Aaron Wildavsky

{{#badges: Tobaccowiki | Front groups}} Prof. Aaron Bernard Wildavsky was born on May 31, 1930, in Brooklyn, New York, and died on September 4, 1993. Aaron Wildavsky was Class of 1940 Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he had been teaching since 1962. He was also a tobacco industry consultant.

He was a founding director of the Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP) [1] and he was on May 10, 1993 one of the keynote speakers at a conference in Paris organized by SEPP and the International Center for a Scientific Ecology (ICSE). His speech was called "Do Rodent Studies Predict Human Cancers?".

[SEPP, which became the main climate-denial organisation in the USA, was run by S. Fred Singer and his wife Candice Crandall. It was actually created by APCO, the PR firm totally controlled at this time by Philip Morris (as was TASSC at the same time). Wildavsky would have been little more than a paid supporter, willing to have his name on the foundation documents.
Widavsky was a supporter of TASSC, the The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition, a front group set up by Philip Morris through a public relations firm.

The Independent Institute, where he was listed as a Research Fellow and a member of the Board of Advisors, published this speech in spring 1996 under the title "Regulation of Carcinogens: Are Animal Tests a Sound Foundation?". This work was later cited in a work titled "Passive Smoke: The EPA's Betrayal of Science and Policy" authored by two other tobacco industry scientific lobbyists, Gio Batta Gori and John C. Luik

Wildavsky is perhaps most famous for his role in developing the Cultural Theory of Risk. In 1982, he and anthropologist Mary Douglas wrote "Risk and Culture". This book was both a critique of environmentalists which they argued, shared a worldview with sectarian groups like the Amish, as well as an initial statement of Cultural Theory. Later, he co-authored Cultural Theory with Richard Ellis and Michael Thompson, expanding the Cultural Theory concept and showing how it related to earlier theories in political science and anthropology.

Documents & Timeline

1979 Oct Wildavsky was also a paid consultant to the tobacco industry in 1979. He completed a project for the International Committee on Smoking Issues (ICOSI) Social Acceptability Working Party (SAWP)(ICOSI/SAWP)analyzing anti-smoking groups with regard to their organization, leadership and publications. Payments to Wildavsky were made through the tobacco industry's law firm of Jacob, Medinger, which managed "Special Account No. 4" (external research programs) for the industry.

Special Account #4 was established to fund research by selected expert witnesses in preparation of testimony either directly related to a particular case, or prepared witnesses to testify at congressional or other public hearings, or other research the lawyers deemed useful to the industry.

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1982 Mary Douglas and Aaron Wildavsky Risk and Culture (University of Califotnia Press . Berkeley, California. 1982) .

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1993 May Wildavsky was one of the keynote speakers at a conference in Paris organized by SEPP and the International Center for a Scientific Ecology (ICSE). His speech was called "Do Rodent Studies Predict Human Cancers?". [2]

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1996 *Winner of the 1996 Grawemeyer Award

External resources

• Aaron Wildavsky, "Do Rodent Studies Predict Human Cancers?," May 10, 1993
• Excerpts form interview with Aaron Wildavsky in 1993 after ICSE conference
• "Aaron B. Wildavsky, Political Science and Public Policy: Berkeley," 1994
• Aaron Wildavsky on Wikipedia

References

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