logo

Corporate influence on Science, government and the military

  • Home
  •  
  • Corporate influence on Science, government and the military
    • 13 FEB 16

    Science for Sale: Making a cancer cluster disappear (Joel Moscowitz)

    For those on this list who do not get the blog postings from Joel Moscowitz’s site I suggest you do so. Below is his latest which reminds me of a number of possible EMR related cancer clusters in Australia which were conveniently made to disappear, such as the brain tumour cases in RMIT Building 108, in Melbourne (2006). SNIP

    From Joel Moscowitz:

    The following article by the Center for Public Integrity documents how the chemical industry protects its interests by co-opting scientists and the public health establishment. The telecom/wireless industry has employed the same playbook originally developed by Big Tobacco to manufacture doubt about the harm of its products. SNIP

    Science and opinion have become increasingly conflated, in large part because of corporate influence. As we explain in “Science for Sale,” an investigative series by the Center for Public Integrity and co-published with Vice.com, industry-backed research has exploded – often with the aim of obscuring the truth – as government-funded science dwindles.
    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 04 FEB 16

    Science for Sale by David Lewis: recommended reading

    Following a similar vein as the last blog message,”Report from the Science and Wireless 2015 event in Australia” the 2014 book, Science For Sale by David Lewis PhD is relevant reading. The sub title is:

    How the US government uses powerful corporations and leading universities to support government policies, silence top scientists, jeopardize our health, and protect corporate profits.

    However the title would be just as accurate if it alternatively read: How powerful ‘US corporations use the government, etc’- considering the “revolving door” between corporate America and the government where govt. agencies are effectively given over to corporate control in exchange for large election donations. If it was in a 3rd World country it would be condemned as outright corruption. In the USA however, its just accepted as business as usual…

    From the book:

    The government hires scientists to support its policies; industry hires them to support its business; and universities hire them to bring in grants that are handed out to support government policies and industry practices. Organizations dealing with scientific integrity are designed only to weed out those who commit fraud behind the backs of the institutions where they work. The greatest threat of all is the purposeful corruption of the scientific enterprise by the institutions themselves. The science they create is often only an illusion, designed to deceive; and the scientists they destroy to protect that illusion are often our best…

    Review by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.:

    “David Lewis has been a beacon of integrity against the apocalyptical forces of ignorance and greed endeavoring to divert science from the noble pursuit of truth and pervert it into a tool that supports the most destructive policies of industry and government.”

    Read more →
    • 30 JAN 16

    Report from the Science and Wireless 2015 event in Australia

    This, must read, report analyzing the various presentations from SCIENCE & WIRELESS 2015 was prepared for the Pandora Foundation and for the Kompetenzinitiative by Dariusz Leszczynski, PhD, DSc (biochemistry) & Kirsti Leszczynski, PhD (physics). Science and Wireless 2015 was hosted at the RMIT University in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, on December 8, 2015.
    Excerpt:

    Dariusz concludes in part:

    Unfortunately, enthusiastic opinion of the Science & Wireless event has vanished. The S&W events organized in 2014 at the Wollongong University and in 2015 at the RMIT have not much to do with the community interaction between scientists, industry and users. S&W events in 2014 and 2015 were just presentations of science by scientists for the benefit of the industry. The real users of wireless technology, some of whom are concerned with possible/probable health risks, were clearly marginalized in 2014 and 2015. The community participants had no presentations to express their views and opinions and the opportunity to voice opinions in the discussion was severely limited by the time constraints. As of now, the Science & Wireless event cannot be called anymore a ‘Community Interaction’ event.

    Read more →
    • 14 JAN 16

    NCRP Nixed Cell Phone Safety Advice Told CDC To Delete Cautionary Recommendation

    From Microwave News

    Excerpt

    The National Council on Radiation Protection, an organization chartered by the U.S. Congress, pressured the Centers for Disease Control to remove any reference to “caution” in its fact sheet on the use of cell phones. The NCRP was disturbed by the interpretation that CDC was endorsing “precaution.”

