Fw: WHOSE INTERESTS DOES ACSH SERVE?

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From: Ilena Rose <ilena@...>

Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2001 1:15 PM

Subject: WHOSE INTERESTS DOES ACSH SERVE?

>

> http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/ACSH-Koop.htm>

>

> American Council on Science and Health (ACSH)>

> Led by Dr. Whelan, ACSH bills itself as:

>

> " ..a consumer education organization concerned with issues related to

> food, nutrition, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, lifestyle, the environment

> and health. " >

>

> WHOSE INTERESTS DOES ACSH SERVE?>

>

> " Who eats my bread dances to my tune.

> - Old German Proverb

> >

> ACSH is heavily financed by corporations with specific and direct interest

> in ACSH's chosen battles. Since it was created in 1978, it has come to the

> enthusiastic defense of virtually every chemical or additive backed by a

> major corporate interest. In many of these cases, investigative

> journalists already have exposed direct connections between ACSH and its

> funders. But in almost every instance, it takes little effort to discover

> which funder on the left side of this page has a vested interest in

> supporting ACSH's message.

>

> Everything Bad is Good Again

>

> Endocrine Disruptors: In 1999 ACSH Scientists found no convincing evidence

> that certain synthetic chemicals in the environment endanger human health

> by disrupting the human endocrine system.

>

> rBST (rBGH) Milk: In 1998 ACSH called an attack on milk from rBST-treated

> cows an unwarranted distortion of science. The report stated that milk

> from such cows will lead to elevated levels of a hormone called IGF-1

> which in turn will cause increased risk of prostate cancer.

>

> Cholesterol: ACSH issued a report in 1991 stating that there is no proven

> link between heart disease and a diet high in fat and cholesterol.

>

> Saccharin: According to a 1985 article in the Washington Post by

> Kurtz, ACSH received funding from Coca-Cola, Pepsi, NutraSweet and the

> National Soft Drink Association, and attacked reports that saccharin is

> carcinogenic.

>

> Formaldehyde: The same article noted that ACSH filed a friend-of-the-court

> brief in 1982 in a lawsuit brought by the Formaldehyde Institute. The suit

> successfully overturned a federal ban on insulation made with

> formaldehyde. Georgia-Pacific Co., a leading producer of the chemical and

> member of the Formaldehyde Institute, paid its Washington, DC, law firm to

> write the brief ACSH submitted the brief under its own name.

>

> Global Warming: In its position paper on global warming, ACSH states that

> implementation of fossil-fuel restrictions could " weaken the global

> economic system, [and] increase the incidence of poverty-related illness

> worldwide... " This is a case of selective reasoning-choosing the facts

> that fit and discarding the rest. Mainstream scientists recognize that a

> primary effect of global warming would be an increase in poverty-related

> illnesses such as malaria, cholera and dengue feverdiseases dependent upon

> warm, wet climates.

>

> Love Canal: Dr. M. Whelan says, " Was there ever any real health

> problem at Love Canal? Yes, there was, in the sense that there was an

> enormous amount of media-induced stress placed on residents who were

> terrified that they and their children would become ill. "

>

> Alar: In many ways, ACSH's work on the Alar issue is exemplary of the way

> the group works. Chemical makers-with the assistance of industry front

> groups like ACSH-found a gold mine in keeping the decade-old Alar

> controversy alive. Although the chemical was banned by the government in

> 1991 and the EPA named it a possible human carcinogen, saying that

> " long-term exposure to Alar poses unacceptable risks to the public

> health, " the American public generally recalls the issue as a case in

> which environmentalists were wrong. They are incorrect.

>

> In a 1973 study, Alar, a chemical used to lengthen the amount of time that

> apples could be left to ripen on the tree, was found to break down into a

> product called UMDH that is 1,000 times more carcinogenic than Alar

> itself. UMDH is formed when apples are cooked to make applesauce or apple

> juice.

>

> When environmental groups claimed that Alar was a danger, ACSH attacked

> the groups, maintaining the chemical was safe and the target of a media

> scare. Not surprisingly, ACSH receives funding from Uniroyal, the company

> that made Alar.

>

> Over the last decade, ACSH has made the Alar controversy a prominent part

> of its hallmark " Facts Versus Fears " report. A review of more than 25

> " unfounded health scares, " including dangers associated with saccharin,

> hormones in beef and DDT, the report is a who's who of products

> manufactured by ACSH's funders.

>

> ACSH's disinformation campaign on Alar has been alive almost since the

> controversy began; dozens of articles in papers from around the country

> have published articles on the so-called " health scare. " Though one of

> ACSH's main points about the incident was that it had a devastating effect

> on the apple industry, even the Washington Apple Commission noted that

> only two to three percent of consumers still were concerned about the

> chemical just a year after the story broke.

