Twenty-four essays dare to take major corporations to task about their increasing power over government laws and public health issues. In the twenty-first century, corporate influences have worked their way deep into government. As their power only increases, the arguments about their involvement with public health have become increasingly black and white. With business interests at the center of medical and environmental issues, everything chemical or technological is good, everything natural is bad; scientists who are funded by corporations are right and those who are independent are invariably wrong. Edited by Martin J. Walker, Corporate Ties that Bind gathers essays written by acclaimed academics, activists, and epidemiologists from around the world. These essays scrutinize the corporate trickery and false science behind those, like in-house epidemiologists, who attack and censure independent voices. This book addresses how the growth of corporatism is destroying liberal democracy and personal choice. Whether addressing asbestos, radiation, PCBs, or vaccine regulation, the essays here reveal the dangers of trusting corporations and uncover the lengths to which they put profits before health. "This expose will lead to more fairness in public and occupational health and to a new generation of objective public health-oriented advocates." —James Huff, PhD, associate director for chemical carcinogenesis, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (US) "This timely and important book makes the compelling argument for reform of the so-called 'industry safety standards' that permeate our everyday lives. Lucid, authoritative, and essential reading for ourselves and our children." —Brian Stein and Jonathan Mantle, authors of TheMicrowave Delusion
Industry Reviews
“Congratulations to the courageous souls who wrote this book. Those who speak out about the harmful effects of toxic chemicals and radiation often do so at their peril. Corporate Ties That Bind is an important and much needed book that warns of the undue influence corporations have in perverting science, delaying public health policy, and swaying media information. A society that doesn’t protect its children doesn’t have a future. If you care about your health and the health of your children, this book is a must read.”
—Dr. Magda Havas, BSc, PhD, Associate Professor, Trent School of the Environment, Trent University, Peterborough, Canada
“Are we to blame for living in unhealthy homes and communities? Or are we being manipulated by governments and corporations that say the onus is on health scientists to prove that a new product or technology is harmful, rather than on industry to prove it is safe? The case studies in this book elucidate how corporations control us, our scientists, and our policymakers to maximize profits at the expense of our health and safety.”
—Joel M. Moskowitz, PhD, director, Center for Family and Community Health, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley
“This monumental volume represents decades of dedicated research and expertise into major issues of industrial influence against national and international public health. This exposé will lead to more fairness in public and occupational health and to a new generation of objective public health-oriented advocates."
—James Huff, PhD, formerly head of IARC Monographs Program (France) and Associate Director for Chemical Carcinogenesis, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (US)
“This timely and important book makes the compelling argument for reform of the so-called 'industry safety standards' that permeate our everyday lives. Lucid, authoritative, and essential reading for ourselves and our children.”
—Brian Stein and Jonathan Mantle, authors of The Microwave Delusion
"This book takes us another important step forward in the struggle for the health of future generations."
—Professor Yury Grigoriev, deputy chairman of the Scientific Council on Radiobiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, President of Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, Member of International Advisory Committee of WHO EMF and Health Project
“The use of corporate power to ‘manufacture scientific doubt’ about the harmful effects of their products in the minds of the public and regulators has been documented for tobacco. Corporate Ties That Bind casts its net wider to include a host of other examples that reveal the depths that corporations can go to defend their products, creating distorted science, health and environmental harm, and huge taxpayer costs that fly in the face of the ‘polluter pays’ principle.”
—David Gee, retired senior science adviser, EEA, & visiting fellow, Institute of Environment, Health and Societies, Brunel University, London
