Death of Dr. Marc Lappe ... a Scientist & Hero

May 18, 2005

Oh Honey, I' so sad.

We love you...Us

http://www.gnn.tv/articles/1394/Dr_Marc_Lapp_1943_2005

EXCERPT: Between 1984 and 1998, he worked extensively as a

consultant on the high stakes litigation that had erupted over

silicone-gel breast implants.

Dow Corning sent a private detective to the small northern

California town of Gualala where my father lived to investigate his

non-profit organization in an effort to discredit his testimony.

He worked on 30 silicone implant cases, each one the defendant

either settled or paid out a jury award, one totaled $20 million. In

1998, Dow Corning settled a class action suit for $3.2 billion.

http://www.gnn.tv/articles/1394/Dr_Marc_Lapp_1943_2005

By Lappé

GNN's editor remembers his father - a scientist who stood up for the

planet's most vulnerable

" Three interrelated issues mark our times: We have altered the

planet with our chemicals; we are transforming agriculture with

bioengineering; and we are contemplating the recreation of humankind

through genetic technologies. All three compel us to reexamine how

we use scientific knowledge: will our new technologies be greeted

with `hurrahs' or a whisper of despair from the species that we have

decimated, crops that are gene-contaminated and people who, though

yet to be created, may yet curse us for our technological prowess? " -

Marc Lappé

My father, Dr. Marc Lappé, an author, educator and prominent

toxicologist and medical ethicist, died Saturday. He was 62. Marc

was a lifelong teacher, known for instilling in his students a love

of learning and an appreciation for ethics. Everyone who met him was

struck by his warm spirit, unforgettable stories, and limitless

generosity.

Marc was a leading figure in the movement to integrate ethics and

public policy, especially as it related to toxics and genetics. He

authored or edited fourteen books, many of which predicted public

health and environmental problems long before their appearance.

Germs That Won't Die (Anchor/Doubleday, 1982) warned of public

health threat of antibiotic resistance. Against the Grain (Common

Courage, 1998) accurately predicted that many claims by

manufacturers of genetically modified foods would prove false. He

held a PhD in experimental pathology from the University of

Pennsylvania and was a frequent source for the news media, appearing

on 60 Minutes, The Today Show, and Dateline NBC. He was a key expert

witness in numerous high-profile lawsuits, including et al

v. W. R. Grace & Co., popularized in the best-selling book and

Hollywood film A Civil Action. Between 1984 and 1998, he worked

extensively as a consultant on the high stakes litigation that had

erupted over silicone-gel breast implants. Most recently, he was the

director of the Gualala, California-based non-profit Center for

Ethics and Toxics (CETOS), a national leader in environmental public

policy, which works directly with California municipalities with

concerns about contaminants in their water supplies.

His career was marked by a commitment to standing up to powerful

corporate interests and a concern for populations most vulnerable to

toxic contamination of their ground, water and air. He was a natural

teacher, gifted in explaining complicated ethical and scientific

concepts to lay audiences. In late 1960s, he began teaching as a

volunteer professor in the politically-charged " free university "

movement in Philadelphia and Berkeley while in his early 20s. He

later held posts at UC Berkeley, Lawrence College, University

of Illinois at Chicago School of Medicine (where he was a tenured

professor), and the College of Marin. In 1999, he co-founded an

experimental charter grammar, middle and high school on the redwood

coast of California's Mendocino County.

Early years

Marc Alan Lappé was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1943. His father

, the son of a Jewish Russian émigré, entered the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology at age fifteen. His mother Jeanette taught

in the Newark public schools. As an undergraduate at Wesleyan

University, Marc did cancer research at the Weizmann Institute of

Science in Israel. At age 25, he was granted the first PhD in

experimental pathology awarded to a candidate without a medical

degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

While working on his PhD, Marc met my mother Frances . She was

a social worker in West Philadelphia, and he was teaching a class

called " Biology for Poets " at the free university. They married in

1967. In 1971, I was born, and my mother published the classic Diet

for a Small Planet.

My sister , a bestselling author and co-founder of the Small

Planet Institute, was born in 1973.

In 1971, Marc was named as of the original fellows of the Hastings

Center, the nation's top bioethics think tank, where he began

examining the ethical implications of the looming genetic revolution

long before they reached the popular consciousness.

My father's ethics were shaped by his longtime interest in Eastern

philosophy, particularly Zen Buddhism. He was a proponent of the

precautionary principle, the ethical theory that if consequences of

an action, especially concerning technology, are uncertain but are

known to have a high risk, it is best to not carry out the action.

In 1976, he published Of All Things Most Yielding (Friends of the

Earth/McGraw Hill) with his friend, Sierra Club founder

Brower, which combined photographs of Glen Canyon, now flooded by

the Colorado River, and classic Chinese poetry selected by my

father.

Taking a stand

In 1978, he was named by California Governor Jerry Brown as chief of

the state's Office of Health, Law, and Values, and then as head of

the state's Hazard Evaluation System. When California's citrus crops

were plagued by an outbreak of the Medfly, Marc refused to sign onto

the spraying of Malathion, an insecticide with known toxicity to

humans. The state sprayed; my father stepped down.

