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Corporate influence on Science, government and the military

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    • 15 DEC 17

    FCC repeals net neutrality rules, allowing Internet providers to speed up, slow down or block service for apps and websites

    From the Washington Post

    By Brian Fung, December 14, 2017

    Excerpt

    Federal regulators voted Thursday to allow Internet providers to speed up service for websites they favor — and block or slow down others — in a decision repealing landmark, Obama-era regulations overseeing broadband companies such as AT&T and Verizon.

    The move by the Federal Communications Commission to deregulate the telecom and cable industries was a prominent example of the policy shifts taking place in Washington under President Trump and a major setback for consumer groups, tech companies and Democrats who had lobbied heavily against the decision.

    The 3-2 vote, which was along party lines, enabled the FCC’s Republican chairman, Ajit Pai, to follow through on his promise to repeal the government’s 2015 net neutrality rules, which required Internet providers to treat all websites, large and small, equally. The agency also rejected some of its own authority over the broadband industry in a bid to stymie future FCC officials who might seek to reverse the Republican-led ruling. SNIP

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    • 18 OCT 17

    Huge Amounts of Radiation Won’t Harm You, Pruitt’s EPA Claims

    Scott Pruitt, chief of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), isn’t just going about destroying environmental safeguards; he has now issued a “guideline” document that states that excessive exposure to radiation is safe for human life. That means he’s not only allowing more pollution that can contribute to ill health and degradation of the environment, but he is also putting us at risk when it comes to radiation. According to Bloomberg,

    In the event of a dirty bomb or a nuclear meltdown, emergency responders can safely tolerate radiation levels equivalent to thousands of chest X-rays, the Environmental Protection Agency said in new guidelines that ease off on established safety levels…. SNIP

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    • 29 AUG 17

    Low-Level Effects Hiding in Plain Sight A Reminiscence on Abe Liboff’s 90th Birthday

    Excerpt

    Much of the controversy about the health effects of electromagnetic radiation turns on whether low-level, so-called non-thermal, interactions exist. This is nothing new. The same dispute has been going on for close to 100 years.

    On the occasion of Abe Liboff’s 90th birthday, we look back on two sets of experiments he worked on while he was a fellow at the Naval Medical Research Institute in the 1980’s –as well as some more recent work from Russia and Italy. The results of both experiments were, and still are, nothing short of stunning… SNIP

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    • 27 AUG 17

    Are Corporate Ties Influencing Reuters Science Coverage?

    NOTE: I find it of special interest in the below article the role the Science Media Centre (SMC) has played in spinning science on behalf of its corporate funders. I have written on this previously. See my history of the SMC model of so-called science communication here…

    From EcoWatch
    By Stacy Malkan

    Ever since they classified the world’s most widely used herbicide as “probably carcinogenic to humans,” a team of international scientists at the World Health Organization’s (WHO) cancer research group have been under withering attack by the agrichemical industry and its surrogates. SNIP

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    • 18 AUG 17

    FCC Packs Broadband Advisory Group With Big Telecom Firms, Trade Groups

    When the Federal Communications Commission went looking this year for experts to sit on an advisory committee regarding deployment of high-speed internet, they took the often favoured route and loaded the 30 member panel with corporate executives, trade groups and free-market scholars. More than three out of four seats on the BDAC are filled by business-friendly representatives from the biggest wireless and cable companies such as AT&T Inc., Comcast Corp., Sprint Corp., and TDS Telecom. Crown Castle International Corp., the nation’s largest wireless infrastructure company, and Southern Co., the nation’s second-largest utility firm, have representatives on the panel. Also appointed to the panel were broadband experts from conservative think tanks who have been critical of FCC regulations such as the International Center for Law and Economics and the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. SNIP