>

> Less than a year ago, ACSH and " Facts Versus Fears " even made it into the

> pages of the New York Times - twice. The first piece was summary of the

> report's highlights. The second was an official correction in which the

> Times named Uniroyal as an ACSH funder, and clarified that the Alar was

> pulled from the market by the company before an EPA ban could take effect.

>

> C. EVERETT KOOP'S HISTORY WITH ACSH

> Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop's association with ACSH and

> Whelan is longstanding. In 1992, the pair joined forces in the

> same way they would years later in their partnership on the " blue-ribbon

> panel " on phthalates.

>

> ACSH sponsored a Washington, DC, press conference on the third anniversary

> of the Alar controversy. Koop headed a panel of " experts " that claimed

> Alar never posed a health risk. According to an article in PR Watch, the

> Hill and Knowlton public relations firm persuaded Koop to write a

> statement that apples were safe.

>

> Whelan and Koop teamed up again to denounce Diet for a Poisoned Planet, a

> book that warned against the use of pesticides and chemical residues in

> foods. That campaign was organized by Ketchum Public Relations before the

> release of the book. Lorraine Thelian, the director of the Washington

> office of Ketchum, sits on the ACSH Board of Directors. Thelian is an

> expert on " environmental PR work, " and her office represents a number of

> ACSH funders. Koop issued a statement calling the book " trash. "

>

> On May 25 of this year, ACSH announced that it had joined forces with

> Koop's new Internet healthcare site, drkoop.com. From the release:

>

> " The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH), a non-profit,

> consumer-advocacy organization is creating an exclusive health wire

> service for drkoop.com consumers. Guided by ACSH experts and written by

> experienced wireservice journalists, the daily ACSH newswire will help

> people better understand the health stories they see on the news by adding

> the often-missing scientific perspective. This partnership with drkoop.com

> gives consumers, who are constantly bombarded with conflicting and often

> alarming health news, an unbiased, scientific analysis of the latest

> trends in health and medicine, as well as clarifications of health

> misinformation found in the mainstream press. "

>

> Before consumers or reporters rely on ACSH for an " unbiased " analysis,

> they should review the record on the real sources of funding and points of

> view.

>

>

> A final word on the relationship between ACSH and its funders...

>

>

> A 1992 memo from Whelan, referenced in a Consumer Reports expose, bemoans

> the loss of funding from Shell in a particularly revealing way:

>

> " When one of the largest international petrochemical companies will not

> support ACSH, the great defender of petrochemical companies, one wonders

> who will. "

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------

>

> ACSH receives 76 percent of its funding from corporations and corporate

> funders, and 17 percent of its funding from private foundations, according

> to Congressional Quarterly's Public Interest Profiles.

>

> Some current and past ACSH corporate and foundation funders:

>

>

>

> * ALCOA Foundation

> * Allied Signals Foundation

> * American Cyanamid

> * American Meat Institute

> * Amoco

> * Anheuser-Busch

> * Archer s Midland

> * Ashland Oil Foundation

> * Boise Cascade Corp

> * Bristol-Myers Squibb

> * Burger King

> * Carnation Co

> * Chevron

> * CibaGeigy

> * Coca-Cola

> * Consolidated Edison

> * Industries Foundation

> * Coors

> * Coors Foundation

> * Dow Chemical

> * Dow Chemical Canada

> * DuPont

> * Ethyl Corp

> * Exxon

> * Ford Motor Co.

> * Frito-Lay

> * G. D. Searle Charitable Trust

> * General Electric

> * General Mills

> * General Motors

> * Gerber Products

> * Hershey Foods Corp Fund

> * &

> * 's Wax Fund

> * M. Olin Foundation

> * ph E. Seagrams & Sons

> * Kraft Foundation

> * Kraft General Foods

> * Merck Co Foundation

> * Merck Pharmaceuticals

> * Mobil Foundation

> * Mobil

> * Monsanto Fund

> * Monsanto

> * National Agricultural Chemicals Association

> * National Dairy Council

> * National Soft Drink Association

> * National Starch and Chemical Foundation

> * Northwood Institute

> * Nestle

> * NutraSweet Co. (owned by Monsanto)

> * Mayer Foods

> * Pepsico

> * Pepsi-Cola

> * Pfizer

> * PPG Industries

> * Procter & Gamble

> * Rohm & Haas

> * Salt Institute

> * Nobel Foundation

> * Scaife Foundation

> * Seagrams

> * The Schultz Foundation

> * Shell Oil

> * Starr Foundation

> * Sterling Drug

> * Stouffer Corp

> * Stroh Brewery Co

> * Sugar Association

> * Sun Company, Inc

> * Syntex Corp

> * Union Carbide Corp.

> * Uniroyal Chemical Co.

> * USX Corp.

> * Warner-Lambert Foundation

> * Wine Growers of California

>

>