International Center for a Scientific Ecology

From SourceWatch
(Redirected from ICSE)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
(Note: The French name of the ICSE (Centre International pour une Ecologie Scientifique) generates CIES as an alternate acroynm.)

The International Center for a Scientific Ecology (ICSE) is an organisation set up in Paris to promote the Heidelberg Appeal, and act as an agent for S. Fred Singer's Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP) in Europe. [1] It was run by Michel Salomon who drafted the original Appeal document, and who worked with SEPP in the USA. He was assisted by a Secretriat Jean-Pierre Hulot who handled the correspondence in Europe, and a M. Pierre Joly, a phramaceutical lobbyists who joined as President of the organisation.

This organisation purported to be a grassroots scientific think-tank, but it was actually a scientific lobbyshop funded by a coalition of tobacco, asbestos, oil, coal and energy interests. For this reason it is often refered to as the "Heidelberg coalition" or "Heidelberg organisation" in the literature - even though it no longer had any connections with the German town of Heidelberg.

See both the Heidelberg Appeal and background on Rio Earth Summit. [2]

The current status of the ICSE is unknown.

Promotion of the Heidelberg Appeal

Following the initial Heidelberg conference and the presentation and promotion of the Heidelberg Appeal to the media at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, a number of activities were undertaken by SEPP and the ICSE for the tobacco industry (probably with asbestos funding also):

  • The first was to circulate this version (No. 3) of the appeal document for futher signings. [3]
  • The second was to set up a network of European corporations who would share the costs and applications of the Heidelberg Appeal. Europe was rapidly developing the concept of "The Precautionary Principle" (virtually ignored in the USA) which tended to precipitate regulation of potentially harmful substances, even in the absence of iron-clad proof. This network was intended to counter this move.
    • Note that in this letter to Burston Marsteller's Philip Morris PR consultant Stig Albinus, Pierre Hulot talks about a network [4] [5] involving other compaies. [6] and industries [7].
    • GEP means Good Epidemiological Practices, which was a scam Phillip Morris was running to change European rules about statistical proof of smoking as a cause of disease. [8]

ICSE Conferences

With Fred Singer/SEPP's help and Philip Morris funding, Salomon and the ICSE set up a European conference at the Hilton in Paris [9] which was followed shortly after by another supposedly run through the George Mason University in Washington DC.

This memo from Phillip Morris Brussel's executive looking after the Heidelberg project, Gerard Wirz, explains to his colleagues about the tobacco and asbestos involvement:

(Notes for document [10])
  • The "no-threshold and linearity assumptions" questions posed at the Paris and Washington conferences were another attempt to confusing the ETS regulation science.
    • No threshold, was the position the regulators assumed in the absence of evidence to the contrary. In the absence of contradictory evidence, they always accepted that some people would always be more susceptible to pollutants than others. Therefore there was no "threshold" level where passive smoke in a public space was safe, because it was likely that someone highly susceptible would always be injured. The tobacco industry argued the opposite - that the environment would always need to be close (or exceed!) active-smoking levels (mainstream smoke) before anyone could possibly be injured by ETS.
    • liniarity assumptions were similar but more arguable. The assumption here was that if you doubled the smoke exposure, you doubled the risk of cancer/heart disease: if you tripled the exposure you should have three times the risk. This could be turned around and argued that, if a passive smoker got 5% of the smoke inhaled by an active smoker, then he/she should get 1/20 the number of cancers. The tobacco companies didn't like this argument a bit. They claimed that the dose-disease ratio was non-linear -- that 5% of the smoke exposure would be below the threshold, so even in smoky atmospheres, the incidence of disease caused by passive smoking would be microscopically low.
  • Peter N Lee, who was to make the key-note presentation at the Paris conference [11] was a life-long tobacco industry consultant statistician who did epidemiological work for the UK industry research group (TAC), and evaluated the usefulness of some of their grant recipients.
  • Tom Borelli was Philip Morris's own Washington-based Director of Scientific Affairs. This was a division of the Corporate Affairs department involved in PR and lobbying (not a research function). Borelli was totally devoted to science corruption, and he later formed an alliance in fund-management with Steve Milloy of TASSC called the Free Enterprise Action Fund [12] [13].
  • NMAs are National Manufacturers Associations. Here it means a coalition of the French cigarette makers.
  • IHT is the International Herald Tribute.


Paris conference

The Paris Hilton Conference held on May 10, 1993 purported to be an international scientific seminar to discuss: "Is the Concept of Linear Relationship Between Dose and Effect Still a Valid Model for Assessing Risk Related to Low Doses of Carcinogens?" - a question that the tobacco, chemical, asbestos and other industries wanted resolved in the NEGATIVE. Their desires were rewarded -- at this conference anyway.

This was the first event initiated by the ICSE. Co-sponsors were The Science and Environmental Policy Project, Entreprises pour l'Environnement, and the Conseil national des ingénieurs et scientifiques de France. [14] Two documents sent by ICSE during the preparation of that seminar ([15] [16]) contained the following contact information:

International Center for a Scientific Ecology
10, avenue de Messine, 75008 Paris, France
Tel: 33 1 45 62 20 03, Fax; 33 1 42 89 00 59

That is the same address where scientists could send a copy of the 'Heidelberg Appeal' with their signature.