Beginning in the 1980s, he began working independently with

plaintiff lawyers on high-profile legal battles over environmental

contamination and drug and medical device failures. Cases he

consulted on included the infamous Love Canal, New York toxic waste

disaster; Agent Orange; pesticide exposure among farm workers and

neurological problems connected to the malaria drug Lariam. He

played a pivotal role in the contentious silicone-gel breast implant

litigation, which pitted tens of thousands of women who claimed to

have been sickened by their implants against Dow Corning Corp. and

other makers of the devices. He discovered Dow Corning had covered

up their own early studies that found silicone was not the inert

substance they later claimed when the implants began leaking and

rupturing. Dow Corning sent a private detective to the small

northern California town of Gualala where my father lived to

investigate his non-profit organization in an effort to discredit

his testimony. He worked on 30 silicone implant cases, each one the

defendant either settled or paid out a jury award, one totaled $20

million. In 1998, Dow Corning settled a class action suit for $3.2

billion. The company was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

protection. In a bit of dark irony, last month, a Food and Drug

Administration panel voted to allow a limited number of silicone-gel

implants back on the market.

Marc's work on breast implant litigation earned him a spot on the

Food and Drug Administration's panel on medical devices and plastic

surgery. He also was asked to testify in front of numerous

congressional panels on genetics, ethics and biotechnology.

In 1988, he became a tenured professor of Health Policy and Ethics

at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

He served on the board of the March of Dimes, where he was a strong

advocate for acknowledging the connection between the environment,

toxics and birth defects. He served on the March of Dimes National

Foundation's Bioethics Committee since its inception in 1975.

Ahead of his time

Many of his theories about environmental pollution - initially

controversial - later became accepted by the wider scientific

community. As early as the 1970s, he promoted the importance of an

eco-system level approach to setting limits for toxins in the

environment. He argued that minimum allowed concentrations of toxic

substances needed to account for their reactions with other

substances in the real world. He was an early proponent of the

importance of the immune system in fighting cancer and other

diseases. He also aruged that long-term exposure to low levels of

carcinogenic compounds may be more dangerous than a single high

dosage - today an increasingly accepted tenet of environmental

science.

In 1977, he married Nichol Lovera. They had three children, ,

who holds a MS from Stanford University; e, a PhD candidate in

sociology at the University of California, San Francisco; and ,

a junior in high school who is a champion horseback rider.

Nichol died in 1996.

In 1992, Marc founded the Center for Ethics and Toxics (CETOS) in

the small redwood coast town of Gualala, California. CETOS is

dedicated helping communities fight toxic contamination of their

environment. Since its inception the center has developed guidelines

and strategies to reduce toxic exposures in numerous areas,

including a 1996-7 campaign to prevent roadside spraying with

herbicides in Mendocino County, Ca. and a testing regiment to

monitor pesticides in the drinking water of the small town of Fort

Bragg, California. The organization also played in an active role in

the ongoing battles over logging on the Pacific coast. CETOS worked

as a consultant to the Forest Stewardship Council which regulates

the conditions for ecologically sound and sustainable logging

practices. In 2004, CETOS played a leading role in the passage of

Measure H, which banned raising genetically altered crops and

animals in Mendocino County, the first such ban in the nation. The

organization continues to educate the public toxic chemicals and

environmental health and to research environmental contamination.

In 1998, Marc and his partner Britt authored Against the

Grain, which examined the implications of the rapid transformation

of the food supply to include genetically modified organisms. In

particular, they questioned the toxicological concerns around

Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, used with Roundup Ready GMO seeds.

Monsanto, the largest supplier of genetically modified seeds,

threatened to sue if the book was published. Their first publisher

pulled out of a contract. My father persisted, finding a publisher,

Common Courage, with the guts to go forward. Against the Grain was

released in 1998. Monsanto has since failed to take any legal

action. A documentary by the same name is available from the Video

Project.

Building a community

In 1997, Marc married lifelong friend Durbin, an

intensive care nurse and yoga instructor.

In 1998, Marc and founded the Pacific Community Charter

School with other parents in Point Arena, California to provide an

alternative educational environment for local students. Despite his

heavy workload, Marc devoted time to teach science at the charter

high school. He was known as a life-transforming teacher who

instilled in his students a love of learning and an appreciation for

the importance of ethical thinking.

Marc was also an award-winning poet who wrote emotionally intense

poems that explored family, science, philosophy and nature.

More recently, my father helped me and my co-author Marshall

on our book, True Lies. He provided invaluable insight on our

investigations into depleted uranium, the anthrax vaccine and the

military's use of Lariam.

He died at his home in his sleep. The cause was cancer.

The planet will miss him deeply.