    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 13 SEP 15

    Dr Karl Kruszelnicki gets his science facts so terribly wrong

    This morning (Sunday) on the ABC breakfast TV program, Australia’s well known science presenter and resident expert on all things, Dr Karl Kruszeinicki was interviewed on reports of dangers from Wi Fi and mobile phones. No transcript yet but to briefly summarize Dr. Karl’s viewpoint he saw no dangers other than heating (the old thermal paradigm) and actually said that the WHO had examined the issue and “found nothing”. For a scientist to get his facts so wrong on a nationwide ABC broadcast is inexcusable. Nothing was said about the WHO’s agency, the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (IARC) classification of radiofrequency as a possible human carcinogen. Nothing about Hardell’s findings, just a highly public all clear for the telco industry and the government’s pro-telco policy. Interestingly there was a brief flash in the program showing the The “International EMF Scientist Appeal” which asks the Secretary General and UN affiliated bodies to encourage precautionary measures, to limit EMF exposures, and to educate the public about health risks, particularly to children and pregnant women. Kruszeinicki did not refer to this Appeal and so it was apparent that the point to his whole presentation was a subtle casting of doubt over the Appeal’s claims. Did Kruszeinicki even bother to read and consider the Appeal before attacking it? Perhaps not considering the time when he previously went on air spruiking a government policy without even taking the time to read the report which he was being paid to publicise – and regretted it later.

    Take his support of the Abbot government’s Intergenerational Report which downplayed climate change for example:

    Read more →
    • 09 SEP 15

    20 Organisations Complain to the European Commission about the SCENIHR 2015 Opinion

    From the International EMF Alliance:

    The Complaint from 20 organisations to the European Commission about the SCENIHR 2015 opinion on health effects from electromagnetic fields was sent on September 2, 2015 to Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis, Director General Xavier Pratsmonne, Deputy Director General Martin Seychell, Director John F. Ryan, Mr Stefan Schreck. We encourage you to post the complaint on your websites and send it to your national and European political representatives. We also encourage you to inform journalists and the media about the inacceptable biased expert report on EMF health effects from the European Commission. This has been going on for years, it has to stop. The experts behind the SCENIHR report are not representative of the scientific expertise in the field. They only represent the industry friendly single side of the expertise, in well known contrast to the opinion of a large and increasing number of scientists in the EMF scientific arena.

    As an example, SNIP

    Read more →
    • 04 AUG 15

    SCENIHR’s Procrustean Approach exposed!

    For some months the International EMF Alliance (IEMFA) has been examining the activities of the SCENIHR working group on Potential health effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields. This supposedly expert group has given the all-clear to telecommunications technology. What stands out with SCENIHR’s risk assessment process is a striking lack of pluralism and transparency. The analysis by a number of IEMFA members has found that SCENIHR’d expert opinion is strongly biased towards corporate, military and economic interests with a strategic need for wireless techniques.- Or as I would put it, SCENIHR follows a classic Procrustean Approach.

    Following are links to IEMFA’s assessment of the SCENIHR spin.
    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 29 JUN 15

    FCC: ‘Prime Example of Institutional Corruption’

    In a new publication just released from Harvard University, Norm Alster examines how the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is dominated by the industries it presumably regulates.

    “The FCC‘s network of corruption doesn‘t just shield industry from needed scrutiny and regulation on matters of public health and safety. Sometimes it just puts its hand directly into the public pocket and redistributes that cash to industry supplicants.”

    “The General Accounting Office (GAO) has issued several reports citing fraud, waste and mismanagement, along with inadequate FCC oversight of the subsidy program. Bribery, kickbacks and false documentation can perhaps be expected in a handout program mandated by Congress and only indirectly supervised by the FCC. But the scope of fraud has been impressive.”
    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 26 JUN 15

    IARC Conflict of Interest Statement Updated

    From Louis Slesin, Microwave News:

    Lancet Oncology, the journal which published the official announcement of IARC’s decision to designate RF radiation as a possible human carcinogen, has issued a correction to the conflict of interest (COI) statement it had included for Niels Kuster, the Swiss researcher and entrepreneur based in Zurich. Kuster attended IARC’s evaluation of RF radiation in May 2011 as an “invited specialist.”

