Richard Silberman
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Rich Silberman was hired by Gray Robertson to become a spokesman on sick buildings for Healthy Buildings International (HBI). The company was the main sham air-testing company which made a fortune out of providing special services to the tobacco industry, both in churning out distorted measurements of indoor air quality (IAQ), and also in providing witness services to local ordinance hearings, legislative inquires, court cases and in media briefings.
The idea that buildings were sick -- known both as Sick Building Syndrome and Tight Building Syndrome were the inventions of tobacco industry lobbyists following a short, but newsworthy scare when a small number of veterans died from legionnaire's disease -- traced back to a poorly maintained water-tank air-conditioning system on a large conference venue. The tobacco industry and its paid coterie of sham air-testing companies used the opportunity to beat up the problems of air quality in buildings caused by plastics, synthetic carpeting, vapours from the early photocopying machines -- while ignoring the contribution of second-hand smoke. By paying the testing companies, the tobacco industry always had the figures to prove that smoke was never more than a trivial problem.
The main staff at ACVA and HBI in the USA were Gray Robertson, Peter Binnie, Simon Turner, Richard Silberman, Jeffrey Seckler, Miles Price, Reginald Simmons, Gregory Wulchin, Nicole Miles, Anne Robertson, Brenda Groves, Susan Voccio, and Dee Huss. This would only be a fraction of those hired over the years, and branches in other countries would have also had staff.
| ASSOCIATED ENTITIES, STAFF AND SCAMS |
|---|
| ACVA/Atlantic |
| Healthy Buildings International (HBI) |
| Peter WH Binnie and Gray Robertson |
| Richard Silberman and Simon Turner |
| Jeffrey R Seckler and Reginald B. Simmons |
| Business Council on Indoor Air |
| The Legionnaire's disease scam |
| Sick Building Syndrome |
| ACVA/HBI (Doc Index) |
Rich Silberman and Gray Robertson from HBI became fixtures in the Tobacco Institute's travelling media circus, which was circulated through the major regional centers in the USA, where they lobbied politicians, provided briefings to the media, offered themselves for interviewes on radio, and acted as witnesses for local ordinance hearings, etc. Usually the PR company Fleishman-Hillyard looked after these operations on a day-to-day basis. Silberman also appears to be a good speaker because he is the senior staff member sent to symposia and to do radio intereviews on Sick Building Syndrome.
Documents and Timelines
1992 June 2 Richard Silberman is identified here in this transcript as the spokesman for "Health Buildings Syndrome'" [Actually 'International'] (HBI) for an appearance on radio in Cincinnati to promote the idea that there was such as thing as [[Sick Building Syndrome[[ (SBS)
Apparently the symptoms of SBS are respiratory problems and lethargy, and the desire to take a day off work to recover. "...when they left the building at the end of the day, their syptoms subsided only to return again when they returned to work the next day." [2]
1991 Mar 15 Report on IAQ conference in Washington March 14-15. Silberman is not a speaker and the other speakers all appear to be legitimate. [3]
1992 Jul 15 Fleishman-Hillyard is billion Gray Robertson at HBI for "meals and refreshments for the Barry Frazier and HBI Group seminar and media tours. Also for air tickets for, Gray Robertson, D Handler, Richard Silberman etc doing media tours. Fleishman-Hillyard always billed HBI, then Robertson would bill the Tobacco Institute. [documents.library.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/tykf0107]
1992 Jul 27 Gray Roberson is billing Mary Pottorff at Philip Morris for the services of Simon Turner and Richard Silberman in presenting the seminars in Boston and New York on July 21-22, 1992. Thes consulting fees were $1000 a day ($3,000) and expenses added another $2,000. [4]
1988 to 1993 Diana L Avedon at the Tobacco Institute ran a major media-tour operation called the Scientific Witness Teams. This operation circulated variable teams of TI staff spokespersons, contracted sham air-testing company staff, one or more Covington & Burling lawyers, and other more specialied tobacco lobbyists. They were used in two ways:
- As fire-fighters, to turn up in some town or region when problem about public or workplace smoking was arising, and do media interviews.
- To make regular media tours through various parts of the country to promote Tobacco Institute propaganda.