He is survived by his father , brother cardiologist Don of Salt

Lake City and wife , and children , 33; , 31;

Matt, 25; e, 22; , 17; and step-children, le Spoor,

16; and Sasha Spoor, 29.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Center for Ethics

and Toxics through cetos.org.

~~~~~~~~

www.BreastImplantAwareness.org

The Humantics Foundation joins the world in mourning his loss.

Opinions expressed are NOT meant to take the place of advice given by

licensed health care professionals. Consult your physician or licensed

health care professional before commencing any medical treatment.

" Do not let either the medical authorities or the politicians mislead you.

Find out what the facts are, and make your own decisions about how to live a

happy life and how to work for a better world. " - Linus ing, two-time

Nobel Prize Winner (1954, Chemistry; 1963, Peace)

May 18, 2005

Sorry about the spelling...but I was in shock, another Hero

gone...love....Lea

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~```

Death of Dr. Marc Lappe ... a Scientist & Hero

>

> http://www.gnn.tv/articles/1394/Dr_Marc_Lapp_1943_2005

>

> EXCERPT: Between 1984 and 1998, he worked extensively as a

> consultant on the high stakes litigation that had erupted over

> silicone-gel breast implants.

>

> Dow Corning sent a private detective to the small northern

> California town of Gualala where my father lived to investigate his

> non-profit organization in an effort to discredit his testimony.

>

> He worked on 30 silicone implant cases, each one the defendant

> either settled or paid out a jury award, one totaled $20 million. In

> 1998, Dow Corning settled a class action suit for $3.2 billion.

>

> http://www.gnn.tv/articles/1394/Dr_Marc_Lapp_1943_2005

>

> By Lappé

>

> GNN's editor remembers his father - a scientist who stood up for the

> planet's most vulnerable

>

> " Three interrelated issues mark our times: We have altered the

> planet with our chemicals; we are transforming agriculture with

> bioengineering; and we are contemplating the recreation of humankind

> through genetic technologies. All three compel us to reexamine how

> we use scientific knowledge: will our new technologies be greeted

> with `hurrahs' or a whisper of despair from the species that we have

> decimated, crops that are gene-contaminated and people who, though

> yet to be created, may yet curse us for our technological prowess? " -

> Marc Lappé

>

> My father, Dr. Marc Lappé, an author, educator and prominent

> toxicologist and medical ethicist, died Saturday. He was 62. Marc

> was a lifelong teacher, known for instilling in his students a love

> of learning and an appreciation for ethics. Everyone who met him was

> struck by his warm spirit, unforgettable stories, and limitless

> generosity.

>

> Marc was a leading figure in the movement to integrate ethics and

> public policy, especially as it related to toxics and genetics. He

> authored or edited fourteen books, many of which predicted public

> health and environmental problems long before their appearance.

> Germs That Won't Die (Anchor/Doubleday, 1982) warned of public

> health threat of antibiotic resistance. Against the Grain (Common

> Courage, 1998) accurately predicted that many claims by

> manufacturers of genetically modified foods would prove false. He

> held a PhD in experimental pathology from the University of

> Pennsylvania and was a frequent source for the news media, appearing

> on 60 Minutes, The Today Show, and Dateline NBC. He was a key expert

> witness in numerous high-profile lawsuits, including et al

> v. W. R. Grace & Co., popularized in the best-selling book and

> Hollywood film A Civil Action. Between 1984 and 1998, he worked

> extensively as a consultant on the high stakes litigation that had

> erupted over silicone-gel breast implants. Most recently, he was the

> director of the Gualala, California-based non-profit Center for

> Ethics and Toxics (CETOS), a national leader in environmental public

> policy, which works directly with California municipalities with

> concerns about contaminants in their water supplies.

>

> His career was marked by a commitment to standing up to powerful

> corporate interests and a concern for populations most vulnerable to

> toxic contamination of their ground, water and air. He was a natural

> teacher, gifted in explaining complicated ethical and scientific

> concepts to lay audiences. In late 1960s, he began teaching as a

> volunteer professor in the politically-charged " free university "

> movement in Philadelphia and Berkeley while in his early 20s. He

> later held posts at UC Berkeley, Lawrence College, University

> of Illinois at Chicago School of Medicine (where he was a tenured

> professor), and the College of Marin. In 1999, he co-founded an

> experimental charter grammar, middle and high school on the redwood

> coast of California's Mendocino County.

>

> Early years

>

> Marc Alan Lappé was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1943. His father

> , the son of a Jewish Russian émigré, entered the Massachusetts

> Institute of Technology at age fifteen. His mother Jeanette taught

> in the Newark public schools. As an undergraduate at Wesleyan

> University, Marc did cancer research at the Weizmann Institute of

> Science in Israel. At age 25, he was granted the first PhD in

> experimental pathology awarded to a candidate without a medical

> degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

>

> While working on his PhD, Marc met my mother Frances . She was

> a social worker in West Philadelphia, and he was teaching a class

> called " Biology for Poets " at the free university. They married in

> 1967. In 1971, I was born, and my mother published the classic Diet

> for a Small Planet.

>

> My sister , a bestselling author and co-founder of the Small