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    • 02 AUG 17

    GM crop moratorium opposition. The SPIN hots up in Australia

    It seems that no matter how convincing the evidence for harm from GM technology is, the often used tactic in contentions issues is to raise doubts over that science or deny it altogether. Take for example the recent ABC Landline TV program on South Australia’s continuing ban on the growing of genetically modified foods (GM). The program gave voice to the concerns of the state’s grain growers who wanted the state government to end the ban when the state GM moratorium expires in 2019. However, Mr. Weatherall, the state premier wants to maintain the state’s GM-free status, arguing that it is more valuable to the state’s farm economy. On the other hand, Wade Dabinett, chairman of Grain Producers South Australia made the astonishing statement; “The State Government’s role is not to regulate on the safety of GM, it’s to grow the economic pie.” Dr Geoff Fincher, emeritus professor from the University of Adelaide who has been involved in the study of GM crops for over 20 years. said; “When you really look hard at the evidence of any serious dangers or harm associated with the technology, proven with rigorous and rigid experimentation, you don’t find that evidence.” Perhaps they should read the new ‘Monsanto Papers’ before making such ill-founded statements. Read on….

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    • 31 JUL 17

    The Poison Papers

    100,000 Pages of Chemical Industry Secrets Gathered Dust in an Oregon Barn for Decades — Until Now

    From The Intercept

    Sharon Lerner

    July 27 2017, 12:43 a.m.

    For decades, some of the dirtiest, darkest secrets of the chemical industry have been kept in Carol Van Strum’s barn. Creaky, damp, and prowled by the occasional black bear, the listing, 80-year-old structure in rural Oregon housed more than 100,000 pages of documents obtained through legal discovery in lawsuits against Dow, Monsanto, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Forest Service, the Air Force, and pulp and paper companies, among others.

    As of today, those documents and others that have been collected by environmental activists will be publicly available through a project called the Poison Papers. Together, the library contains more than 200,000 pages of information and “lays out a 40-year history of deceit and collusion involving the chemical industry and the regulatory agencies that were supposed to be protecting human health and the environment,” said Peter von Stackelberg, a journalist who along with the Center for Media and Democracy and the Bioscience Resource Project helped put the collection online. SNIP

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    • 28 JUL 17

    The Science Inquisition in America

    From Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)

    Excerpt

    After the Spanish Inquisition arose during the 15th century, it spread across most of Europe. In 1616, the Roman Inquisition judged the Copernican proposition that the Earth moves around the sun “formally heretical” leading to placement of Copernicus’s On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres on the Index of Forbidden Books.

    Because he expanded Copernican theories, Galileo was tried by the Inquisition in 1633 and found “vehemently suspect of heresy.” He was forced to recant and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. Does any of this sound familiar? The Trump White House currently regards as heresy the idea that human activity has an effect on the 60-mile thick blanket of the Earth’s atmosphere – or that something can be done about it. As a result, our climate is becoming like the weather – everyone talks about it but nobody does anything about it. SNIP

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    • 19 JUN 17

    Monsanto Spin Doctors Target Cancer Scientist In Flawed Reuters Story

    From the Huffington Post by Carey Gillam

    Excerpt

    In a well-orchestrated and highly coordinated media coup, Monsanto Co. and friends this week dropped a bombshell on opponents who are seeking to prove that the company’s beloved Roundup herbicide causes cancer… It was a blockbuster of a story, and was repeated by news organizations around the globe, pushed by press releases from Monsanto-backed organizations and trumpeted by industry allies like the American Chemistry Council…It was also flawed and misleading in a number of critical respects. SNIP

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    • 16 JUN 17

    Government paving the way for 5G and the IoT

    The Australian Government is seeking comments on possible amendments to telecommunications carrier powers and immunities. Titled, “Consultation on possible amendments to telecommunications carrier powers and immunities” this exercise looks suspiciously like preparing the ground for the next generation of wireless technology such as 5G, enabling the Internet of Things (IoT). A Brave New World…

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    • 16 MAY 17

    People don’t trust scientific research when companies are involved

    From The Conversation

    May 8, 2017

    Excerpt

    A soda company sponsoring nutrition research. An oil conglomerate helping fund a climate-related research meeting. Does the public care who’s paying for science?

