=======================Electronic Edition========================
. .
. RACHEL'S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH WEEKLY #464 .
. October 19, 1995 .
. HEADLINES: .
. CIGARETTE SCIENCE AT JOHNS HOPKINS .
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CIGARETTE SCIENCE AT JOHNS HOPKINS
As the scientific evidence piles up, linking chemical exposures
to serious human diseases, many chemical-dependent industries,
such as pesticide purveyors, are searching for a strategy to buy
themselves some time, to put off the inevitable. They needn't
look far. The tobacco industry has demonstrated that 40 years of
scientific bad news can be deflected and neutralized with
relative ease. Roughly half-a-million Americans die each year
from tobacco-related illnesses, and this assessment is not
disputed by the federal government, or by thousands of scientific
researchers and physicians, or by the nation's mainstream medical
and health organizations. Yet the tobacco corporations have
successfully maintained their privilege of selling a product that
kills 10% of everyone who uses it as directed. What is the
secret of such success?
A key component of the tobacco strategy is scientific research,
funded by the Tobacco Industry Research Committee, which was
formed in 1954 and later was renamed the Council for Tobacco
Research.[1] Scientific research sponsored by the Council has
served to create and maintain a "scientific controversy"
surrounding questions of tobacco and health. The Council has
funded studies of questions such as, Do some people have a
genetic predisposition to cancer? Scientific controversy about
tobacco-and-health gives the tobacco industry "plausible
deniability" (a phrase made famous by Richard Nixon in another
context). Scientific controversy allows the tobacco industry to
insist that the case against their product in not conclusive.
And it gives tobacco corporation executives the wiggle room they
need--to deny that they are cut from the same cloth as drug
dealers and murderers. For example, an official of the Tobacco
Institute (an industry trade organization) said in 1987 --33
years after the American College of Surgeons identified smoking
as a major cause of lung cancer --"Smoking may cause illness; it
may not. We don't know and we don't think anybody knows."[2]
We call this phenomenon "cigarette science." Cigarette science
is scientific study that serves the needs of a particular
industry that finds itself beset by scientific bad news. One
such industry is the pesticide trade.
The pesticide corporations have formed their own
cigarette-science group called RISE (Responsible Industry for a
Sound Environment). RISE is made up of executives from companies
like Monsanto, Sandoz Agro, DowElanco, Dupont Agricultural
Products, The Scotts Company, and other pesticide manufacturers,
formulators, and distributors.
The issue that has RISE's members worried is multiple chemical
sensitivity, or MCS. MCS is an adverse reaction to low levels of
many different chemicals with symptoms that range from sniffles
to coma. Typical symptoms include irritability, insomnia,
difficulty concentrating, memory trouble, daytime grogginess,
chronic fatigue, headache, joint pain, muscle pain, abdominal
pain, constipation, and ringing in the ears. In sum, for an MCS
patient, life is hell. MCS afflicts 10% to 15% of the American
public, and appears to be increasing, according to a publication
of the American Chemical Society.[3] Pesticides and solvents are
the chemicals mentioned most often as causes of MCS. For
example, a recent article in ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES (a
scientific journal published by the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences, a federal agency) says MCS is a
"syndrome with onset related to an environmental exposure, MOST
COMMONLY A SOLVENT OR PESTICIDE. [Emphasis added.] After the
initial exposure, individuals become sensitive to low-level
chemical exposures with symptoms involving more than one organ
system. Though this syndrome was described four decades ago, it
remains highly controversial."[4] Keeping MCS controversial is a
key task of the cigarette-science activities of RISE. So long as
MCS is surrounded by scientific controversy, the pesticide
industry has wiggle room to make statements such as this recent
one by RISE regarding MCS: "There is no scientific or documented
evidence that pesticide application when used in accordance with
label instruction has caused harm to human health."[5]
RISE's 1995-96 STRATEGIC PLAN (provided to us by the MCS advocacy
group, MCS Referral & Resources [phone: (410) 448-3319])
describes 4 main objectives. Objective #3 is "To promote the use
of industry products as valuable pest management tools to enhance
the quality of life and the environment." For achieving
Objective #3, the RISE STRATEGIC PLAN identifies two "tactics" to
be used by its "Communications Committee:" First, "Host forum for
industry user groups that are taking positive pesticide messages
to schools." And, second, "Conduct two 'MCS' phenomena seminars."