> Planet Institute, was born in 1973.

>

> In 1971, Marc was named as of the original fellows of the Hastings

> Center, the nation's top bioethics think tank, where he began

> examining the ethical implications of the looming genetic revolution

> long before they reached the popular consciousness.

>

> My father's ethics were shaped by his longtime interest in Eastern

> philosophy, particularly Zen Buddhism. He was a proponent of the

> precautionary principle, the ethical theory that if consequences of

> an action, especially concerning technology, are uncertain but are

> known to have a high risk, it is best to not carry out the action.

>

> In 1976, he published Of All Things Most Yielding (Friends of the

> Earth/McGraw Hill) with his friend, Sierra Club founder

> Brower, which combined photographs of Glen Canyon, now flooded by

> the Colorado River, and classic Chinese poetry selected by my

> father.

>

> Taking a stand

>

> In 1978, he was named by California Governor Jerry Brown as chief of

> the state's Office of Health, Law, and Values, and then as head of

> the state's Hazard Evaluation System. When California's citrus crops

> were plagued by an outbreak of the Medfly, Marc refused to sign onto

> the spraying of Malathion, an insecticide with known toxicity to

> humans. The state sprayed; my father stepped down.

>

> Beginning in the 1980s, he began working independently with

> plaintiff lawyers on high-profile legal battles over environmental

> contamination and drug and medical device failures. Cases he

> consulted on included the infamous Love Canal, New York toxic waste

> disaster; Agent Orange; pesticide exposure among farm workers and

> neurological problems connected to the malaria drug Lariam. He

> played a pivotal role in the contentious silicone-gel breast implant

> litigation, which pitted tens of thousands of women who claimed to

> have been sickened by their implants against Dow Corning Corp. and

> other makers of the devices. He discovered Dow Corning had covered

> up their own early studies that found silicone was not the inert

> substance they later claimed when the implants began leaking and

> rupturing. Dow Corning sent a private detective to the small

> northern California town of Gualala where my father lived to

> investigate his non-profit organization in an effort to discredit

> his testimony. He worked on 30 silicone implant cases, each one the

> defendant either settled or paid out a jury award, one totaled $20

> million. In 1998, Dow Corning settled a class action suit for $3.2

> billion. The company was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

> protection. In a bit of dark irony, last month, a Food and Drug

> Administration panel voted to allow a limited number of silicone-gel

> implants back on the market.

>

> Marc's work on breast implant litigation earned him a spot on the

> Food and Drug Administration's panel on medical devices and plastic

> surgery. He also was asked to testify in front of numerous

> congressional panels on genetics, ethics and biotechnology.

>

> In 1988, he became a tenured professor of Health Policy and Ethics

> at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

>

> He served on the board of the March of Dimes, where he was a strong

> advocate for acknowledging the connection between the environment,

> toxics and birth defects. He served on the March of Dimes National

> Foundation's Bioethics Committee since its inception in 1975.

>

> Ahead of his time

>

> Many of his theories about environmental pollution - initially

> controversial - later became accepted by the wider scientific

> community. As early as the 1970s, he promoted the importance of an

> eco-system level approach to setting limits for toxins in the

> environment. He argued that minimum allowed concentrations of toxic

> substances needed to account for their reactions with other

> substances in the real world. He was an early proponent of the

> importance of the immune system in fighting cancer and other

> diseases. He also aruged that long-term exposure to low levels of

> carcinogenic compounds may be more dangerous than a single high

> dosage - today an increasingly accepted tenet of environmental

> science.

>

> In 1977, he married Nichol Lovera. They had three children, ,

> who holds a MS from Stanford University; e, a PhD candidate in

> sociology at the University of California, San Francisco; and ,

> a junior in high school who is a champion horseback rider.

>

> Nichol died in 1996.

>

> In 1992, Marc founded the Center for Ethics and Toxics (CETOS) in

> the small redwood coast town of Gualala, California. CETOS is

> dedicated helping communities fight toxic contamination of their

> environment. Since its inception the center has developed guidelines

> and strategies to reduce toxic exposures in numerous areas,

> including a 1996-7 campaign to prevent roadside spraying with

> herbicides in Mendocino County, Ca. and a testing regiment to

> monitor pesticides in the drinking water of the small town of Fort

> Bragg, California. The organization also played in an active role in

> the ongoing battles over logging on the Pacific coast. CETOS worked

> as a consultant to the Forest Stewardship Council which regulates

> the conditions for ecologically sound and sustainable logging

> practices. In 2004, CETOS played a leading role in the passage of

> Measure H, which banned raising genetically altered crops and

> animals in Mendocino County, the first such ban in the nation. The

> organization continues to educate the public toxic chemicals and

> environmental health and to research environmental contamination.

>

> In 1998, Marc and his partner Britt authored Against the

> Grain, which examined the implications of the rapid transformation

> of the food supply to include genetically modified organisms. In