Some of the speeches of the seminar in Paris can be found at: http://tobaccodocuments.org/health_canada/R2283.html (some missing speeches might be here or here)

Others who made speeches were:

Singer, Stöhrer, Ames, Wildavsky, Chappel, and Lee were all well-paid tobacco industry consultants and/or scientific lobbyists for most of their working lives. Bernard L. Cohen received tobacco industry grants for work on Radon as a possible alternative cause of lung-cancer. J Corbett McDonald worked almost exclusively for the asbestos industry [18], but had ties to tobacco because of the synergistic relationship between the two. William Hazeltine was a mosquito control specialist with links to the Alexis de Tocqueville organisation (and therefore to SEPP). The European links are unknown.

On May 13 Peter Lee reported back on the conference to his tobacco industry paymasters. His notes about this meeting explain: [19]

"There were 14 speakers, 12 of whom appeared; on the agenda (Annex B), and two of whom (Hecker, Latarjet) did not. ... Overall there must have been around 150 people present. ... it was notable that no members of environmental organizations had been invited to the conference, so counter-arguments were often not made."

Washington conference

Philip Morris indirectly sponsored another ICSE seminar later in May 1993 in Washington DC. [21] The website of SEPP, reveals that they cosponsored the confernce with George Mason University's International Institute. It was held on May 24-25, 1993, at The Madison Hotel, Washington, D.C [22]. Both S. Fred Singer and Michel Salomon were participants. (see also SEPP) and the funding and control was handled by Tom Borelli the Director of Scientific Affairs (e.g. Public relations dealing with science) for Philip Morris.

This conference was also loaded with known tobacco industry consultants and academic associates. Robert D Tollison for instance, was a life-long tobacco industry consultant in economics (and other areas), while Robert W. Crandall was the brother of Candace Crandall, who was the wife of S. Fred Singer.

Jean-Pierre Hulot fax on May 30, 1994 with 'Heidelberg Appeal' letterhead tells PR company Burson-Marsteller's key tobacco consultant in Europe, Stig Albinus that:

"We have received your fax dated 27 May 1994. Unfortunately Dr. Salomon is, for the time being, traveling in the US. ... As a follow up of this Heidelberg Appeal initiative, we have set up an international association called "International Center for a Scientific Ecology".

Under this umbrella we have organised, in Paris, last year (May 1993) an international seminar chaired by Dr Bruce Ames. ... So the network is still functioning. Surely slower than we would like." [23]

Federal Focus

  • The tobacco industry's favourite Washington science lobbyist (from Multinational Business Services and Federal Focus), Jim Tozzi charged Philip Morris USA for attending the first conference run by ICSE in Paris in May 1993, and chaired by a Bruce Ames [24]. Tozzi billed them for:

• Attended conference on cancer risk assessment by International Center for a Scientific Ecology in Paris.

• Provided comments to ICSE regarding preparation of consensus statement following above conference.

• Prepared a summary outline on sections of the P. N. Lee paper "Environmental Tobacco Smoke and Lung Cancer Approaches to Risk Assessment" critical of EPA's approach to risk assessment.

  • Tozzi's associate, William G Kelly was a panelist at the second Washington conference, and he circulated information about the Appeal through the Federal Focus newsletter. [25]

ICSE Board

  • Mr. Pierre Joly, Chairman ICSE (President of the Association Française pour la Recherche Thérapeutique; former President of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association)
  • Mr. Constant Burg (1924-1998) (honorary member of the State Council; honorary managing director of INSERM; President of the Institute Curie)
  • Mr. Gilbert Rutman (1928- ) (chief mining engineer; President of the Conseil National des Ingénieurs et des Scientifiques de France)
  • Prof. S. Fred Singer (1924- ) (Doctor of Physical Science; President of the Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)) [26]
  • Mr. Gary Nash (Secratary General of the International Council on Metals and the Environment (ICME); former Director General in the Canada Department of Energy, Mines and Resources) [27]
  • Mr. Michel Salomon (1927- ) (coordinator of the Heidelberg Appeal; former science journalist; magazine editor)

The ICSE was directed by Michel Salomon who is still a member of the Board of Science Advisors of SEPP. [28] His assistant Pierre Hulot, was the organizations Secretary.

The ICSE organization was not established at the time of the conference in Heidelberg (Germany) on April 14, 1992 which was held to discuss "the management of hazardous substances." (see Heidelberg Appeal). It only came into being after the Rio Earth Summit, as a way to exploit their joint corporate success in using the document to confuse the climate-change issues.

In an interview with The Scientist published on July 20, 1992 Salomon said that he was thinking about organizing an international meeting of all document signers to discuss their next move [29], but that didn't happen. SEPP simply set it up, with funding from the asbestos and tobacco industries, and the Center was officially founded at the beginning of 1993 under the French law for non-profit organizations.


Related Links

<tdo>search_term="International Center for a Scientific Ecology"</tdo>

Retrieved from "https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=International_Center_for_a_Scientific_Ecology&oldid=298513"