Fighting Nuclear Waste Dumps • An Experiment in Health Care

Vol. 18 No. 4 $2.50

I ----- I Oi I : . • • AND JOURNALISM Measuring Bias in Science Reporti Editor Leslie Fraser COVERING CONTROVERSY Business Manager J Gary Keenan Designer _(1 uoting from 's address at the Science David Gerratt \.\(and Journalism conference hosted by Science for the People in Art and Photos Mittie Cuetara, Andrew Joslin, April, "Errors leave historical tracks." Both science and journalism Ellen Shub, Valerry have to respond to their own-and each other's-miscalculations Editorial Committee and misinformation, since each leave a record of their work. Steve Berezin, Roger Felix, Leslie Fraser, Scientists have accused journalists of biased, sensational. and Dan Grossman, Joe Regna, Seth Shulman inaccurate reporting. Journalists complain that scientists are Book Review Editor inaccessible, elitist. and sometimes biased in their research. Joseph Alper At the conference, scientists seemed to outnumber journalists at Material Requests the podium. but most of the conference participants came from the Jim Barton media. many with science backgrounds. In question-and-answer Outreach Coordinator sessions and lunchtime discussions. they talked about mutual Jon Beckwith problems and professional constraints. The atmosphere of critical Fundralslng Coordinator analysis of both research and reporting was refreshing. Instead of Gerry Waneck merely defending their own turf. participants and panelists offered suggestions and sympathy for the conflicting and competitive interests of both professions. Editorial AdviSOfY Board Journalists must meet tight deadlines. simplify their stories so Joseph Alper, Rita Arditti, Jon Beckwith, Philip L. Bereano, Edith Brickman, Stephen that they attract and are understood by nonscientists. and turn Chorover, Fran Conrad, Eric Entemann, Roslyn complex research into dynamic headlines and compelling news Feldberg, Ross Feldberg. Marilyn Frankenstein, Douglas Futyama, Ted Goldfarb, Rae Goodell, before it reaches a competing publication. To avoid unfavorable or Stephen Jay Gould, William Haseltine, David inaccurate coverage. scientists often protect their research, refuse Himmelstein, Eric Holtzman, , David Kahn, Charles Koplik, , to publish results in the popular press. and use the media for , Karen Messing, Frank Mirer, public relations-to promote their work uncritically. Excerpts from David Noble, Richard Novick, Connie Phillips, AMn F. Poussaint, Stephen Risch, Richard Rosen, the Science and Journalism conference may give readers a taste of Virginia Schaefer, Scott Schneider, Miriam Struck, their conversations and controversies. Sue Tafler, Michael Tanzer, Scott Thacher, John Vandermeer, Gerry Waneck, Joseph In this issue, Science for the People also takes a look at some of Weizenbaum, Sanely Wiper, Steffie Woolhandler its own controversies. Early in its history. SftP made a notorious mark on the scientific community by confronting the policies and Printing ideologies of its established elite at the American Academy for the Rowley Printing, 395 Main Street Advancement of Science's annual meeting. For seven years. SftP Rowley, MA 01969 leafletted, organized, protested, and offered alternative workshops and discussions at AAAS meetings. In 1970, the organization SUBSCRIPTIONS: U.S. one year/six issues: SIS. Foreign rate: received national media attention for presenting Edward Teller, S21. U.S. libraries/institutions: S24. Foreign libraries: S30. Member subscriptions (includes the magazine, our "Father of the H-Bomb," with the Second Annual Dr. Strangelove newsletter and other communications): S30. Foreign subscribers must remit in U.S. currency, with either an Award for practicing "science in the service of warmakers." By International Money Order or a check drawn on a U.S. 1976, SftP was offering workshops as part of the AAAS meeting's bank. official program. SCIENCE FOR THE PEOPLE is available to bookstores on consignment from the publisher or through Carrier Pigeon Today. many members of the AAAS are confronting the social Distributors, Box 2783, Boston, MA 02208. The magazine is available in microform from University Microfilms, 300 N. and political questions of science and technology. especially in the Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor. Ml 48106. Science for the People is aftermath of recent technological "accidents" at Chernobyl and indexed in Alternative Press Index, Box 7229, Baltimore, MD 21218. Bhopal. But SftP no longer has an organized presence at these SCIENCE FOR THE PEOPLE {ISSN 0048-9662) is published meetings to join in the discussion. Seth Shulman's report examines brmonthly by the Science Resource Center, Inc., a nonprofit corporation at 897 Main St., Cambridge, MA 02139, the changes in AAAS and suggests questions for progressive telephone 617/547-0370. Edited and produced t1j the scientists to raise. It's the beginning of a discussion that we national organization of Science for the People. We offer a progressive view of science and technology. Articles, letters. encourage readers to join in. reviews, newsnotes, photos, and artwork are welcome. Please send double-spaced, typed manuscripts, on Wordstar IBM-compatible disks if possible. Unless otherwise noted. all material copyright 1986 t1j Science for the People.

