Steve Barrett has written for, editted for, advised for, and is paid
by:
American Council on Science and Health
Excerpt: In a 1997 interview, Whelan explained that she was already
being called a "paid liar for industry," so she figured she might as
well go ahead and take industry money without restrictions.
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ACSH calls itself "a science-based, public health group that is
directed by a board of 300 leading physicians and scientists ...
providing mainstream, peer reviewed scientific information to American
consumers." To its credit, it has taken a strong public position
against the dangers of tobacco, one of the leading preventable causes
of death in today's society. However, it takes a generally apologetic
stance regarding virtually every other health and environmental hazard
produced by modern industry.
Personnel
The American Council on Science and Health has been headed by
Elizabeth Whelan since its inception. Whelan makes no bones about her
political leanings, describing herself as a lifelong conservative who
is "more libertarian than Republican." According to media commentator
Howard Kurtz, "Television producers like Whelan because she's colorful
and succinct, skewering her adversaries with such phrases as 'toxic
terrorists'and referring to their research as 'voodoo statistics.'
Newspaper reporters often dial her number because she is an easily
accessible spokesperson for the 'other' side of many controversies."
The ACSH board of directors is also heavily stacked with
conservatives, including:
Board chairman A. Alan Moghissi, a former official with the Reagan-era
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, characterizes environmentalism
as a belief that "members of endangered species deserve protection and
that, because there are billions of humans, humanity does not qualify
for protection." As an "expert on risk assessment," Moghissi appears
regularly on rosters of industry-supported "expert panels" that work
to undermine environmental regulations. He serves on the advisory
board of numerous anti-environmental organizations and right-wing
think tanks, including the American Policy Center's "EPA Watch," the
Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, the Advancement of Sound
Science Coalition, and the National Wilderness Institute, a "wise use"
anti-environmental organization that calls for abolition of the
Endangered Species Act. In 1990, Moghissi served on a panel created by
the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute, in league with
Consumer Alert and the National Consumer Coalition to challenge the
EPA's policy requiring asbestos removal from schools and other public
buildings. He also chairs the Science Advisory Committee of the
Environmental Issues Council, which was established in 1993 by
industry trade associations including the Association of American Farm
Bureaus, the Association of General Contractors, the National
Cattleman's Association, the American Pulpwood Association, the
Natural Gas Supply Association, the United States Business and
Industrial Council, the Mountain States Legal Foundation, and the
Independent Petroleum Association of America.
Attorney Jerald Hill is a former long-time president of the Landmark
Legal Foundation, which appears in the Heritage Foundation's list of
conservative "resource organizations." A recipient of funding from
right-wing gazillionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, Landmark has a $1
million annual budget and a reputation as a "conservative's American
Civil Liberties Union." It has filed lawsuits against labor unions and
school desegregation and has fought for legislation that would allow
parents to direct public education funding toward their children's
private schools. (Former Whitewater special investigator Kenneth Starr
also has ties to Landmark.)
Henry Miller, a former official of the Food and Drug Administration
now at the Hoover Institution, regularly grinds an ax against what he
considers the FDA's "extraordinarily burdensome regulations" regarding
genetically engineered foods and new drugs.
Other advisors include familiar names from the list of "usual
suspects" who appear regularly as scientific experts in a variety of
anti-environmental, pro-industry forums: Dennis Avery, Michael Gough,
Patrick J. Michaels, Stephen Safe, and S. Fred Singer, to name a few.
Several, including Floy Lilley and J. Gordon Edwards, as well as
Moghissi, have written articles for 21st Century and Technology, a
publication affiliated with lunatic-fringe conspiracy theorist Lyndon
LaRouche.
Albert Nickel represents the PR/advertising firm of Lyons Lavey Nickel
Swift (their motto: "We change perceptions"😉.
Lorraine Thelian is a senior partner and director of the Washington,
DC office of Ketchum Communications, which handles the bulk of the
firm's "environmental PR work" on behalf of clients including Dow
Chemical, the Aspirin Foundation of America, Bristol Myers Squibb, the
American Automobile Manufacturers Association, the Consumer Aerosol
Products Council, the National Pharmaceutical Council, the North
American Insulation Manufacturers Association, and the American
Industrial Health Council, another industry-funded group that lobbies
against what it considers "excessive" regulation of carcinogens.
Ketchum boasts that the D.C. office "has dealt with issues ranging
from regulation of toxins, global climate change, electricity
deregulation, nuclear energy, product and chemical contamination, and
agricultural chemicals and Superfund sites, to name but a few."
History
ACSH was founded in March 1978. A revealing reference regarding its
origins appears in the minutes of a meeting that month of the board of
directors of the Manufacturing Chemists' Association (later renamed
the Chemical Manufacturers Association, and known today as the
American Chemistry Council). The minutes record an appeal by MCA
director William J. Driver, who noted that Whelan had founded "a
tax-exempt organization composed of scientists whose viewpoints are
more similar to those of business than dissimilar. . . . ACSH is being
pinched for funds, but in the interest of independence and credibility
will not accept support from any chemical company or any company which
could even remotely be concerned with the aims of the council."
Notwithstanding this desire to make ACSH appear independent, Driver
added that "Dr. Whelan would be happy to hear from" MCA members who
"are interested in the work of the council and know of possible
sources of funds."
Shortly after its founding, ACSH abandoned even the appearance of
independent funding. In a 1997 interview, Whelan explained that she
was already being called a "paid liar for industry," so she figured
she might as well go ahead and take industry money without
restrictions.
"It was the great Alar scare of 1989 that boosted Whelan into the
media stratosphere," notes Washington Post media reporter Howard
Kurtz. ACSH and Whelan were fixtures on the anti-environmental scene
long before the Alar issue emerged, downplaying risks from DDT,
dioxin, asbestos, and a host of other polluting chemicals, but
Whelan's prominent role in the Alar counter-publicity campaign helped
make ACSH a common source for journalists seeking expert commentary on
public health issues.
Funding