    In a word, yes. When industry funds science, credibility suffers. And this does not bode well for the types of public-private research partnerships that appear to be becoming more prevalent as government funding for research and development lags.

    The recurring topic of conflict of interest has made headlines in recent weeks. The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine has revised its conflict of interest guidelines following questions about whether members of a recent expert panel on GMOs had industry ties or other financial conflicts that were not disclosed in the panel’s final report.

    Our own recent research speaks to how hard it may be for the public to see research as useful when produced with an industry partner, even when that company is just one of several collaborators. SNIP

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    • 06 MAY 17

    Trump orders FDA TV’s to be locked on FOX News (A big win for Rupert Murdock)

    In what may be a backroom deal between Trump and Rupert Murdock, the head of FOX News, the TV’s at the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) research campus are to be locked on the FOX News station.

    CBS News has confirmed an email was sent to researchers at the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research responding to apparent efforts to change the channel on internal television screens. The email from “[White Oak] Digital Display” sent on Wednesday, May 3, was sent to inform the researchers of the “reason for the change from CNN to Fox.” White Oak is the name of the FDA’s campus.

    The email goes on to inform employees that the decision came from the Trump administration.
    SNIP….

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    • 29 APR 17

    Dariusz Leszczynski: Where science and big money collide…

    From the blog: Between a Rock and a Hard place

    April 28, 2017
    Excerpt

    Where science and big money collide, we enter a strange “twilight zone” of science politics, where various methods are applied to neutralize “inconvenient” science.

    One of the examples of such collision between science and big money is presented in, as always, a very good story from Louis Slesin: ‘Peer Review in the Raw’. From his long-time perspective as Editor of the ‘Microwave News’ Louis is showing, yet again, that science and politics in EMF are a “toxic mix” for science.

    The story of Henry Lai and N.P. Singh reminded me of my first publication in EMF arena.

    In 2002 my research group published article that made worldwide headlines: ‘Non-thermal activation of the hsp27/p38MAPK stress pathway by mobile phone radiation in human endothelial cells: molecular mechanism for cancer- and blood-brain barrier-related effects.’ by Leszczynski D, Joenväärä S, Reivinen J, Kuokka R; Differentiation. 2002 May; 70(2-3):120-9…. SNIP

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    • 09 APR 17

    Australia’s NH&MRC accused of bias and misleading the public

    In the below press release from the Australian HomÅ“opathic Association, they make the allegation that the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC)has misled the public over the effectiveness of homeopathic medicine and has systematic conflicts of interest in its scientific evaluation. Well, if proven, that is nothing new. For example see Professor Martin Brian’s 1986 paper; Bias in awarding research grants, published in British Medical Journal…
    SNIP
    In the above light, perhaps the NH&MRC can be considered more of a “captured agency” firmly binded to government and industry policy, ignoring inconvenient evidence….

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    • 14 MAR 17

    Highly recommended: Video of Leszczynski’s lecture in Reykjavik on Feb. 24, 2017

    Video of Leszczynski’s lecture in Reykjavik on Feb. 24, 2017

    Here is the link to Dariusz’s video of his presentation in Reykjavik on Feb. 24, 2017

    The first slide sets the tone:

    ICNIRP, WHO EMF Project & Environmental Health Criteria

    The most influential ‘echo chamber’ is ICNIRP, a “private club” where the current members select and appoint new members. SNIP

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    • 01 MAR 17

    Science Propaganda wars (The Ecologist)

    Propaganda wars: ‘pro-science’ GMO, chemicals boosters funded by climate change deniers

    Stacy Malkan

    28th February 2017

    Excerpt

    They promote GMOs, defend toxic chemicals, and attack people who raise concerns about those products as ‘anti-science’. But behind the slick ‘astroturf’ PR fronts lurk some very dubious funders: the same arch-conservative foundations that finance climate science denial. Stacy Malkan exposes the key players in the agribusiness and chemical industry propaganda wars. SNIP

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    • 28 FEB 17

    Judge Rules California Must Release Papers Discussing Risk Of Cellphone Use

    BERKELEY (KPIX 5) — California could have to hand over some documents on cellphone use it tried to keep under wraps.

