pursuit of the truth

31
Barry Levy

• Expert in asbestos-related litigation
• Past president of APHA and winner of Sedgwick
  Medal
• Career has included work with CDC and USAID and
  the presidency of International Physicians for
  the Prevention of Nuclear War

32
Erin Brokovich

• Received Harvard School of Public Healths
  highest honor, the Julius Richmond Award
• Exposed Pacific Gas and Electrics (PG and Es)
  pollution of California groundwater with
  chromium-6 (linked to stomach cancer)

33
ACSH Attacks on Scientists and the Scientific
Enterprise

• Charles Duhigg - NY Times writer
• Winner of 2010 NY branch of the Society for
  Professional Journalists Daniel Pearl Award for
  series, Toxic Waters
• Accused of echoing the campaign of radical
  environmental groups seeking to scare people
  about the safe use of pesticides and of
  allowing himself to be used as a pawn in a
  campaign againstatrazine

34
Implications of Attacks on Science and Scientists

• ACSH has broad media presence
• Web site attracts large numbers of individuals
• 100,000 hits per month for 2005
• Dr. Whelan has been featured on NBCs Today Show,
  CNN Live, BBC, and CNBCs Business Insiders
• Editorials by Whelan and Ross have appeared in
  the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, LA Times, USA
  Today, NY Post, Forbes, National Review,
  Washington Times, Weekly Standard, Medscape, and
  other publications

35
Implications of Attacks on Science and Scientists

• Mislead public / may cause alterations in
  lifestyle and/or purchasing habits
• adverse consequences to health
• Threats of litigation and SLAPP suits distract,
  intimidate, and deplete the scientific, legal,
  and financial resources of individuals and groups
  committed to public health

36
Implications of Attacks on Science and Scientists

• Faulty pronouncements influence elected officials
• Threats of litigation divert the valuable time of
  health care providers, editors, and legal
  departments away from their more productive
  missions of research, teaching, writing, and
  patient care

37
Implications of Attacks on Science and Scientists

• Scientists and health care advocates may decide
  it is wiser to avoid conflict than publish
  content to which ACSH and other such groups might
  object

38
Educational Deficits Impede Publics
Understanding of Science

• 25 of Americans functionally illiterate
• Inadequate funding of science and health
  education means individuals may lack background
  necessary to recognize sound science vs.
  ideological bunk
• Corporate-sponsored educational materials
  replacing scientific syllabi

39
Would You Sign a Petition to Ban Dihydrogen
Monoxide?

• 1. It can cause excessive sweating and
  vomiting2. It is a major component in acid
  rain3. It can cause severe burns in its gaseous
  state4. It can kill you if accidentally
  inhaled5. It contributes to erosion6. It
  decreases effectiveness of automobile brakes7.
  It has been found in tumors of terminal cancer
  patients

40
Geographic Ignorance

• Percent of US teens unable to locate the
  following on a map
• United States 11
• Pacific Ocean 29
• Japan 58
• United Kingdom 68

41
Pseudoscientific Beliefs

• Percentage of Americans who believe at least to
  some degree in these phenomena
• 1976 1997
• Astrology 17 37
• UFOs 24 30
• Reincarnation 9 25
• Fortune-Telling 4 14

42
Ignorance/Pseudoscientific Beliefs

• Half of US citizens do not believe in evolution
  and do believe that humans and dinosaurs
  coexisted (2007)
• 40 think scientists still generally disagree
  about evolution
• 20 of high school biology teachers are
  creationists

43
Pseudoscientific Beliefs

• 37 believe places can be haunted (2007)
• 25 believe in UFOs (2007)
• 24 believe in astrology (2009)
• 16 believe that people with the evil eye can
  cast curses or harmful spells
• 14 have consulted a psychic or fortune teller
  (2009)

44
Ignorance/Pseudoscientific Beliefs

• 22 of Americans dont know whether an atomic
  bomb has ever been dropped (2000)
• 25 of Americans dont know the earth revolves
  around the sun (2014)
• 18 believe in Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster
  (2007)
• 8 of men / 18 of women believe in astrology and
  fortune tellers (2007)

45
(No Transcript)
46
Corporate PR Tactics

• Greenwash Public relations/ad campaigns
• Chevrons People Do Campaign,
  butterflies/refinery
• British Petroleum (BP) invests 100 million
  annually in clean energy amt. it spends
  annually to market its new name and
  environmentally-friendly image of moving Beyond
  Petroleum

47
Corporate PR Tactics

• Astroturf artificially-created grassroots
  coalitions
• Other corporate front groups
• The Alliance for Responsible CFC Policy
• National Wilderness Institute
• The Foundation for Clean Air Progress

48
Corporate PR Tactics

• Invoke poor people as beneficiaries
• Characterize opposition as technophobic,
  anti-science, anti-business, and against
  progress
• Portray their products as environmentally
  beneficial in the absence of (or despite the)
  evidence

49
Sponsored Environmental Educational Materials

• Corporate-sponsored and supported by a loose
  coalition of antiregulatory zealots, corporate
  polluters, lapdog scientists and misguided parents

50
Sponsored Environmental Educational Materials -
Examples

• Exxons Energy Cube
• -Gasoline is simply solar power hidden in
  decayed matter
• -Offshore drilling creates reefs for fish
• Pacific Lumber Company
• -The Great American Forest is. . . renewable
  forever

51
Sponsored Environmental Educational Materials -
Examples

• American Nuclear Societys Activities with the
  Atoms Family
• Dows Chemipalooza

52
Environment of Anti-Science/Pseudoscience

• Erosion of science under the Bush administration
• Appointments to key scientific bodies based on
  corporate connections and political or religious
  ideology, rather than scientific expertise
• Excessive corporate influence over legislation
• The rewriting and even suppression of scientific
  policy statements
• A little improvement under Obama

53
Recommendations

• Professional and lay publications should expose
  the workings of groups like ACSH
• Scientists should fight back against harassment
• Improve quality of public education get
  corporations out of the classroom

54
Contact Info

• Martin T Donohoehttp//www.publichealthandsocialj
  ustice.orghttp//www.phsj.orgmartindonohoe_at_phsj.
  org