> particular, they questioned the toxicological concerns around

> Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, used with Roundup Ready GMO seeds.

> Monsanto, the largest supplier of genetically modified seeds,

> threatened to sue if the book was published. Their first publisher

> pulled out of a contract. My father persisted, finding a publisher,

> Common Courage, with the guts to go forward. Against the Grain was

> released in 1998. Monsanto has since failed to take any legal

> action. A documentary by the same name is available from the Video

> Project.

>

> Building a community

>

> In 1997, Marc married lifelong friend Durbin, an

> intensive care nurse and yoga instructor.

>

> In 1998, Marc and founded the Pacific Community Charter

> School with other parents in Point Arena, California to provide an

> alternative educational environment for local students. Despite his

> heavy workload, Marc devoted time to teach science at the charter

> high school. He was known as a life-transforming teacher who

> instilled in his students a love of learning and an appreciation for

> the importance of ethical thinking.

>

> Marc was also an award-winning poet who wrote emotionally intense

> poems that explored family, science, philosophy and nature.

>

> More recently, my father helped me and my co-author Marshall

> on our book, True Lies. He provided invaluable insight on our

> investigations into depleted uranium, the anthrax vaccine and the

> military's use of Lariam.

>

> He died at his home in his sleep. The cause was cancer.

>

> The planet will miss him deeply.

>

> He is survived by his father , brother cardiologist Don of Salt

> Lake City and wife , and children , 33; , 31;

> Matt, 25; e, 22; , 17; and step-children, le Spoor,

> 16; and Sasha Spoor, 29.

>

> In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Center for Ethics

> and Toxics through cetos.org.

>

> ~~~~~~~~

>

> www.BreastImplantAwareness.org

> The Humantics Foundation joins the world in mourning his loss.

>

> Opinions expressed are NOT meant to take the place of advice given by

> licensed health care professionals. Consult your physician or licensed

> health care professional before commencing any medical treatment.

>

> " Do not let either the medical authorities or the politicians mislead you.

> Find out what the facts are, and make your own decisions about how to live

> a

> happy life and how to work for a better world. " - Linus ing, two-time

> Nobel Prize Winner (1954, Chemistry; 1963, Peace)

>

May 18, 2005

Dang, dang, dang!

Lynda

At 11:02 PM 5/17/2005, you wrote:

>Sorry about the spelling...but I was in shock, another Hero

>gone...love....Lea

>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~```

> Death of Dr. Marc Lappe ... a Scientist & Hero

> >

>

<http://www.gnn.tv/articles/1394/Dr_Marc_Lapp_1943_2005>http://www.gnn.tv/articl\

es/1394/Dr_Marc_Lapp_1943_2005

> >

> > EXCERPT: Between 1984 and 1998, he worked extensively as a

> > consultant on the high stakes litigation that had erupted over

> > silicone-gel breast implants.

> >

> > Dow Corning sent a private detective to the small northern

> > California town of Gualala where my father lived to investigate his

> > non-profit organization in an effort to discredit his testimony.

> >

> > He worked on 30 silicone implant cases, each one the defendant

> > either settled or paid out a jury award, one totaled $20 million. In

> > 1998, Dow Corning settled a class action suit for $3.2 billion.

> >

>

<http://www.gnn.tv/articles/1394/Dr_Marc_Lapp_1943_2005>http://www.gnn.tv/articl\

es/1394/Dr_Marc_Lapp_1943_2005

> >

> > By Lappé

> >

> > GNN's editor remembers his father - a scientist who stood up for the

> > planet's most vulnerable

> >

> > " Three interrelated issues mark our times: We have altered the

> > planet with our chemicals; we are transforming agriculture with

> > bioengineering; and we are contemplating the recreation of humankind

> > through genetic technologies. All three compel us to reexamine how

> > we use scientific knowledge: will our new technologies be greeted

> > with `hurrahs' or a whisper of despair from the species that we have

> > decimated, crops that are gene-contaminated and people who, though

> > yet to be created, may yet curse us for our technological prowess? " -

> > Marc Lappé

> >

> > My father, Dr. Marc Lappé, an author, educator and prominent

> > toxicologist and medical ethicist, died Saturday. He was 62. Marc

> > was a lifelong teacher, known for instilling in his students a love

> > of learning and an appreciation for ethics. Everyone who met him was

> > struck by his warm spirit, unforgettable stories, and limitless

> > generosity.

> >

> > Marc was a leading figure in the movement to integrate ethics and

> > public policy, especially as it related to toxics and genetics. He

> > authored or edited fourteen books, many of which predicted public

> > health and environmental problems long before their appearance.

> > Germs That Won't Die (Anchor/Doubleday, 1982) warned of public

> > health threat of antibiotic resistance. Against the Grain (Common

> > Courage, 1998) accurately predicted that many claims by

> > manufacturers of genetically modified foods would prove false. He

> > held a PhD in experimental pathology from the University of

> > Pennsylvania and was a frequent source for the news media, appearing

> > on 60 Minutes, The Today Show, and Dateline NBC. He was a key expert

> > witness in numerous high-profile lawsuits, including et al

> > v. W. R. Grace & Co., popularized in the best-selling book and

> > Hollywood film A Civil Action. Between 1984 and 1998, he worked

> > extensively as a consultant on the high stakes litigation that had

> > erupted over silicone-gel breast implants. Most recently, he was the

