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