    While this correction adds some important details, no one should lose sight of the fact that IARC invited three representatives from industry to be observers at the meeting, while barring attendance of the press.

    Read more →
    • 06 MAY 15

    Carrie Bickmore on Brain Cancer: A must see

    Why is brain cancer research on causes underfunded in Australia?

    The other night on Australia’s TV Logie Awards the Gold Logie winner was Carrie Bickmore, a presenter on the TV news program The Project. For her speech she departed from the usual and instead, spoke about the incidence of brain cancer and said it was ludicrous that so little research was going into the disease.

    This is a must- see video!
    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 01 APR 15

    ICNIRP continues with its Procrustean Approach…keep it on thermal effects only and ignore the rest

    The charade continues….
    ICNIRP/WHO Workshop “A closer look at the thresholds of thermal damage”, 26-28 May 2015

    Scope: In view of updating the guidance on limiting exposure to high frequency (HF) fields, ICNIRP will review the current scientific knowledge on the thresholds of thermal damage. The current workshop will revisit the ICNIRP 1998 concept, namely that the health relevant increase of body core temperature is approximately 1° C and a whole-body exposure with an average SAR of 4 W/kg result in a core temperature increase of less than 1°C within 30 min. Details of this concept as well as thresholds for partial/local body exposures are subjects to review. SNIP

    Read more →
    • 25 MAR 15

    Off topic: More on America’s worst plane ever: The F-35

    Apologies to readers of this blog. I know this has nothing to do with the EMF issue but it is relevant to a book I am writing on the revolving door between US government agencies (including FCC, EPA, the Pentagon, etc.) and corporate America. The F-35 may be the worst plane ever to attempt getting off the ground, with massive problems and cost blow-outs but it is a great financial success for the corporations building the thing. For them, the money just keeps rolling in as they keep on finding problems then and charging the US Government and taxpayer to fix it – and on and on it goes.

    And then there are the senior military officers and some congressmen with vested interests in continuing to keep the F-35 project alive for their own benefit, such as getting a plush job with a corporate military contractor after retirement. No wonder why the US deficit is in the order of $17 trillion dollars with the Pentagon now wanting a budget of $1 trillion to pay the corporations to upgrade all their weapons systems.

    The author of the below article concludes with a question: “Can someone tell me why we’re building this thing?” This is the answer….

    SNIP

    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 03 MAR 15

    Dariusz Leszczynski: The Power of the Industrial Lobby: The case of tobacco – how about telecom?…

    Excerpt:

    On February 24, 2015, BMJ published document ““Massive” tobacco industry third party lobbying for revised European Directive” about industry lobbying efforts to affect EU legislation. The full document is available here with additional links in it. The BMJ document deals with tobacco, classified by IARC to be human carcinogen (Group 1). According to the IARC monograph there are 1 billion of smokers.Knowing that the tobacco smoke is carcinogenic, the enormous efforts of the tobacco industry, successfully lobbying against EU regulation of tobacco, are astonishing and shocking. Money talks, even if it is against human health. What is more, the EU law was not about forbidding of smoking but but merely about “…an increase in the size of graphic health warnings, a ban on certain flavourings, restrictions on the size and shape of cigarette packs, and regulation of e-cigarettes…” This reminds the cell phone package labeling-wars with the telecom industry – e.g. San Francisco… Industry makes profit but the costs of health care for the people made sick by the industry product is left for us – the taxpayers.
    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 16 FEB 15

    WHO follows the procrustean approach!

    Looks like time is approaching for a need to update my 2010 thesis, especially considering Dariusz Leszczynski’s latest blog.

