July 13, 2008

  • Bottling up science

    "Disingenuous demands for proof drown out reasoned calls for precaution
    in public health. In field after field, year after year, conclusions
    that might support regulation are always disputed. Animal data are
    deemed not relevant, human data not representative, and exposure data
    not reliable.

    "Whatever the story—global warming, sugar and obesity, secondhand smoke,
    plastics chemicals that may disrupt endocrine function—scientists in
    the "product defense industry" will manufacture uncertainty about it.

    "Perhaps it is not surprising, but many of the same scientists who cut
    their teeth manufacturing uncertainty for tobacco now battle the
    regulatory agencies on behalf of the manufacturers of asbestos,
    benzene, bisphenol A (a chemical in hard plastic baby bottles),
    chromium and virtually every other toxic chemical in the news today."

    "The mission of our public health and environmental agencies is to
    reduce hazards before people get sick or the environment is irreparably
    damaged. Regulators don't need certainty to act."