Science for the People July/August 1986 Volume 18, No.4

CONTENTS SPECIAL SECTION SCIENCE AND JOURNALISM 8 ARE THERE GENES FOR CRIME? by Leon Kamin Is it harder than it used to be for children to delay gratification? Does inability to delay gratification lead to rising crime rates? And is there a genetic basis for inability to delay gratification?

11 SCIENCE WRITING by Julie Ann Miller "I think we have a responsibility to try to point out the different implications of new research. You don't want to ignore a topic ,ifllll'lillllliiiP just because it has certain political implications."

12 IS NOT DESTINY by Anke A. Ehrhardt No scientist or journalist should be unaware that human gender­ related behavior is determined Qy many factors. However, we continue to reduce the roots of behavior to one variable. instead of considering a transactional model for gender differences in behavior.

14 INTERPRETING STATISTICS by Dan Wartenberg When someone comes out with a number and tells you. "We JUSt found this rate that's very high," we have to ask. "What did you expect? And how different is it from what you expected?"

16 NOT IN ANYONE'S BACKYARD

DEPARTMENTS by Dan Grossman and Seth Shulman The Nuclear Waste Policy Act mandated a solution to the high­ 2 Letters level nuclear waste problem by requiring two "national sacrifice areas" as nuclear waste dumps. Citizens in east coast News notes 4 communities successfully fought against a dump there, but the 21 Opinion: Chernobyl Was Inevitable problem isn't over. 22 Opinion: Bhopal Utigation Ruling 24 Reader Response: 19 GESUNDHEIT INSTITUTE Science and Gender by Patch Adams 26 Review: Sex and Germs "For the 15 years I have been in medical practice. we have never charged money. accepted third-party insurance, or carried 28 In Brief malpractice insurance. and we have opened our home to all 30 Grassroots: AAAS in 1986 who came."

