Manufactured Doubt Now Standard Industry Practice - Scientific American

[hatrack]

Few scientific challenges are more complex than understanding the health risks of a chemical or drug. Investigators cannot feed toxic compounds to people to see what doses cause cancer. Instead laboratory researchers rely on animal tests, and epidemiologists examine the human exposures that have already happened in the field. Both types of studies have many uncertainties, and scientists must extrapolate from the evidence to make causal inferences and recommend protective measures. Because absolute certainty is rarely an option, regulatory programs would not be effective if such proof were required. Government officials have to use the best available evidence to set limits for harmful chemicals and determine the safety of pharmaceuticals.

Uncertainty is an inherent problem of science, but manufactured uncertainty is another matter entirely. Over the past three decades, industry groups have frequently become involved in the investigative process when their interests are threatened. If, for example, studies show that a company is exposing its workers to dangerous levels of a certain chemical, the business typically responds by hiring its own researchers to cast doubt on the studies. Or if a pharmaceutical firm faces questions about the safety of one of its drugs, its executives trumpet company-sponsored trials that show no significant health risks while ignoring or hiding other studies that are much less reassuring. The vilification of threatening research as "junk science" and the corresponding sanctification of industry-commissioned research as "sound science" has become nothing less than standard operating procedure in some parts of corporate America."

EDIT

continued at Scientific American Digital

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=1&articleID=000E0C62-084F-1289-BC2083414B7F0000

[bemildred]

1. Prevalent in the "News" and political dialog too.

Fits in very well with FUD strategies.
Only when people get tired of having the bejeezus scared out
of them by self-serving assholes will things start to get better.

[Coastie for Truth]

2. Fuel Economy Studies

About four years ago there were a rash of "studies" showing that raising Corporate Average Fuel Economy actually increased gasoline consumption and cause more green house gases.

Gary Wills went to great lengths to publicize them. Turned out that the academic economists who published the "studies" were

1. Relying on an unpublished, proprietary General Motors study for their data.
2. Were recipients of GM (Professor Lester Lave at Carnegie Mellon) and Exxon (Professor Andy Kliet at Penn State) grants.

[benevolent dictator]

3. Wal-Mart does that too

they like to hire people to create studies talking about all of the "good jobs" that come about when they enter an area. They always conveniently leave out all of the jobs that disappear as a result of their being there.

[phantom power]

4. Once upon a time,

these sorts of shenanigans would get debunked by investigative reporting. I'm showing my age, here.

[dawgfan]

5. Conservatives are dumb enough to believe everything corporate America says

In the debate over oil drilling in ANWAR conservatives sound exactly like oil company brochures. They are so dumb they'll believe anything corporations tell them. Remember, these are the people who support a party and president that tells them masturbation causes pregnancy. Anybody see 60 Minutes yesterday?

www.mark-gelbart.com

[phantom power]

6. I heard that was some scary stuff.

Did they interview somebody who claimed "condoms don't work?"