NEWS
Dec 17, 2002A Note on Industrial Strategies to Control the Contents of Science
In A Scientific Journal with Industrial Bias as Its Specialty information is given about a scientific journal, Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, acting as a journal specializing in the propagation of industrial views in scientific disguise.
This is part of an industrial strategy in order to gain influence on scientific contents. Influence to control. This can be compared to business journals selling good news about companies in exchange for advertisments - advertising in journalistic disguise. A functional business idea.
There is another facet of this strategy, the production of scientific reference literature, which, as far as I know, seems to be unnoticed as a general phenomenon. Examples are known [1].
If scientific information is biased towards industrial interests it will inevitably imprison academic independent science in a biased scientific discourse. How the scientific discourse is controlled is an issue of great public interest.
Early in 2001 a reference work on risk evaluations concerning health and environment was published:
Dennis Paustenbach is Corporate Vice President of Exponent, Inc.. Among Exponent's clients you find the large chemical corporations and their branch organizations. The consultancy services Exponent markets are among others scientific reviews on behalf of the industry used in regulatory processes, and in legal processes. The aim in the first case is arguing for deregulation, in the second case to avoid responsibility. The "polluter pays" principle and occupational health are the main areas where corporate responsibility are at stake. Dennis J. Paustenbach (Editor): Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: Theory and Practice. John Wiley & Sons; ISBN: 0471147478; 1st edition (February 15, 2001). The industrial interest in consultancy services is proportional to the consultants' reliability regarding corporate interests. Anything else would be counter productive.
Paustenbach has a long history as a consultant involving the tobacco industry as well as the chemical industry. Part of his attraction and market value as a consultant comes from his capability to get nested with strategic positions in the flows of scientific information, viz. scientific organizations, in scientific media, and at scientific conferences. Like the spider i the net he gets in position to work and pull threads in the interest of Exponent's clients far beyond the specific assignments.
Here follows a list of where Paustenbach is, or have been active:
The Association for Environmental Health and Sciences (AEHS) is an organization of "professionals". There is no information on the structure, board, financing...
- The board of Society of Risk Analysis 1997-2000
- Soil & Sediment Contamination: an International Journal published by the Association for Environmental Health and Sciences (AEHS) - Editorial Board
- Human and Ecological Risk Assessment published by AEHS - Editorial Board
- Journal of Children's Health published by AEHS - Editor in Chief
- Toxicological Sciences published by Society of Toxicology - Assoc. Ed.
- Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology published by the International Society for Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology - Editorial Board
Paustenbach participated in these conferences (and probably many more):
The Federal Focus conferences are to be regarded is key events in the development of GEP, Good Epidemiological Practice [2]. The ILSI conference is just one of several taking the concept further. Today the ideas from the Federal Focus events are being finalized has the harmonized rules for risk evaluation processes in the EU [3]. Federal Focus worked in close connection with Philip Morris through Multilateral Business Services with lobbyist Jim Tozzi as head, and the Institute for Regulatory Policy with former OSHA chief, later lobbyist, Thorne Auchter as head. ILSI is an organization of the chemical industry worldwide. Auchter's job at OSHA during the Reagan era was to implement the "Regulatory Relief Program", a program to which he has been loyal ever since. Auchter participated in the Lansdowne Workshop.
- Conference on the Proper Role of Epidemiology in Risk Analysis, Boston, Massachusetts, October 13-14, 1994 - "The Lansdowne Workshop". Organized by Federal Focus.
- Guidelines for the Proper Role of Epidemiology in Regulatory Risk Assessment, London October 1995 - member of the organizing committee. - "The London Meeting"". Organized by Federal Focus
- Forum on Cancer Risk Assessment Guidelines 1996, organized by ILSI, Resources for the Future och US EPA.
When Paustenbach appears as the editor of a reference work on risks concerning health and environment, it seems important to keep Exponent's market interests in mind before taking the contents for granted. There are many ways to overrule scientific integrity.
Bo Walhjalt
Notes
1. What Risk? Science, Politics and Public Health. Edited by Roger Bate. Butterworth-Heineman. 1997.
This is a widely spread book, meaning of course that it is influential. Roger Bate is an economist, and the book is a product with the same aims as the Danish economist Bjorn Lomborg's The Skeptical Environmentalist, although What Risk? has many contributions authored by scientists.2. Ong EK, Glantz SA: Constructing "Sound Science" and "Good Epidemiology": Tobacco, Lawyers, and Public Relations Firms. American Journal of Public Health 91(11):1749-1757, November 2001
3. FIRST REPORT ON THE HARMONISATION OF RISK ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES. PART 1: The Report of the Scientific Steering Committee's Working Group on Harmonisation of Risk Assessment Procedures in the Scientific Committees advising the European Commission in the area of human and environmental health 26-27 October 2000 (published on the internet 20.12.2000)
and
FIRST REPORT ON THE HARMONISATION OF RISK ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES. PART 2: APPENDICES 26-27 October 2000 (published on the internet on 20.12.2000)
On Reality. Publisher and editor: Bo Walhjalt. ISSN 1650-9323.
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