JulyI August 1986 Radiation Unked are many countries in the world which objects which serve human needs, then, define themselves as such, I would though steel mills and submarines do to Communism and argue that there are none on the planet indeed work, they are not Mental Retardation? today which display the qualities technologies. alluded to above. Perhaps there is some What they are can be debated, but Dear SftP: problem intrinsic to being a nation­ again the point is that once such state which precludes realization of entities acquire the favorable label of thought this might be an those conditions. technology, they are in the same I interesting post-Chernobyl tidbit But the issue is that once an entity is category as immunization programs. for you to print: defined in such terms as being socialist And of course they should not be, for From Bernard Berelson (Behavioral or democratic, then those who believe they are not real technologies. Once Program, The Ford in what these words are supposed to the entity is stripped of its favorable Foundation). Memorandum to the represent are put into the awkward name tag, it becomes easy to take it for Members of the Mental Health position of defending the actions of what it is and to not feel forced to Advisory Group. November 27, 1956. that entity. After all, how could the defend it. To be against nuclear power I knew all of vou would he interested U.S. do wrong-it's a democracy, isn't plants is not to be ami-technology, but in the following' quotation from it? Or how could the do pro-technology. "Counterattack: the Newsletter of Facts wrong-it's socialist, isn't it? Murder Science for the People is in a unique to Combat Communism." is murder, no matter what the entity position to do what is called for by all "Dr. Pauling's latest contribution, the that commits it chooses to call itself or thinking people: to go beyond loaded Communist Daily Worker reports, is the is labeled by others. The word, the language and to call the shots as statement that some residents of Nevada they're seen with respect to the already have received enough radiation label, prevents us from truthfully from atomic tests to- 'decrease their life evaluating what is really going on. phenomena known as science and expectancy by three months.' The same can he said of the loaded technology. Hopefully, we are "Besides his microscopically precise terms science and technology. Calling working for a society where our name measurement of atomicized life some process science or calling will be redundant: where science and expectancy, Dr. Pauling added his belief someone anti-science does not make technology will he intrinsically for the that scientists would soon show 'a sense until we have defined what the people. correlation between mental disease and term science means. If we define -joseph Re?;na radiation.' In that last connection it is science to be the scientific method and .Medford, /Hassachusetts interesting to ·recall that, just two months ago, Dr. Pauling was named head of a experimentation, then what the $-lSO,OOO Ford Foundation studv of researchers who work on nuclear chemical factors possibly involv~d in weapons do is science. But what if we mental retardation! And now, along with define science to mean the search for his Ford cash, Dr. Pauling is able to rattle truth to serve human needs? Then atom bombs at his audience. what the "scientists" who work on "Please keep this confidential.'' weapons research do, though they -Bart Aleyers perform experiments lind use the Brooklyn, Sew York scientific method, is not science at all. Then what is it? Personally, I would call it what it is: building Auschwitzes and weapons of mass destruction. New Deflnlflons for But the point is that once such Science and Technology activity is included under the label of Rainbow Science Is science, with all its favorable Anti-Ecology Dear SftP: connotations, it acquires a prestige which puts it in the same category as Dear SftP: e of Science for the People, I the search for a malaria vaccine--and it W think, sometimes forget our name. shouldn't be. Thev both aren't science. ardon the late response, but I just I have always understood the name to Likewise, if reality is an interconnected Preceived a copy of your July I Aug­ implicitly include technology: Science web of phenomena, people, and things, ust 1985 1OOth issue at the Socialist (and Technology) for the People. and if science is the search for Scholars conference, and I would like What we sometimes forget is the "for understanding reality, then one who to respond to what I consider a most the People" part, and what the real shuns reductionistic approaches and disturbing short piece, "Rainbow meaning of science and technology embraces holistic ones is not anti­ Science," by Mel King, founder of the ought to be. The reason is that we science, hut pro-science. Rainbow Coalition, and Samantha hook our allegiance to words which Similarly, until we define the term, George. we don't define and which thus take calling something technology or The words and attitudes expressed on, in that vacuum, some favorable someone anti-technology is not in this piece are not only appallingly meaning which we arc pushed into a correct. If we define technology as any anti-nature and anti-ecology, hut they corner to defend. process, technique, or mechanical also sound more like the old black­ Take the words democracy and object, then nuclear power plants, steel and-white science. Permit me to quote, socialism. Favorable images of mills, and Trident submarines arc in full context as far as possible, so cooperation, freedom, sharing, and technologies. Instead, if we define vou can evaluate it vourselvcs. equality come to mind. Though there technology as processes, methods, and . The piece opens ~ith a quote by