On September 9, 1995, RISE sponsored a seminar on MCS. One of
the speakers was Suellen W. Pirages, managing director of a brand
new organization, the Environmental Sensitivities Research
Institute (ESRI). ESRI is a new cigarette-science institute
funded by chemical-dependent corporations "to 'proactively'
respond to the rising number of" MCS cases.[6] Notice how the
name of the institute shifts the problem from one of 'multiple
CHEMICAL sensitivities' to one of 'ENVIRONMENTAL sensitivities.'
The problem isn't chemicals, it's the environment. Executive
director and founder of ESRI is Ronald R. Gots, who openly scoffs
at MCS patients and the physicians who treat them. For example,
Dr. Gots has said MCS is "a peculiar manifestation of our
technophobic and chemophobic society."[7] In other words, MCS
patients aren't really sick --they're just irrationally
frightened by technology and chemicals.
Dr. Gots wears another hat, as director of the National Medical
Advisory Service (NMAS), which provides expert witnesses to
attorneys defending corporations in product liability lawsuits.
ESRI and NMAS are essentially indistinguishable; they share the
same offices and have the same fax number; Dr. Gots heads them
both. ESRI and NMAS promote the same viewpoint toward MCS: it is
an imaginary or psychological phenomenon, not an illness, so it
couldn't be caused by chemicals. For example, on September 15,
1995, Dr. Gots testified on behalf of a corporate defendant in a
lawsuit, saying under oath, "The MCS theory has been subjected to
peer review evaluation and it has generally been rejected as
'junk science.'"[8]
Dr. Gots himself has had some recent work subjected to review by
one of his peers, and it was found wanting. His recent book,
TOXIC RISKS: SCIENCE, REGULATION AND PERCEPTION was thoroughly
trashed by a reviewer in the JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE--an
industry-dominated journal. Dr. Gots's book was described as "of
little value to public health professionals and scientists" and
"replete with sweeping generalizations, overstatements, and
exaggerations."[9]
Despite the obvious anti-MCS bias of Dr. Gots and his anti-MCS
organizations, a respected university and the federal government
are now allowing themselves to become a vehicle for Dr. Gots's
political agenda. October 30 through Nov. 1, Johns Hopkins
University in Baltimore --one of the nation's top research
institutions, particularly in public health --in conjunction with
NIOSH [National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, a
federal agency] --is co-sponsoring a symposium with Dr. Gots's
National Medical Advisory Service, assisted by the staff of the
Environmental Sensitivities Research Institute. The symposium is
called "Multiple Chemical Sensitivities: State-of-the-Science
Symposium." As you might expect from a group that doesn't
believe there is any valid science supporting diagnoses of MCS,
the symposium is heavily weighted in favor of pro-industry,
anti-consumer, anti-MCS-patient viewpoints. No attempt is being
made by conference organizers to include or accommodate MCS
patients.
A ticket to the conference costs $625, and no scholarships are
being offered to MCS patients, so their viewpoints on their
illness will be missing from the conference. The viewpoint of
the pesticide, carpet, perfume, and chemical industries --as
represented by Dr. Gots and his colleagues --will receive a stamp
of approval from NIOSH and from one of the nation's most
prestigious universities. Thus does a major university slide
into a role as provider of a public relations platform, and
cover, for cigarette scientists promoting the anti-scientific
agenda of the pesticide and petrochemical industries.
In the Baltimore area, MCS sufferers and people concerned about
the integrity of science are outraged by Johns Hopkins
University's capitulation to chemical-dependent industries, and
they are planning a protest outside the OMNI-Inner Harbor Hotel
in Baltimore at 8:30 a.m. October 30th. In honor of Halloween,
organizers of the protest are urging MCS patients to come dressed
as "An MCS Patient's Worst Nightmare --an anti-MCS witness in a
white lab coat masquerading as an unbiased MCS researcher."