They were paid to visit major cities in each state, where the Regional Tobacco Institute staff would have arranged radio, TV or news coverage, and set up meetings with key officials at the local councils, counter air-ports (smoking bans) and meet with the editorial boards of media outlets. This is Diana Avedon's list of the key contractors on these group media-tours. It had the advantage of each participant getting to know the others, which introduced a collegial element to their shared message distortions.
| 1993 Jun 1 TI list of "Witness/Expert Appearances Scientific/Legal/Spokespersons." | ||
|---|---|---|
| Thomas Lauria Assistant to the Tobacco Institute President, | Mike Buckley lawyer-lobbyist with Covington & Burling, | Simon Turner IAQ witness/executive of ACVA/HBI, |
| Gio Batta Gori Corrupt science researcher at Nat. Cancer Institute He ran the Tobacco Working Group for the industry until fired. | Bill Wordham Tobacco Institute's Media spokesperson | Gray Robertson Partner in ACVA then owner of HBI Lifelong contractor for sham air-testing with TI |
| Peter Binnie owner/partner of ACVA and HBI He sold his share of HBI to Gray Robertson | Larry Holcomb Ran sham air-testing company (airlines) Holcomb Environmental Services | John C Fox Lawyer lobbyist for TI via Pettit & Martin Later also through Pillsbury Madison & Sutro |
| Richard Silberman Healthy Buildings International (HBI) spokesman on 'sick buildings' | Walter Merryman TI Public Relations, then Issues Management Later VP at the Tobacco Institute. | David Remes legal strategist from the main law firm Covington & Burling (C&B) |
| Frank Powell National Energy Management Institute (NEMI) organiser who worked for TI | Melinda L Sidak C&B lawyer; strategist in science corruption Worked on recruitment of scientists. | Rudy Cole He ran restaurant front-group RSVP He organised lobby against smoking bans. |
| Larry Halfen Environmental Consultants; TI witness | ||
| An attached 1991 Witness List includes | ||
| Brennan Dawson Media relations at the Tobacco Institute | Jeff Seckler Exec. in charge of HBI's sham air testing He later turned whistleblower. | Jim Goold Lawyer sent on media tours by the Tobacco institute to train witnesses. |
| Joe Pedelty worked for Holcomb Environmental Services Did sham air-testing for TI | Jolly Ann Davidson NASBE school/educational lobbyist, ran "Helping Youth Decide" program for TI | Dick Wagner GMU economics professor (Tollison aide) Key in cash-for-comments network |
| Bernadette Davidson lawyer and media lobbyist with John Fox She was retained by TI as IAQ witness | Walter J Decker Ran Toxicology Consultancy Services Provide witness services for the TI | |
| Bill Orzechowski TI Director of Economic Issues He was ex-US Chambers of Commerce | Mike Davis (Dallas Texas) Prof of Econ. and Business Management Witness for the Tobacco Institute. | Morris Coats Prof Economics West Virginia. Worked in cash-for-comments net. |
| The main long document has this 1989 witness list attached with the addition (to above) | ||
| Dwight Lee economics professor and leader of cash-for-comments economists network | David A Weeks Boise Idaho physician, TI Witness Partner of S James Kilpatrick in Per-Med Corp. | Alan Kassman Ex tobacco industry scientist. Retrained to provide legislative and media briefings. |
| Robert Tollison GMU professor of economics who ran the cash-for-comments economists network | Richard Wagner Economics professor and TI witness. Tollison's understudy in c-for-c network | Jack E Peterson Industrial hygienist; ran Peterson Assoc. Also worked for Dow Chemicals |
| Bestype Consulting Corporation they ran TI's "Sick Building Syndrome" and "Tight Building Syndrome" seminars. | Dennis A Vaughn Lawyer-lobbyist for Tobacco Institute, Associate of John Fox at P&M and PM & Sutro | |
| The 1988 List includes most of above with the additions of: | ||
| Alan W Katzenstein Biostatistician with Katzenstein Assoc. Witness for Tobacco Institute, | David Brenton Ran the Smokers Rights Alliance His wife Sue had her focus on airline smoking. | |
| http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/otz92b00/pdf | ||
[Numerous other documents detail the day-to-day organization of these groups spread over five or more years.]