> > director of the Gualala, California-based non-profit Center for

> > Ethics and Toxics (CETOS), a national leader in environmental public

> > policy, which works directly with California municipalities with

> > concerns about contaminants in their water supplies.

> >

> > His career was marked by a commitment to standing up to powerful

> > corporate interests and a concern for populations most vulnerable to

> > toxic contamination of their ground, water and air. He was a natural

> > teacher, gifted in explaining complicated ethical and scientific

> > concepts to lay audiences. In late 1960s, he began teaching as a

> > volunteer professor in the politically-charged " free university "

> > movement in Philadelphia and Berkeley while in his early 20s. He

> > later held posts at UC Berkeley, Lawrence College, University

> > of Illinois at Chicago School of Medicine (where he was a tenured

> > professor), and the College of Marin. In 1999, he co-founded an

> > experimental charter grammar, middle and high school on the redwood

> > coast of California's Mendocino County.

> >

> > Early years

> >

> > Marc Alan Lappé was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1943. His father

> > , the son of a Jewish Russian émigré, entered the Massachusetts

> > Institute of Technology at age fifteen. His mother Jeanette taught

> > in the Newark public schools. As an undergraduate at Wesleyan

> > University, Marc did cancer research at the Weizmann Institute of

> > Science in Israel. At age 25, he was granted the first PhD in

> > experimental pathology awarded to a candidate without a medical

> > degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

> >

> > While working on his PhD, Marc met my mother Frances . She was

> > a social worker in West Philadelphia, and he was teaching a class

> > called " Biology for Poets " at the free university. They married in

> > 1967. In 1971, I was born, and my mother published the classic Diet

> > for a Small Planet.

> >

> > My sister , a bestselling author and co-founder of the Small

> > Planet Institute, was born in 1973.

> >

> > In 1971, Marc was named as of the original fellows of the Hastings

> > Center, the nation's top bioethics think tank, where he began

> > examining the ethical implications of the looming genetic revolution

> > long before they reached the popular consciousness.

> >

> > My father's ethics were shaped by his longtime interest in Eastern

> > philosophy, particularly Zen Buddhism. He was a proponent of the

> > precautionary principle, the ethical theory that if consequences of

> > an action, especially concerning technology, are uncertain but are

> > known to have a high risk, it is best to not carry out the action.

> >

> > In 1976, he published Of All Things Most Yielding (Friends of the

> > Earth/McGraw Hill) with his friend, Sierra Club founder

> > Brower, which combined photographs of Glen Canyon, now flooded by

> > the Colorado River, and classic Chinese poetry selected by my

> > father.

> >

> > Taking a stand

> >

> > In 1978, he was named by California Governor Jerry Brown as chief of

> > the state's Office of Health, Law, and Values, and then as head of

> > the state's Hazard Evaluation System. When California's citrus crops

> > were plagued by an outbreak of the Medfly, Marc refused to sign onto

> > the spraying of Malathion, an insecticide with known toxicity to

> > humans. The state sprayed; my father stepped down.

> >

> > Beginning in the 1980s, he began working independently with

> > plaintiff lawyers on high-profile legal battles over environmental

> > contamination and drug and medical device failures. Cases he

> > consulted on included the infamous Love Canal, New York toxic waste

> > disaster; Agent Orange; pesticide exposure among farm workers and

> > neurological problems connected to the malaria drug Lariam. He

> > played a pivotal role in the contentious silicone-gel breast implant

> > litigation, which pitted tens of thousands of women who claimed to

> > have been sickened by their implants against Dow Corning Corp. and

> > other makers of the devices. He discovered Dow Corning had covered

> > up their own early studies that found silicone was not the inert

> > substance they later claimed when the implants began leaking and

> > rupturing. Dow Corning sent a private detective to the small

> > northern California town of Gualala where my father lived to

> > investigate his non-profit organization in an effort to discredit

> > his testimony. He worked on 30 silicone implant cases, each one the

> > defendant either settled or paid out a jury award, one totaled $20

> > million. In 1998, Dow Corning settled a class action suit for $3.2

> > billion. The company was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

> > protection. In a bit of dark irony, last month, a Food and Drug

> > Administration panel voted to allow a limited number of silicone-gel

> > implants back on the market.

> >

> > Marc's work on breast implant litigation earned him a spot on the

> > Food and Drug Administration's panel on medical devices and plastic

> > surgery. He also was asked to testify in front of numerous

> > congressional panels on genetics, ethics and biotechnology.

> >

> > In 1988, he became a tenured professor of Health Policy and Ethics

> > at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

> >

> > He served on the board of the March of Dimes, where he was a strong

> > advocate for acknowledging the connection between the environment,

> > toxics and birth defects. He served on the March of Dimes National

> > Foundation's Bioethics Committee since its inception in 1975.

> >

> > Ahead of his time

> >

> > Many of his theories about environmental pollution - initially

> > controversial - later became accepted by the wider scientific