2 Science for the People Konstantin Tsiolkovsky: "Earth is the Soleri, Rene Dubos-they and others Don't drop the longer articles. I cradle of the mind, but one cannot live more distasteful to mention would be have particularly valued the in-depth in the cradle forever." Had a Reaganite proud of your faith in science and special issues about genetic technology rephrased this to say that the human technology to bring us to new levels and high technology. We need the species can only grow up by leaving of achievement. By the way, have you kind of focus which a special issue can its origins behind, we might feel noticed what science and technology bring. I will be sorry if SftP becomes a differently. How contradictory this is have already done in the name of bits-and-pieces newsletter. to the beliefs of many of us who progress and human welfare? Not to By the way, perhaps all of us are believe that only by returning to an mention genetic technology, space vulnerable to criticism and self­ understanding of and respect for colonies, nuclear fission/fusion, criticism at the moment because things Nature, our cradle, can we achieve synthetic organic chemicals, acid rain, on the outside are so discouraging. SO: humanity-towards other people and supersonic transport, dying oceans, Carry on, and cheers! towards non-human creatures. extinction of species, extermination of -David Keppel King/George then go on to rain forests, and not least of all, Essex, Connecticut comment, using this aphorism as their extirpation of diverse human cultures, jumping off place. They talk about tribes, and communities. leaving behind genocide, , "Science, with its claim to structural sexism, capitalist and imperialist knowledge of the universe, can be in oppression-well and good-but then the vanguard of our movement Central Dogma•s Demise say this will mean "an evolutionary forward when it is FOR the people, leap up and onward to a higher order" and of the people ... " Fine, return Dear SftP: (shades of Aryan racism) in which "power to the people" so they can would like to comment on the "we love and affirm each other as legitimately control and determine the I significance of a recent discovery perfect systems within a perfect goals of science. But I'm afraid many about genetic regulation that is system." But I thought that the cradle of us won't agree with King/George's pertinent to SftP's concern with the or natural system was something we goals, like maintaining humans as the politics of genetic theory. This eschewed to move higher up. pinnacle of evolution as a "higher discovery, by the William Haseltine What hubris and arrogance! To order," because this is what put us in group at Harvard and published in regard ourselves as higher, more the bind to begin with. So unless we Nature (Feb. 13, 1986, p. 555), is of a perfect beings or species is precisely agree on principles and goals, before protein-to-mRNA feedback loop found why we are facing such a global eco­ you start empowering new people to in immune cells infected with the political crisis. And who brought us make decisions, we are simply spinning HTL V-III virus associated with there? Why, science and technology, of our wheels at best, and reinforcing the AIDS. course, by promising us that their present order at worst. This transactivator protein effect on unfettered activities would bring us all "No doubt exists that we must messenger RNA (mRNA) wonderful fruits-ending starvation struggle to leave the cradle," say the demonstrates reverse translation from and poverty, relieving the third world authors. Struggle to leave behind our protein back to nucleic acid, a peasants of oppression, etc., etc., ad origins, the lessons, values and laws of mechanism the authors surmise to· be a nauseum. Nature, the very reason for our general one, perhaps involved in And, wonder of wonders, the existence? Struggle to maintain our zygote development and cellular authors immediately follow this latter profound alienation from, even distrust response to environmental stimuli and statement by saying, "High of and hate for, the rest of the natural stress. The authors acknowledged the technology should provide an escalator world? Retain Nature as an object, as a revolutionary implications of their to that higher order" (stressing, of material subject of manipulation, as an finding (Boston Globe, Feb. 12, 1986, p. course, the non-lethal side of such "other" -in the tradition of rational 5) in locating genetic regulation outside technology). Tell me, dear authors, science, that continues to violate the nucleus. I would carry it one once you turn over your money and Nature's being, and in so doing important and logical step further political power to such high tech, what endangers the entire human species? (since protein interacts with the remains to insure that the non-lethal If vou and vour readers arc not as environment) and suggest it points to a prevails? appalled as I ;m at this confused mish­ conduit between the environment and They add: "Only high tech can mash of sublimely arrogant humanistic heredity that demolishes some of liberate us from the cradle." Folks, I've attitudes, then either you didn't read generics' basic precepts. got news for you: they've already the piece carefully, or you agree with The Central Dogma of Genetics done this-liberated us from all it. I fervently hope it was the former. states as follows: that genetic responsibility for the rest of Nature, -Lorna Salzman alienated us from our origins, and New York Green Party information may transfer from DNA rationalized the destruction and Coordinating Committee to RNA to protein only, in a exploitation of non-human species for unidirectional flow of heritable data human ends. They also claim it is an that removes heredity from all forces of escalator to that same higher order you change and regulation except the aspire to, in case you didn't notice. Keep Long Articles random strokes of mutation. First the discovery in 1970 of reverse "So little seems beyond the grasp of Dear SftP: our collective creative human transcription from RNA back to DNA imagination," they state. Carl Sagan, n response to your recent call for Gerard O'Neill, Buckie Fuller, Paolo Icomments about the magazine: CONTINUED ON PAGE 32

