Junk-science lobbyists

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America and Europe have developed a highly interconnected network of junk-science lobbyists who specialise in arbitrating between "good" or sound science and junk science. These lobbyists generally have a low-level PhD from some second-rate university, or a science degree of some kind (such as biostatistics), which gives them the right to call themelves "Doctor" -- and they often have a history of making their living in the science-writing for popular magazines, or in those hyped-up pseudo scientific magazine.

• Steven J Milloy is the epitome of junk-science lobbyists. He worked for a number of PR companies, including the EOP Group (where he was a registered Washington lobbyist); and with Federal Focus run by Thorne Auchter and James J Tozzi. APCO the lobby firm controlled by Philip Morris set up The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC) which Milloy took over and boosted to stratospheric heights in the media -- which often didn't question his credentials or his funding sources. He was helped along by Rupert Murdoch (a board member of Philip Morris) giving him a berth on Fox TV News.
• Bonner R Cohen who ran a number of operations with Milloy, including the EPA Watch newsletter for Philip Morris.
• Michael Fumento, a science journalist who found it more profitable to write for the funding source.
• Roger Bate worked for the Institute for Economic Affairs in the UK at the time Philip Morris decided to duplicate the TASSC operation in Europe. They sub-let to project to the IEA, and it was supported here by European cigarette manufacturers (and other industries). This was initially known as the Euro-TASSC project but it was later formally developed under the name, European Science and Environment Forum (ESEF).
• Elizabeth Whelan who set up with Frederick Stare the American Council on Science & Health (ACSH), was funded mainly by the American Chemical Council. The tobacco industry supported Stare but not Whelan, because she used the example of cigarettes and second-hand smoke at a scape-goat to divert attention away from chemical-based pollutants. By attacking tobacco she established a reputation as a health-activist/campaigner, when she was actually performing a lobbying function for the chemical industry.
• George L Carlo ran a number of different operations which included genuine science, and quick-and-dirty studies done to generate some publicisable output. His main contributions to the junk-science area, however were the fake epidemiological standard known as GEP and the infamous Bias Study run with Maurice Le Vois. He was also chairman of TASSC's "Advisory Council"

Funding sources

While the tobacco industry initially established the junk-science lobby-movement as a newly organised version of political and scientific lobbying, they quickly realised that their lobbyists couldn't just constantly rail against tobacco smoking science, without their readers quickly realising that they were being conned. Since there were a number of different industries under both health and environmental attacks at this time, they quickly realised the value of making these organisations 'open-slather' for any industry willing to kick in funds.

Climate denial

The illogical outcome of this 'sound-science' and 'junk-science' movement was to attack the environmental/health sciences devoted to air-quality and water pollution. Out of this came the organised climate-denial movement, funded mainly by tobacco and the energy (oil and coal) companies.