In contrast to the anti-MCS bias dominating the conference
sponsored by Johns Hopkins and its friends in the pesticide
industry, some excellent scientific work is underway to find the
causes of MCS. Recent work published in mainstream scientific
journals indicates that MCS is a disease related to the olfactory
(sense of smell) nerves in the nose. This nerve system provides a
pathway for chemicals to pass directly into the brain. Chemicals
traversing this path may affect the limbic system in the brain,
which in turn influences both the endocrine and immune systems
and also influences a person's moods.[10] Other recent
scientific work implicates another mechanism in causing MCS
--inflammation of body tissues caused not by the immune system
(which often causes inflammation to fight disease), but by a
mechanism called "neurogenic inflammation."[4] A great deal of
controlled scientific experimentation is going on now to test
these hypotheses.
In the end, good science will prevail. But in the meantime,
millions of peoples' lives have been ruined by MCS. Worse, the
Johns Hopkins/NIOSH conference has been designed by cigarette
scientists to prolong the misery.
--Peter Montague
===============
[1] Larry C. White, MERCHANTS OF DEATH; THE AMERICAN TOBACCO
INDUSTRY (New York: William Morrow, 1988), pg. 32-34.
[2] Larry C. White, cited above in note 1, pg. 18, reporting an
interview with William Kloepfer, vice president of the Tobacco
Institute.
[3] Bette Hileman, "Multiple Chemical Sensitivity," C&EN
[Chemical & Engineering News] Vol. 69 No. 29 (July 22, 1991), pg.
34. Hileman says, "The lack of a clear definition or diagnostic
test for MCS [multiple chemical sensitivity] makes it very
difficult to estimate its prevalence. However there is much
indirect evidence that the number of people diagnosed with MCS is
increasing."
[4] William J. Meggs, "Neurogenic Inflammation and Sensitivity to
Environmental Chemicals," ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES Vol.
101, Number 3 (August, 1993), pgs. 234-238.
[5] Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment [RISE],
"Position Statement, Registries and 'Multiple Chemical
Sensitivity' ('MCS')." (Washington, D.C.: RISE [1156 15th St.,
N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005; phone: (202) 872-3860], Dec. 14,
1994), pg. 1.
[6] "New Multiple Chemical Sensitivities Research Group Formed,"
RISK POLICY REPORT June 16, 1995, pg. 18.
[7] Dr. Gots quoted in "New Multiple Chemical Sensitivities
Research Group Formed," RISK POLICY REPORT June 16, 1995, pg. 18.
[8] Affidavit of Ronald E. Gots in MARY JANE NETHERY V. THE
SERVICEMASTER COMPANY ET AL, Circuit Court of Lee County,
Mississippi, Cause #92-167(G)(L), Exhibit G, pg. 6, dated
September 15, 1996.
[9] John E. Vena, "Book Reviews," JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL
MEDICINE Vol. 36 (July, 1994), pg. 678.
[10] Iris R. Bell, "An Olfactory-Limbic Model of Multiple
Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome: Possible Relationships to Kindling
and Affective Spectrum Disorders," BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY Vol. 32
(1992), pgs. 218-242. And see: Iris R. Bell and others,
"Self-Reported Illness from Chemical Odors in Young Adults
without Clinical Syndromes or Occupational Exposures," ARCHIVES
OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH Vol. 48 (January/February, 1993), pgs.
6-13.
Descriptor terms: science; bias; tobacco industry; pesticides;
solvents; mcs; tobacco industry research committee; council for
tobacco research; tobacco institute; smoking; cigarettes;
responsible industry for a sound environment; mcs referral &
resources; environmental sensitivities research institute; ronald
gots; national medical advisory service; niosh; carpets;
perfumes; chemical industry; propaganda; baltimore, md; johns
hopkins university;
################################################################
NOTICE
Environmental Research Foundation provides this electronic
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--Peter Montague, Editor
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