    On Friday, a Superior Court judge ruled the state must release papers discussing the possible risks of long-term cellphone use. The documents were written by the state’s Environmental Health Investigations branch and are believed to contain cellphone radiation warnings and recommendations for public use.But the state refused to hand them over when requested by a director at University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health. So Joel Moskowitz, Ph.D., sued the state under the California Public Records Act. SNIP

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    • 30 JAN 17

    Scientific misconduct, censorship and the Interphone study

    From Dariusz Leszczynski’s blog, Between a Rock and A hard Place.

    Excerpt

    Uncensored version of blog post on Interphone, first published in 2011 and re-published for the first time now…

    Posted on January 30, 2017

    Below is the uncensored version of my science blog published in 2011. This version was subsequently censored by, then, STUK Director General who called me personally and informed that if I do not agree to rewrite the blog post he will need to consider if I am suited to continue work at STUK. Under this threat I agreed and STUK Director General personally revised my blog post. The link to censored version of the post and to two other posts on this subject can be found in my yesterday’s blog post. The uncensored version of the blog, published in 2011 and re-published for the first time since, gives a better idea of what happened to science and what form of scientific misconduct Interphone committed…SNIP

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    • 27 JAN 17

    U.S. Congress moves to eliminate regulations that inhibit the roll-out of IoT technology

    The “Mobile Now Act” and “The DIGIT Act” have passed out of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee and are headed to the full senate for a vote. They will probably be heard in the next week or two.

    Bill Info: These bills lay the foundation for the Internet of Things that will require a small cell tower transmitter every couple of homes emitting high frequency 24Ghz to 90Ghz which has never been tested for non-thermal biological effects [It is illegal in the land of democracy to oppose wireless technology for health or environmental reasons]. These transmitters will be put in public right of ways with NO ability to consider health and safety. The transmitters will be ugly, decrease property values, and expose occupants to potentially harmful microwave radiation so that your home appliances can communicate with one another which does not seem like a necessity and your privacy can be violated even more easily.

    S19
    Mobile Now Act (a) Short Title.—This Act may be cited as the “Making Opportunities for Broadband Investment and Limiting Excessive and Needless Obstacles to Wireless Act” or the “MOBILE NOW Act”.

    S88 the DIGIT Bill “To ensure appropriate spectrum planning and interagency coordination to support the Internet of Things.” SNIP

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    • 19 JAN 17

    Susan Foster on Conflict of Interest in the Berkeley’s “right to know”

    From the blog of Dariusz Leszczynski, Between a Rock and A Hard Place

    Excerpt

    This is the next in a series of the Guest Blogs on BRHP. The opinions expressed in it are of Susan Foster herself (photo). Publication of these opinions in BRHP does not imply that BRHP automatically agrees with or endorses these opinions. Publication of this, and other Guest Blogs, is an attempt to start an open debate and free exchange of opinions on RF and health.

    WILL A JUDGE’S FAILURE TO RECUSE

    SILENCE BERKELEY’S “RIGHT TO KNOW”?

    The long battle over cell phone consumer labels, with a hidden twist of legal super heroes and questions about a Ninth Circuit Court judge’s failure to recuse herself.

    A battle over free speech in Berkeley, California has pitted the city of Berkeley against the mighty telecommunications trade group, CTIA – The Wireless Association. Berkeley stands on the First Amendment argument they have a right to inform consumers of certain precautions the FCC already requires in the back of cell phone user’s manuals. SNIP

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