July/August 1986 3 Waitzkin looked at how the level of At the same level of economic MISCARRIAGES economic development influenced health. · development, citizens of socialist countries They analyzed gross national product were consistently healthier, scoring LINKED TO per capita and other indices like energy better PQLI outcomes, than those in ELECTRIC consumption per capita, the type of capitalist countries. The authors mention political-economic system, and the two possible reasons: the high emphasis BlANKETS Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI) put on public health and universal access in 123 countries, covering 97% of the to health care in socialist countries, wo scientists who are well known for world's population for which such data is reflected in national budgets, and the their studies linking power line field available. The PQLI is a composite index relatively narrow gap between the lowest Texposure to cancer have identified combining infant mortality rate, life 20% and the top 5% of the population in a clustering of spontaneous abortions expectancy, and literacy rate. socialist countries, as compared to among electric blanket users from Within both capitalist and socialist capitalist countries. September to June. A study by Nancy categories, countries were divided into To improve health in capitalist Wertheimer and Ed Leeper of the low, lower-middle, upper-middle, and countries, it would seem sage for Department of Preventive Medicine and high income to facilitate comparison. physicians to change their advice from Biometrics at the University of Colorado The authors also examined a third "Take two asprins and call me in the Medical School shows that miscarriages socioeconomic category, recent postrevolu­ morning" to "Take two asprins and are more likely to occur to women who tionary countries like , Angola, work for social change." sleep under electric blankets than those and , to reflect current global -Joseph Regna who don't. The study also indicates situations. slower fetal development among babies born to parents who use electric blankets or waterbeds. The miscarriage rate was much higher from September to January for electric blanket users, but a similar pattern was not found for nonusers. Fetal growth rates also seem to be affected bv electric blanket or waterbed use. Infants ~onceived in the winter had significantly longer gestation periods and below-median birth weights. "The results of this studv could be attributed to either electrom;gnetic field exposure or to excessive bed-heating," ~ancy Wertheimer stated. "However, our ongoing research suggests that the field exposure is important." Users of electric blankets and waterbeds are exposed to extremely low frequency electric and magnetic fields. According to a study of human exposures from electric blankets performed for the Electric Power Research Institute in Pittsburgh, worst-case exposures to electric fields occur when a grounded individual is underneath an electric blanket which is turned off but plugged in at 115 volts, generating low frequency electric fields. information from Microwave Xeu·s ALL THAT BU._..AH·LY RADIOACTIVE allout from the Chernobyl meltdown Jambs' flesh were more than twice the MEDICINE AND came down in heavy rains on Britain level permitted by the British ~v:emmtnt':. Fin early May, affecting lambs in no action was taken in; the bopethatlev:els NO HEALTH southwest Cumbria and north Wales. would far! quickly, Wairl!lgmore than a s it possible to determine if you Scientists found high levels of radioac­ month, the radiation levels didn't fall, and would be healthier in a capitalist or tive cesium in the liver and muscles of sheep in me affected areas may be a socialist country? Two west-coast Cumbrian lamb, but the British govern­ destroyed by government order. I ment hasn't ordered the slaughtering of What will happen high level& are researchers have tackled this question and if come up with a resounding "yes!" contaminated sheep yet. Sheep's milk, found in the liver or muscles of other Reporting their findings in the June which remained untested in Wales, mammals, like us? Will moth4efs' milk be 1986 issue of the American Journal of continued to be sold. banned too? · Public Health, S. Cereseto and H. Although samples of radioactivity in ~injormati011 frtJm Nf!W Scientist

4 Science for the People NUCLEAR WHISTLE-BLOWING

ow that Seabrook nuclear plant own­ through the Employees' Legal Project. If converted to coal because of workers' ers have petitioned to load fuel the nuclear plant is indeed unsafe, it is whistle-blowing reportS. The Midland, Nand begin low-power operation, new crucial to the lives and health of the Michigan plant was also almost ready to organizing tactics are called for to protect people who live near it that safety be activated when serious construction nuclear workers and to correct and problems are corrected before the plant flaws were revealed: the plant was publicly expose safety problems in goes on line." sinking into the ground. It's now being Seabrook and at the other nuclear plants According to Representative Carmen converted to gas. in New England. In response to this need, the Employees' Legal Project was formed this spring. While the American public is becoming increasingly aware of the dangers of nuclear power, it is the workers who construct and operate these plants who are most familiar with design flaws and safety violations. The immediate goal of the Employees' Legal Project is to provide the legal and support mechanisms necessary for workers to feel protected enough to bring safety violations to public attention. It is against federal law to try to prevent employees in the nuclear industry from reporting safety violations. The purpose of whistle-blowing statutes is to encourage employee participation in insuring that nukes are built and operated safely. But since Karen Silkwood was poisoned with plutonium and killed in a car accident while on her way to a whistle-blowing meeting with the press, many nuclear employees have been afraid of becoming martyrs for sharing what they know. Buell of the Second Franklin District in In the preliminary networking for the The Employees' Legal Project works western Massachusetts, whose district Employees' Legal Project, ten workers with current and former employees of includes Rowe, home of the oldest came forward who know about safety New England's nuclear power plants commercial nuclear reactor in the U.S., violations at the Seabrook nuclear plant. who have been threatened or discriminated "The Employees' Legal Project is They have spoken privately with project against for trying to rectify safety important for people from throughout members about terrible errors in problems in construction or operation. New England because it applies to construction at the Seabrook nuke. These problems include quality control, operating plants as well as those under Given the horror stories these workers faulty construction, use of substandard construction. There is a need for this tell, it seems possible that a serious materials, improper design of safety project for the workers at the Rowe nuclear accident could occur at that plant. features, and engineering errors. nuclear plant and for people who work at For more information or to get The employee does not need to the nuclear plant owned by Vermont involved in this grassroots effort, contact demonstrate the proof of safety complaints, Yankee, located in Vern on, Vermont, the Employees' Legal Project, P.O. Box but they must be made in good faith. The just over the Massachusetts border." 633, Amesbury, MA 01913, telephone attorneys and staff of the project The project involves a coordinated 6171388-9620. guarantee the confidentiality of informa­ effort of more than 50 people doing -David Gerratt & Leslie Fraser tion brought to them, and will provide outreach to locate and help nuclear legal help in taking cases before the workers speak out when they know that Department of Labor or suggesting ways standards are not being met and laws are to correct the problems. being broken by their employers. More SEND US A NOTE Two Massachusetts legislators have than 20 lawyers are volunteering their eep a lookout for news that might have publicly supported the project. Nick services for this project. Kmissed the mainstream. Send us news­ Costello, senator of the Third Essex Attorneys and environmentalists notes about science and technology news, District, located inside the Seabrook involved in the Employees' Legal Project and we'll extend your subscription for six plant's evacuation zone, said, "As an were trained by the Government months for every item we print. Please elected representative for people who live Accountability Project, based in Washing­ enclose clippings and sources. Send to close to the Seabrook nuclear power ton, D.C., who have spearheaded Newsnotes, Science for the People, 897 plant, I urge employees and former whistle-blowing projects across the U.S. Main St., Cambridge, MA 02139. employees from the plant to make use of They advised workers at the Zimmer, Newsnores are compiled and edited by the legal resources available to them Ohio nuclear plant, which is now being Leslie Fraser.

