Fwd:] Ex-con in charge of pseudo-science lobby

October 20, 2005

Ex-con in charge of pseudo-science lobby

" When American corporations come up against inconvenient science, say, a

study showing that mercury in fish can damage a developing fetus, or that

a blockbuster drug has nasty side effects, they call in the American

Council on Science and Health (ACSH). Industry-funded ACSH is the most

aggressive debunker of pesky research reports emanating from government

and academia. Its medical/executive director's calm, soothing voice can be

heard on television and radio, quelling public fears about the latest bad

news about health and the environment.

" That man is Dr. Gilbert Ross. It was Ross who defended the Wood

Preservative Science Council, saying that, contrary to reams of scientific

evidence, the arsenic in pressure-treated wood poses 'no risk to human

health'; Ross who wrote on behalf of the farmed-salmon industry that the

PCBs in fish 'are not a cause of any health risk, including cancer'; and

Ross whose organization once asserted that the jury's still out on whether

environmental cigarette smoke really is hazardous to your health. Much of

his time is spent tarnishing noncorporate-sponsored work as junk science

of questionable motive.

" But Ross may not be ACSH's most prudent choice to question the

credibility of other doctors, scientists, and researchers. Although the

biography posted on the organization's website doesn't mention it, Ross

actually had to abandon medicine on July 24, 1995, when his license to

practice as a physician in New York was revoked by the unanimous vote of a

state administrative review board for professional misconduct.

" Instead of tending to patients, Ross spent all of 1996 at a federal

prison camp in Schuylkill, Pennsylvania, having being sentenced to 46

months in prison for his participation in a scheme that ultimately

defrauded New York's Medicaid program of approximately $8 million. "

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