    Don
    ******************************************************************************************************************

    Excerpt

    Handling an Inquiry – The WHO-style
    Posted on February 15, 2015
    Dariusz Leszczynski

    On December 27, 2014, I sent an e-mail message to Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General of the WHO. In this message I expressed my concern about the process of preparation of the Environmental Health Criteria by the WHO EMF Project.

    Today, on February 15, 2015, I received response to my message. However, my surprise was great when it appeared that the response was sent to me by the Head of the WHO EMF Project, Dr. Emilie van Deventer.

    It seems “strange” that, at the WHO, when expressing concern about the actions of a person, the person in question handles the response to the inquiry/complaint… This means that, of course, the response will “clearly demonstrate” that there is absolutely no reason for any concern.

    Matter closed – the WHO-style.

    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 13 FEB 15

    Recommended!: The GameChanger: revision of dosimetry by Schmid & Kuster (Dariusz Leszczynski

    From Dariusz Leszczynski:

    Excerpt:

    In the spring of 1999, while I was still working as an Assistant Professor at the Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital, I took part in the planning meeting of the EU REFLEX Project. At that time I was virtually unknown in the area of cell phone radiation research and for the invitation to join REFLEX project I need to thank Bernard Veyret, whom I meet once, at the radiation meeting in Capri.

    Two persons, one present and one absent from the REFLEX meeting, impacted heavily on the direction of the research executed by my group at STUK.

    The present person was Mays Swicord of Motorola, who was invited by Franz Adlkofer, to be coordinator of the REFLEX project, to provide advice. It was Mays Swicord who got visibly agitated and outright dismissed my pilot results that I presented at this meeting. In his opinion it was wrong to use high SAR even if exposure system had water cooling to keep temperature of the endothelial cell culture at 37 + 0.2-0.3oC.

    The results that I presented showed dramatic changes in protein expression in human endothelial cell line EA.hy926 exposed at 10.0 SAR. Mays Swicord said, very authoritatively that what we did was wrong, even if the temperature was controlled.
    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 26 JAN 15

    The Triumph of the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex To understand perverse military decision-making, follow the money

    From the “War Is Boring” blog

    by BEN COHEN & WINSLOW WHEELER

    In his farewell address in January 1961, Pres. Dwight Eisenhower famously cautioned the American public to “guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.” Today it’s routine for critics of wasteful military spending to cite Eisenhower’s warning. Unfortunately, Eisenhower did not warn us that the military-industrial complex would become increasingly malignant as it morphed into less obvious forms. The “complex” is no longer just “military” and “industrial,” and it has extended far beyond just its congressional branch, which Eisenhower also intended to include. It’s now deeply embedded in the fiber of the American political system, academia, the civilian leadership of the Defense Department and–increasingly–the White House itself.
    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 17 JAN 15

    Forbes Magazine Caves to Industry Pressure

    From Joel M. Moskowitz

    Joel’s comment: An annotated version of the original Forbes article (Jan 12, 2015), “Study Suggests Wi-Fi Exposure More Dangerous To Kids Than Previously Thought,” is available on the The “Take Back Your Power” web site if you wish to compare the original version of this article with the revised version that now appears on the Forbes web site (updated on Jan 14, 2015).

    Forbes Magazine Caves to Industry Pressure

    Coalition to Stop Smart Meters, Jan 13, 2015

    An example of how industry influences news. Two days ago I sent out the original version of an article by Forbes saying that a study showed that wifi could be more dangerous to children than previously thought. Here is the original version of some parts along with the “updates” and a new ending version that is now on the web:

    “More generally, the studies cited in the paper found RF/EMF exposure is linked to cancers of the brain and salivary glands, ADHD, low sperm count, and, among girls who keep cell phones in their bra, breast cancer….

    CHANGED TO:

    “More generally, the studies cited in the paper seek to link RF/EMF exposure to different types of cancer, low sperm count, and other disorders.”