July/August 1986 5 TUNA MELTDOWN nd now, from th: pooplewho brought mutagenicity of a variety of food cooked When regulators in Washington are you the H-bomb, a study on . . . in different ways. Nine mutagens, not finding it cost effective to ban food A hamburgers? Yes, the Lawrence including one that is known to cause additives known to be carcinogenic, such Livermore Laboratory, the institution cancer in mice, were found in hamburgers. as certain artificial colors, why are which-since Edward Teller sired a The levels of mutagens in hamburgers researchers at Livermore comparing thermonuclear device-has done the increased a hundred-fold in the first ten broiling to barbecuing? We can only most to promote death and destruction, is minutes of cooking, and were further guess that their goal is not to protect now concerned about your diet. A report increased by a factor of l 0 to l 00 when human health at all, but to increase the on a seven-year study of mutagens in the cooking temperature was raised from amount of unhealthy additives in food by cooked food, conducted by Livermore, 300 to 570 degrees Fahrenheit. The proving that even our favorite foods have was recently published in the laboratory's report concluded, "The results [are J their dangers. "Less dangerous than a Energy and Technology Review. clear cut: longer cooking times and baked meatloaf," or "safer than fried The study used the test for mutagens higher cooking temperatures produce fish" may be the cries of tomorrow's developed by Brian Ames to compare the more mutagens." chemical additive lobbyists. -Dan Grossman

MUTANT MONOLITHS

t is the year 11986, and you are nuclear warheads, is only second to the or 30 megalithic monoliths, like the large exploring a vast wilderness that was Oepan:ment of Defense in its responsibility snlid .stone monuments at Stonehenge, Icalled Washington State. It has been for a war that may cause the nuclear .. lnseribedwithwarnin.gs in the six United ten thousand years since rhe Great War annihilation nf the hhman race atany Nations languages, should surround the de«royed civilizati

6 Science for the People On April19, 1986, Science for the People's Study Group hosted the conference "Science and journalism: Covering Controversy in Science" at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Over 2 50 participants listened to Stephen fay Gould's critique of bias in science, Leon Kamin's analysis of studies claiming a genetic basis for crime, and Matthew Meselson's chronology of the search for the cause of Yellow Rain. Workshops and panel discussions focused on sex roles research and the press, interpreting statistics and quantitative data, AIDS research and media coverage, and Star Wars as a scientific and political issue. And a lively lunchtime roundtable discussion asked, "What makes science news?" The following comments from conference speakers capture some of the spirit of investigative curiosity, criticism, and questioning shared by journalists and scientists. The conference was co-sponsored by the Boston Globe, Vannevar Bush Fellows Program in Science journalism at MIT, the National Writers Union, and Northeastern University's Technical Writing Program.

July/August 1986 7 s c I E N c E J 0 u R N A L I s M ARE THERE GENES FOR CRIME? Stea I Now, Pay Later

