The War on Science by Shawn Lawrence Otto

Author:Shawn Lawrence Otto
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781571319524
Publisher: Milkweed Editions
Published: 2016-06-01T16:00:00+00:00

One of the first things these men developed was the concept of “balance.” They argued that the science was “not settled” and that the details were still open to debate. Since, in science, a detail could overturn an entire theory, as we had seen with Einstein, we needed to hear from “both sides” and have a “healthy debate.” They argued that the public should trust the tobacco companies to do the science to see if there were health risks, and, if there were, to figure out how to fix them.

Instead, the tobacco companies cherry-picked data, played games with statistics, and focused on anomalies in the data. They recruited a few scientists outside the mainstream, contrarians who enjoyed the attention and focused on creating a sense of debate. These scientists issued press releases to newspapers and wire services that generated stories creating a sense of doubt about the link between smoking and cancer in the minds of the public, while the companies built up a lobbying presence in Washington to battle regulations.

By 1960, through an aggressive effort, tobacco companies had also developed relationships with doctors, medical schools, and public-health authorities. Oreskes and Conway:

In 1962, when U.S. Surgeon General Luther L. Terry established an Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health, the tobacco industry made nominations, submitted information, and ensured that Dr. Little “established lines of communication” with the committee. To ensure that the panel was “democratically” constituted, the surgeon general invited nominations from the tobacco industry, as well as from the Federal Trade Commission (who would become involved if restrictions were placed on tobacco advertising). To ensure that the panel was unbiased, he excluded anyone who had publicly expressed a prior opinion. One hundred and fifty names were put forward, and the tobacco industry was permitted to veto anyone they considered unsuitable.

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