    NEW ADDITION:

    “However, it is important to note that studies such as these need to be taken in their proper context. This particular study is one group’s perspective. It was published in a relatively new and minor journal with limited data sets. They also note that the average time between exposure to a carcinogen and a resultant tumor is three or more decades, thus making it difficult to arrive at definitive conclusions.”
    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 10 NOV 14

    Net Neutrality: Can You Hear Us Now?

    Excerpt:

    FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is refusing to participate in any public hearings on net neutrality. On a recent Monday night in Brooklyn, five empty chairs stood on stage – one for each member of the Federal Communications Commission. A crowd had amassed in the room for a public hearing to send this message to the agency: Don’t hurt the open Internet. But the commissioners’ absence sent a stronger message: We’re not listening.

    The FCC – the agency charged with regulating telecommunications – is expected to vote by the end of the year on Chairman Tom Wheeler’s plan to let Internet service providers (ISPs) offer “fast lanes” to companies that can afford to pay for speedier access…. In fact, the FCC has gone out of its way to avoid attending public gatherings like the one in Brooklyn. It’s been more than five years since all five FCC commissioners left Washington together to participate in a public hearing where anyone could testify.These kinds of public hearings used to be commonplace for the agency, regardless of which political party was in control of Washington. But Wheeler’s FCC is different. Instead of appearing at events with open microphones, Wheeler – a former lobbyist for the cable and wireless industries – has opted to attend industry trade shows. In fact, all five commissioners consistently attend the annual conventions of the cable, wireless, broadcasting, and electronics industries. Yet somehow they just can’t find the time to meet with the public.
    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 03 NOV 14

    “Green Electricity or Green Money? Why some environmental groups hamper clean energy (and support the smart grid)

    Excerpt
    The National Institute for Science, Law & Public Policy has published a new paper, “Green Electricity or Green Money? Why some environmental groups hamper clean energy”, by Timothy Schoechle, PhD. It highlights conflicts of interest and mistaken positions on energy policy at certain large environmental organizations. Please share widely and help us shine a light on this important issue impeding transformation to a clean energy economy…..This article examines two of the three largest environmental organizations, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and offers specific cases where they appear to have lost their way and are failing us when we need them most. These cases show the pitfalls of the compromises and accommodations that many environmentalists have made in order to raise money and support their organizational growth as well as their political and other goals. They also show that true leadership and change can only spring from the people and not from governments and entrenched institutions…..The case below of the EDF looks at its vigorous advocacy of “smart meters”, devices that have been shown to have dubious energy merits and serious environmental, privacy, and public policy drawbacks. The promotion of smart meters has diverted massive financial resources in directions tangential to the goals of a truly intelligent electricity grid and integration of community-based clean energy, and has fed public cynicism about the “smart grid”–the last thing one would expect a leading environmental organization to do. The case also looks at EDF’s role in fostering the deceptive siren call of the supposedly “green” energy investment mirage by venture capitalists, financiers, and government.
    SNIP

    Read more →
    • 08 OCT 14

    The same old names, the same old spin. Don’t expect anything new from this meeting

    I have just added a temporary pdf file to my website. This flyer is announcing a “Networking Evening/Public Forum” jointly organised by the Australian Centre for Electromagnetic Bioeffects Research and the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute. For the speakers we have well known proven stalwarts of ICNIRP orthodoxy: Rodney Croft, Eric van Rongen, Michael Repacholi and Emilie Deventer. All who have built their reputations steadfastly defending ICNIRP’s viewpoint. That is; the only ‘proven’ effects of RF exposure are thermal and anything else must be psychosomatic.

    Wouldn’t it be nice in a perfect world to also have presenters such as Dariusz Leszczynski or Lennart Hardell, just to name two, to liven up an otherwise predictably boring evening. But of course they follow a different understanding of what objective science should be all about.

    I hope at least the food and refreshments will be worthwhile……..
    SNIP

    Don

    Read more →