BY LEON KAMIN In Crime and Human Nature, the authors answer is coded by the psychologists who write that there is actually evidence that did the study as to whether the child is he following comments were excerpted children today are much less capable of going to spend it right away or put it away from a lonf!,er talk given at the delaying gratification-that is a key for a rainy day-that is, to delay Science and journalism conference. concept for them-than used to be the case. gratification. Usinf!, the recently published book In the old days, children could delay When 57 delinquents were asked in Crime and Human Nature by f!llYVard gratification; nowadays, they can't. And it 19 59 what they would do with a dollar, 17 Tprofessors fames Wilson and Richard is that inability to delay gratification that were going to save it, whereas by 1974, Herrnstein as a case study, Leon Kamin might explain why we have rising crime only 8 out of 50 were going to save it. addresses problems in data, selective citation of rates and terror in the streets. That may not be a massive trend, and research, and faulty arguments that claim a As evidence, they cite a study which indeed, if you do the traditional test of genetic basis for crime. During his discussion compares two samples of juvenile del­ statistical significance, this is well within of studies cited in their book, he showed slides inquents who had been placed into in­ the range of sampling errors. We really containing the data interpreted below. stitutions in the state of Rhode Island. don't see that anything has happened over Richard Herrnstein was also asked to speak There were 57 studied in 1959 and 50 at the conference, but declined the invitation. different delinquents studied in 1974. Leon Kamin is a professor of psychology at He sugf!,ested instead that conference What this study does, simply, is to ask the Princeton University. He is co-author of the participants read his book. kids, "If I were to give you a dollar, what book Not in Our Genes: Biology, 111111111111111111111111111111111111 would you do with it?" And the child's Ideology, and Human Nature.

8 Science for the People s c I N c • J 0 u R N A L I s M time here at all. The results are a lot less institutionalized delinquents are as ked You won't find out from reading Wilson dramatic if you ask these same children, what they would do with various sums of and Herrnstein. But the experimenters say "What would you do if I were to give you money again, if they were to be given the that the problem is that 25 cents and $2 are $1 00?'' Thirty-three out of 57 would save sum of money by the experimenter. The realistic sums of money to these kids. it in 1959, compared to 24 out of 50 in results were the same across all three When we start talking about $20 and 1974, which is not remotely near a cultures. And the comparison is between $200, that introduced an element of significant difference between the two institutionalized delinquents and ordinary unrealism-that isn't real money. So now groups. high school students. the kids arc only telling you what they And this is based on the rather What we're told is that the delinquents think you want them to say. They're astonishing assumption that the value of a are much less likely to delay gratification really telling you the truth when you ask dollar in 1974 was the same as the value of than are ordinary high school students. If them questions about a quarter and $2. As a dollar in 1959. In fact, I've checked the you look at the data, that is true-if you you can see, there's no way of beating that Consumer Price Index, and the dollar had ask them what they are going to do with kind of logic, is there? declined by 41% in value between those 25 cents. Fully 24% of the control-the This result could easily have been two dates. Any serious theory would ordinary high school students-would anticipated from the results of another expect a smaller portion of children to say save the quarter, they say, compared to study that is also cited by Wilson and in 1974 that they would save a dollar. Herrnstein, but again you've got to go to But they go on from this to speculate the raw source to find the data. This study about some of the reasons why it might be is done in New Zealand with adult that children nowadays can't delay Wilson and criminals. A paper-and-pencil test of gratification. And they offer as a serious personality was administered to a reasonably speculation that nowadays, due to the Herrnstein point large sample of incarcerated criminals and advances in medical technology, children to a control group of ordinary citizens. who are born prematurely and at low birth out that they had Many of these standardized paper-and­ weights survive. In the old days, those pencil tests of personality contain within children used to die off. But now these to forego many them something called a lie scale. The lie children are living to adulthood, and when scale is a harsh title, but it is really a bunch they grow up their brains have been days at the of items which only a saint could damaged, possibly by the drinking and truthfully say didn't or did apply to him. smoking of their mothers. That's raised as beach and of The point is to sec whether some people one of the real possibilities. So that as have an exaggerated tendency to paint adults, they really can't delay gratification. playing tennis in glowing pictures of themselves and refuse That's rather a large sweep from not that to admit to any human weakness at all. impressive a bit of data. order to write What the authors of this study found out They're very serious about the concept was that, to their astonishment, the of delayed gratification. Wilson and something that incarcerated criminals had much lower Herrnstein point out, for example, that scores on·the lie scale than ordinary people. they themselves had to forego many days may or may not Whether this disarming candor about their at the beach and of playing tennis in order less admirable traits would also be true to write something that may or may not be when they appeared before parole boards purchased and read several years in the be purchased for hearings, psychologists haven't studied future. Now that's the way Harvard and read several yet, but I assume that's on the agenda. professors behave. Criminals, however, A bit more serious than this kind of are "more likely than authors and students years in the future. "what would you do if" verbal game, to assign a very low value to distant there are also a series of studies where rewards." Well that claim itself, I think, psychologists have compared the behavior doesn't really explain why criminals of institutionalized young children­ murder, pillage, and rape rather than just only 6. 7% of the delinquents. That's true delinquents-to those of the control occupy vacant spaces at the beaches and of 25 cents and of $2, but notice that by the group, when the child actually has to make tennis courts left by Harvard professors. time you get to $20 and $200, there is a behavior choice between an immediate But make no mistake, the criminal is simply no significant difference at all small reward and a delayed larger reward. very different from the good citizen. He between the two groups. The experimenter says to the child cannot resist the rewards of an immediately I think that anyone with common sense something like, "Thank you for having available opportunity, so he snatches a purse looking at this data will understand that played these games with me. I promised if it is at hand. And the type of citizen the delinquents are responding in a much you a candy bar as a reward, and I'll preferred by Wilson and Hermstein returns more flexible and realistic way than the certainly keep my promise. But I'm purses to their owners, waits long hours in high school students. They feel no need to running out of candy and I can't give you line at the employment office, and saves his tell some psychologist who comes and all candy right now. If you want, I'll give money for a rainy day. plays a silly game with them, "Oh yes, I'd you the small candy now, which is what I There are other studies whose point is to run and deposit a quarter in my savings promised you. But if you prefer, if you're show that people who are either juvenile account just like that." It's only ordinary willing to wait one week, I'll come back a delinquents or adults convicted of crimes high school students who play that kind of week from now and give you a candy cannot delay gratification. One study is by game according to the rules with much larger than this one-perhaps five Rosenquist and Megargee and cited by experimental psychologists. times as large, or five candy bars rather than Wilson and Herrnstein. In three separate You might want to know what the one." cultures-Anglo, Chicano, and Mexican- experimenters arc saying about this data. So now you actually get a behavior

