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What do we know about the possible poisons that industrial technologies leave in our air and water? How reliable is the science that federal regulators and legislators use to protect the public from dangerous products? As this disturbing book shows, ideological or economic attacks on research are part of an extensive pattern of abuse.
Thomas O. McGarity and Wendy E. Wagner reveal the range of sophisticated legal and financial tactics political and corporate advocates use to discredit or suppress research on potential human health hazards. Scientists can find their research blocked, or find themselves threatened with financial ruin. Corporations, plaintiff attorneys, think tanks, even government agencies have been caught suppressing or distorting research on the safety of chemical products.
With alarming stories drawn from the public record, McGarity and Wagner describe how advocates attempt to bend science or “spin” findings. They reveal an immense range of tools available to shrewd partisans determined to manipulate research.
Bending Science exposes an astonishing pattern of corruption and makes a compelling case for reforms to safeguard both the integrity of science and the public health.
Publisher : Harvard University Press (March 15, 2012)
Language : English
Paperback : 400 pages
ISBN-10 : 0674047141
ISBN-13 : 978-0674047143
Item Weight : 1.15 pounds
Dimensions : 6.14 x 0.91 x 9.21 inches
4
Reviewer: C. L. Vash
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The Truth Can Be Depressing
Review: It’s an incredibly thorough report of a depressing reality and I think I understand why no one has written a review yet. Whoever has read this may feel dejected about its revelation that people with the power to hide or distort scientific findings that would probably turn consumers against their money-making products are willing and able to destroy the most honest scientists and subvert the least honest ones. People with this power may be corporate policy setters of dangerous products, their lawyers, the scientists they are able to subvert into science-bending endeavors, and many others … including personnel in government agencies, which further includes one I’ve long suspected … the National Institute of Health. That agency appears to have made efforts to correct the problem that I call the “we gotta do what will satisfy the pharmaceutical guys” but I’m not sure such efforts will work permanently there … or anywhere else. Obsessive drive for materialistic acquisition has blotted out concern for other humans’ welfare in so many of our powerful people, whether they be entrepreneurs, scientists, legal wizards, politicians, or whatever. I’m finding myself doubting the likelihood of behavioral reform among the corruptible people described in this book.
Reviewer: Tony Klutz
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Bending Science – A Reviewq
Review: The book “Bending Science” discusses how scientists have now become advocates for a particular cause as opposed to a “search for the truth”. While the book mainly uses examples on the corporate side, the same is true on the non-corporate side, i.e. health studies. Each of the tools at the disposal of a scientist (statistics, experimental results) can be used or misused. It could be best summarized by the point that who pays for the research expects to get the results it wants.
Reviewer: ShouldbeReading7
Rating: 1.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Like it was written over a weekend by an undergrad …
Review: this book is an unfocused, redundant mess. Like it was written over a weekend by an undergrad or pair of undergrads who didn’t communicate and filled pages with generalizations to meet a word count without researching the topic. There are several vignettes, e.g. the one about asbestos, where the ‘years’ of litigation, case presentation, etc, aren’t even mentioned. This book should be rife with citations, but isn’t; see above. If you’re truly interested in the subject, read ‘Doubt is Their Product’ by David Micheals (OSHA director, citations in every chapter), and/or ‘Our Stolen Future’ by Tracey Woodruff.This POS was so maddeningly banal I left it on a plane after nearly gauging my eyes out, being pissed it was the only thing I had to read.I normally don’t trash writers because I can’t fathom the effort it takes to get a work together and then take the giant leap of putting it out in public for all to comment on, but there was absolutely NO effort made here and this very expensive sham does a disservice to writers, to scientists, and to concerned citizenry everywhere.
Reviewer: BPajer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Every legislator in the country should read this.
Review: Written in 2008, the corruption of science described within is still happening, worse than ever. The one category of pharmaceutical product — or rather biological product — not mentioned in this book is the worst of them all for all the manipulative techniques described–and thanks to Congress giving liability protection to most of this category of biologicals in 1986–they harm far more, within any real oversight. I recommend readers follow up this book with the newly released book HPV VACCINE ON TRIAL by Holland, Rosenberg, and Iorio.
Reviewer: Kyle
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A lot of information
Review: Great book, written very clearly. It was easy to find the resources the authors cite throughout the book. It’s very informative and eye opening.
Reviewer: L.W. Brittian
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: as advertised Four Stars
Review: As adveretised
Reviewer: Rock Fan
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The cycle repeats itself over and over…
Review: Whether it’s asbestos, cigarettes, vioxx, or global warming, the same pattern of profit over truth, obfuscation over reality keeps re-emerging its ugly head in society. In the end, the truth usually wins out, almost always with a heavy cost in human lives. But making money is more important than someone ELSE’S life isn’t it? Occurring concurrently with the very REAL threat of global warming is the very REAL threat of electromagnetic pollution. As much as I loved this book for its expose on the techniques used to distort, deny and dismiss dangers, I am hoping for an expanded revised edition covering the threat of EMR in much more detail. This global profit center experimenting with all our lives will be remembered with disgust, when we realize that this technology could have been achieved much more safely. Sure, it would have cost money and time to achieve safety, but those are two things are apparently more important than our lives if our “free” market society was truly being honest with itself. So we continue to go merrily on our way while there is a ticking time bomb in our midst that is nibbling it way through our DNA.(If non-ionizing radiation inhibits DNA repair, doesn’t that basically have the same effect as damaging it directly?) So if the author wants to follow up, look at the works of Devra Davis, Samuel Milhelm, David O. Becker, Magda Havas, Neil Cherry and others.