> > community. As early as the 1970s, he promoted the importance of an

> > eco-system level approach to setting limits for toxins in the

> > environment. He argued that minimum allowed concentrations of toxic

> > substances needed to account for their reactions with other

> > substances in the real world. He was an early proponent of the

> > importance of the immune system in fighting cancer and other

> > diseases. He also aruged that long-term exposure to low levels of

> > carcinogenic compounds may be more dangerous than a single high

> > dosage - today an increasingly accepted tenet of environmental

> > science.

> >

> > In 1977, he married Nichol Lovera. They had three children, ,

> > who holds a MS from Stanford University; e, a PhD candidate in

> > sociology at the University of California, San Francisco; and ,

> > a junior in high school who is a champion horseback rider.

> >

> > Nichol died in 1996.

> >

> > In 1992, Marc founded the Center for Ethics and Toxics (CETOS) in

> > the small redwood coast town of Gualala, California. CETOS is

> > dedicated helping communities fight toxic contamination of their

> > environment. Since its inception the center has developed guidelines

> > and strategies to reduce toxic exposures in numerous areas,

> > including a 1996-7 campaign to prevent roadside spraying with

> > herbicides in Mendocino County, Ca. and a testing regiment to

> > monitor pesticides in the drinking water of the small town of Fort

> > Bragg, California. The organization also played in an active role in

> > the ongoing battles over logging on the Pacific coast. CETOS worked

> > as a consultant to the Forest Stewardship Council which regulates

> > the conditions for ecologically sound and sustainable logging

> > practices. In 2004, CETOS played a leading role in the passage of

> > Measure H, which banned raising genetically altered crops and

> > animals in Mendocino County, the first such ban in the nation. The

> > organization continues to educate the public toxic chemicals and

> > environmental health and to research environmental contamination.

> >

> > In 1998, Marc and his partner Britt authored Against the

> > Grain, which examined the implications of the rapid transformation

> > of the food supply to include genetically modified organisms. In

> > particular, they questioned the toxicological concerns around

> > Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, used with Roundup Ready GMO seeds.

> > Monsanto, the largest supplier of genetically modified seeds,

> > threatened to sue if the book was published. Their first publisher

> > pulled out of a contract. My father persisted, finding a publisher,

> > Common Courage, with the guts to go forward. Against the Grain was

> > released in 1998. Monsanto has since failed to take any legal

> > action. A documentary by the same name is available from the Video

> > Project.

> >

> > Building a community

> >

> > In 1997, Marc married lifelong friend Durbin, an

> > intensive care nurse and yoga instructor.

> >

> > In 1998, Marc and founded the Pacific Community Charter

> > School with other parents in Point Arena, California to provide an

> > alternative educational environment for local students. Despite his

> > heavy workload, Marc devoted time to teach science at the charter

> > high school. He was known as a life-transforming teacher who

> > instilled in his students a love of learning and an appreciation for

> > the importance of ethical thinking.

> >

> > Marc was also an award-winning poet who wrote emotionally intense

> > poems that explored family, science, philosophy and nature.

> >

> > More recently, my father helped me and my co-author Marshall

> > on our book, True Lies. He provided invaluable insight on our

> > investigations into depleted uranium, the anthrax vaccine and the

> > military's use of Lariam.

> >

> > He died at his home in his sleep. The cause was cancer.

> >

> > The planet will miss him deeply.

> >

> > He is survived by his father , brother cardiologist Don of Salt

> > Lake City and wife , and children , 33; , 31;

> > Matt, 25; e, 22; , 17; and step-children, le Spoor,

> > 16; and Sasha Spoor, 29.

> >

> > In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Center for Ethics

> > and Toxics through cetos.org.

> >

> > ~~~~~~~~

> >

> > www.BreastImplantAwareness.org

> > The Humantics Foundation joins the world in mourning his loss.

> >

> > Opinions expressed are NOT meant to take the place of advice given by

> > licensed health care professionals. Consult your physician or licensed

> > health care professional before commencing any medical treatment.

> >

> > " Do not let either the medical authorities or the politicians mislead you.

> > Find out what the facts are, and make your own decisions about how to live

> > a

> > happy life and how to work for a better world. " - Linus ing, two-time

> > Nobel Prize Winner (1954, Chemistry; 1963, Peace)

> >

May 18, 2005

Oh, this is really sad....I remember reading the work of this great

man, and to think he is gone is a huge loss to our world.

Patty

> http://www.gnn.tv/articles/1394/Dr_Marc_Lapp_1943_2005

>

> EXCERPT: Between 1984 and 1998, he worked extensively as a

> consultant on the high stakes litigation that had erupted over

> silicone-gel breast implants.

>

> Dow Corning sent a private detective to the small northern

> California town of Gualala where my father lived to investigate

his

> non-profit organization in an effort to discredit his testimony.

>

> He worked on 30 silicone implant cases, each one the defendant

> either settled or paid out a jury award, one totaled $20 million.

In

> 1998, Dow Corning settled a class action suit for $3.2 billion.

>

> http://www.gnn.tv/articles/1394/Dr_Marc_Lapp_1943_2005

>

> By Lappé

>

> GNN's editor remembers his father - a scientist who stood up for

the

