Featured Speaker: David Michaels, Author, Doubt is Their Product
Introduction by: Jonathan Moreno, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
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"Doubt is our product," a cigarette executive once observed, "since it is the best means of competing with the ‘body of fact’ that exists in the minds of the general public. It is also the means of establishing a controversy." In his eye-opening new book, Doubt is Their Product, David Michaels reveals how the tobacco industry’s duplicitous tactics spawned a multimillion dollar industry that is dismantling public health safeguards.
Industry executives, he argues, have hired unscrupulous scientists and lobbyists to skew the scientific literature, manufacture and magnify scientific uncertainty, and influence policy decisions to the advantage of polluters and the manufacturers of dangerous products. In doing so, they have delayed action on specific hazards—including global warming, asbestos, lead, plastics, and many other toxic materials—and constructed barriers to make it harder for lawmakers, government agencies, and courts to respond to future threats. As a Newsweek reviewer recently commented, "This book will shock anyone who still believes that ‘science’ and ‘integrity’ are soulmates."
Please join the Center for American Progress for a presentation by David Michaels on industry’s assault on science and the consequences for public health.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008 Program: 12:30pm to 1:30pm Admission is free.
A light lunch will be served at 12:00 pm.
Center for American Progress 1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor Washington, DC 20005 Map & Directions
Nearest Metro: Blue/Orange Line to McPherson Square or Red Line to Metro Center
For more information, please call 202-682-1611.
The Center for American Progress is a nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to promoting a strong, just and free America that ensures opportunity for all. We believe that Americans are bound together by a common commitment to these values and we aspire to ensure that our national policies reflect these values. We work to find progressive and pragmatic solutions to significant domestic and international problems and develop policy proposals that foster a government that is "of the people, by the people, and for the people."