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177443 Confronting pseudoscience and threats from a corporate front group: The American Council on Science and Health and global warming

Tuesday, October 28, 2008: 3:10 PM

Martin Donohoe, MD, FACP , School of Community Health, Portland State University, Lake Oswego, OR
Audio (mp3) recording Multimedia recording
Like many other organizations, the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) uses threats and misinformation to suppress sound science, particularly when such science threatens the interests of individuals and corporations which profit from activities that threaten human health and the environment. Regrettably, ACSH is frequently quoted in major media outlets and presents itself as an opponent of so-called junk science. This session will cover threats to science and society posed by anti-science groups, focusing on ACSH. I will relate my experience writing a two-part piece on global warming for Medscape (later re-printed in World Affairs Journal), in which I criticized ACSH as purveyors of pseudoscience and as an industry front group. ACSH threatened Medscape with a lawsuit unless the offending comments were retracted. Medscape, to its credit, not only published the original piece, but included an extra paragraph I wrote criticizing ACSH. I subsequently wrote a well-referenced critique of ACSH, its history, its founders, and its positions for Z Magazine. I will place my experience with ACSH in the context of the larger battle against pseudoscience, greenwashing, and bluewashing.

Donohoe MT. Global warming: a public health crisis demanding immediate action. World Affairs Journal 2007;11(2):44-58 (Medscape versions at http://www.publichealthandandsocialjustice.org).

Donohoe MT. Corporate front groups and the abuse of science: the saga of the American Council on Science and Health. Z Magazine 2007 (October):42-6. Available at http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Oct2007/donohoe_print.html (references at http://www.publichealthandandsocialjustice.org).

Learning Objectives:
• Define the terms pseudoscience, junk science, corporate-front groups, greenwash, and bluewash • Understand how corporate-front groups successfully promulgate pseudoscience, in the interests of their clients, through major media outlets • Discuss the one such group, the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH), including its history, founders, funding sources, and promulgations on major scientific matters • Relate my experience fighting ACSH (and winning), when they threatened litigation related to my critique of them in an article covering global warming • Explain how scientists, public health professionals, and activists can fight back against the manipulation of science by such organizations as ACSH

Keywords: Social Justice, Media

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I conducted the research for this presentation and am solely responsible for its content
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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