> planet's most vulnerable

>

> " Three interrelated issues mark our times: We have altered the

> planet with our chemicals; we are transforming agriculture with

> bioengineering; and we are contemplating the recreation of

humankind

> through genetic technologies. All three compel us to reexamine how

> we use scientific knowledge: will our new technologies be greeted

> with `hurrahs' or a whisper of despair from the species that we

have

> decimated, crops that are gene-contaminated and people who, though

> yet to be created, may yet curse us for our technological

prowess? " –

> Marc Lappé

>

> My father, Dr. Marc Lappé, an author, educator and prominent

> toxicologist and medical ethicist, died Saturday. He was 62. Marc

> was a lifelong teacher, known for instilling in his students a

love

> of learning and an appreciation for ethics. Everyone who met him

was

> struck by his warm spirit, unforgettable stories, and limitless

> generosity.

>

> Marc was a leading figure in the movement to integrate ethics and

> public policy, especially as it related to toxics and genetics. He

> authored or edited fourteen books, many of which predicted public

> health and environmental problems long before their appearance.

> Germs That Won't Die (Anchor/Doubleday, 1982) warned of public

> health threat of antibiotic resistance. Against the Grain (Common

> Courage, 1998) accurately predicted that many claims by

> manufacturers of genetically modified foods would prove false. He

> held a PhD in experimental pathology from the University of

> Pennsylvania and was a frequent source for the news media,

appearing

> on 60 Minutes, The Today Show, and Dateline NBC. He was a key

expert

> witness in numerous high-profile lawsuits, including et

al

> v. W. R. Grace & Co., popularized in the best-selling book and

> Hollywood film A Civil Action. Between 1984 and 1998, he worked

> extensively as a consultant on the high stakes litigation that had

> erupted over silicone-gel breast implants. Most recently, he was

the

> director of the Gualala, California-based non-profit Center for

> Ethics and Toxics (CETOS), a national leader in environmental

public

> policy, which works directly with California municipalities with

> concerns about contaminants in their water supplies.

>

> His career was marked by a commitment to standing up to powerful

> corporate interests and a concern for populations most vulnerable

to

> toxic contamination of their ground, water and air. He was a

natural

> teacher, gifted in explaining complicated ethical and scientific

> concepts to lay audiences. In late 1960s, he began teaching as a

> volunteer professor in the politically-charged " free university "

> movement in Philadelphia and Berkeley while in his early 20s. He

> later held posts at UC Berkeley, Lawrence College,

University

> of Illinois at Chicago School of Medicine (where he was a tenured

> professor), and the College of Marin. In 1999, he co-founded an

> experimental charter grammar, middle and high school on the

redwood

> coast of California's Mendocino County.

>

> Early years

>

> Marc Alan Lappé was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1943. His father

> , the son of a Jewish Russian émigré, entered the

Massachusetts

> Institute of Technology at age fifteen. His mother Jeanette taught

> in the Newark public schools. As an undergraduate at Wesleyan

> University, Marc did cancer research at the Weizmann Institute of

> Science in Israel. At age 25, he was granted the first PhD in

> experimental pathology awarded to a candidate without a medical

> degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

>

> While working on his PhD, Marc met my mother Frances . She

was

> a social worker in West Philadelphia, and he was teaching a class

> called " Biology for Poets " at the free university. They married in

> 1967. In 1971, I was born, and my mother published the classic

Diet

> for a Small Planet.

>

> My sister , a bestselling author and co-founder of the Small

> Planet Institute, was born in 1973.

>

> In 1971, Marc was named as of the original fellows of the Hastings

> Center, the nation's top bioethics think tank, where he began

> examining the ethical implications of the looming genetic

revolution

> long before they reached the popular consciousness.

>

> My father's ethics were shaped by his longtime interest in Eastern

> philosophy, particularly Zen Buddhism. He was a proponent of the

> precautionary principle, the ethical theory that if consequences

of

> an action, especially concerning technology, are uncertain but are

> known to have a high risk, it is best to not carry out the action.

>

> In 1976, he published Of All Things Most Yielding (Friends of the

> Earth/McGraw Hill) with his friend, Sierra Club founder

> Brower, which combined photographs of Glen Canyon, now flooded by

> the Colorado River, and classic Chinese poetry selected by my

> father.

>

> Taking a stand

>

> In 1978, he was named by California Governor Jerry Brown as chief

of

> the state's Office of Health, Law, and Values, and then as head of

> the state's Hazard Evaluation System. When California's citrus

crops

> were plagued by an outbreak of the Medfly, Marc refused to sign

onto

> the spraying of Malathion, an insecticide with known toxicity to

> humans. The state sprayed; my father stepped down.

>

> Beginning in the 1980s, he began working independently with

> plaintiff lawyers on high-profile legal battles over environmental

> contamination and drug and medical device failures. Cases he

> consulted on included the infamous Love Canal, New York toxic

waste

> disaster; Agent Orange; pesticide exposure among farm workers and

> neurological problems connected to the malaria drug Lariam. He

> played a pivotal role in the contentious silicone-gel breast

implant