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The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) claims on their website that their objective "is to restore science and common sense to personal and public health decisions in order to foster a scientifically sound and sensible public health policy for the American people." However, what that means for them apparently doesn't mean the same thing for other people, as they routinely oppose introduced measures to protect public health. It often finds itself fighting against public health, consumer safety and environmental advocates. It has defended hydraulic fracturing, a controversial natural gas extraction method, saying that "fracking doesn't pollute water or air." The ACSH has downplayed the role that sugary beverages play in obesity and diabetes, and it has denied the harmful effects of toxic chemicals like bisphenol A (BPA) and pesticides such as atrazine.
The ACSH asserts that its conclusions are based off of unbiased science, but internal financial documents recently provided to
Mother Jones show how the organization depends on funding from industries that have financial stakes in shaping scientific debate.
As reported by
Mother Jones, "from July 1, 2012, to December 20, 2012, 58 percent of donations to the council came from corporations and large private foundations. ACSH's donors and the potential backers the group has been targeting comprise a who's-who of energy, agriculture, cosmetics, food, soda, chemical, pharmaceutical, and tobacco corporations. ACSH donors in the second half of 2012 included Chevron ($18,500), Coca-Cola ($50,000), the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation ($15,000), Dr. Pepper/Snapple ($5,000), Bayer Cropscience ($30,000), Procter and Gamble ($6,000), agribusiness giant Syngenta ($22,500), 3M ($30,000), McDonald's ($30,000), and tobacco conglomerate Altria ($25,000). Among the corporations and foundations that ACSH has pursued for financial support since July 2012 are Pepsi, Monsanto, British American Tobacco, DowAgro, ExxonMobil Foundation, Phillip Morris International, Reynolds American, the Koch family-controlled Claude R. Lambe Foundation, the Dow-linked Gerstacker Foundation, the Bradley Foundation, and the Searle Freedom Trust."
Dr. Gilbert Ross, the group's executive director, who previously lost his medical license after defrauding New York State's Medicaid program of around $8 million, did not dispute the financial documents. The ACSH doesn't disclose its funding sources, because "the sources of our support are irrelevant to our scientific investigations," Ross said. "Only science-based facts hold sway in our publications, even if the outcome is not pleasing to our contributors."
The ASCH claims that it doesn't accept donations from corporations or groups for specific research projects, but a March 1992 internal memo obtained by Consumer Reports revealed that ACSH staffers would ask the Calorie Control Council, a trade group made up of diet food and drink companies, and a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary that owned the US marketing rights to Splenda for contributions in return for a research paper touting artificial sweeteners.
The documents elucidate ACSH staffers' methods of approaching potential corporate financial contributors with pitches aimed at specific issues. For example, last year, the documents note that the group planned to "seize opportunities to cultivate new funding possibilities (Prop 37, CSC, and corporate caving, etc.)." Proposition 37 was the failed 2012 California ball initiative that would have mandated GMO food labeling. "CSC" means "Campaign for Safe Cosmetics," suggesting that ACSH planned on approaching cosmetic companies for funding based on the perceived consumer safety of their products.
According to
Mother Jones, the ACSH "received a $37,500 donation in 2012 from the American Petroleum Institute related to 'fracking.' That year, it also received other energy industry funds, including $18,500 from Chevron and $75,000 from the ExxonMobil Foundation."
The ACSH was once against smoking; however, the new documents reveal that the organization planned to receive a total of $338,200 from tobacco companies between July 2012 and June 2013. The documents also list Reynolds American and Phillip Morris International as expected to make contributions of $100,000 each in 2013. The ACSH has recently given increased support for e-cigarettes and other forms of smokeless tobacco, and the documents show that it is using this newly developing industry to seek more funding.
You can read the entire report,
http://www.motherjones.com by Andy Kroll and Jeremy Schulman at
Mother Jones. Click
here to see the ACSH financial documents.
