CHEMICAL INDUSTRY TARGETS HISTORIANS

February 2, 2005

In an unprecedented move, the U.S. chemical industry is attempting

to discredit two historians who have detailed the industry's efforts

to hide links between their products and cancer. " Attorneys for Dow,

Monsanto, Goodrich, Goodyear, Union Carbide and others have

subpoenaed and deposed five academics who recommended that the

University of California Press publish the book Deceit and Denial -

The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution, by Gerald Markowitz and

David Rosner. The companies have also recruited their own historian

to argue that Markowitz and Rosner have engaged in unethical

conduct, " Jon Wiener writes in the Nation. " The reasons for the

companies' actions are not hard to find: They face potentially

massive liability claims on the order of the tobacco litigation if

cancer is linked to vinyl chloride-based consumer products such as

hairspray. The stakes are high also for publishers of controversial

books, and for historians who write them, because when authors are

charged with ethical violations and manuscript readers are

subpoenaed, that has a chilling effect. The stakes are highest for

the public, because this dispute centers on access to information

about cancer-causing chemicals in consumer products. "

SOURCE: The Nation, February 7, 2005

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What you see is what you get

You've made your bed, you better lie in it

You choose your leaders and place your trust

As their lies wash you down and their promises rust

You'll see kidney machines replaced by rockets and guns

And the public wants what the public gets

But I don't get what this society wants

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