JulyI August 1986 9 s c I E N c E • J 0 u R N A L I s M measure. Each child must make the choice understand that there's a lot of scope in this from a fundamental conceptual flaw. between an immediate small reward or a research for unconscious experimenter Wilson and Herrnstein often seem delayed larger reward. And Mischel bias. unwilling to distinguish clearly between pointed out years ago in a study done with It also turns out that there is no general correlation and causation. black children in Jamaica that a higher trait for inability to delay gratification. What if it really were· the case that proportion of institutionalized young That is, as Mischel has pointed out, it delinquents tend toward a particular type juvenile delinquents went for the immediate depends upon what kinds of reward are of physique? What would follow from the small reward. That is, they did not delay being offered. The same child who will discovery of such a statistical correlation? gratification,' compared to noninstitutionalized say, "Give me a small candy now, rather Well, Wilson and Herrnstein assert that if it ordinary school children. than one five times as large a week from can be shown that criminals do not differ Well, whatever evidence that might now," may say, "OK, if I can watch five from others in bodily constitution, then it suggest, what you're not likely to find out, TV programs next week, then I will give would seem plausible to suppose that and what no working journalist will find up the chance to watch one now." In short, crime results from a criminal's economic, out from reading the book or from talking there isn't a general trait within an cultural, social, and political circumstances to Wilson and Herrnstein, are the individual child of an inability to delay rather than his constitution. So they set up following kinds of items. In the first place, gratification across all types of rewards. that false dichotomy to begin with. It is it turns out that the proportion of children But it is such a general trait that's called for going to be one or the other, and if it can be who say they will opt for the delayed and indeed explicitly declared to exist by shown that they don't differ in constitution larger reward depends, to a very substantial the Wilson and Herrnstein book. and genetically, then perhaps we can start extent, on the identity of the experimenter. Finally, the more quantitative among thinking that it might be the economic With two different experimenters, not you might want to know what the and social circumstances. given any explicit instructions but given reliability of this test is when given to a With such a simplistic and false random samples drawn from the same young child. That is, what is the likelihood dichotomy set up, their next step is to population of school children, one will that the same child, given the same test on argue that showing a constitutional consistently elicit a much greater proportion two separate occasions, will make the same correlate amounts to counter-evidence of delayed gratification choices than the choice? It turns out that there is a very against the purely environmental explana­ other. large study done by the Educational tion. The task of research thus boils down We have known for years, in behavioral T csting Service some years back in to a hunt for the external constitutional science, that experimenters influence the connection with the Head Start program in correlaries: the visible stigmata, if you like, behavior of rats running through mazes, which hundreds-I think 450 young of crime. let alone children making behavior children-are asked one year apart to make And the light at the end of the research tunnel is dazzling. Because, they say, if it turned out that most criminals were, say, red-headed and freckle-faced, we would be Criminals, however ore "more on the trail of genetic correlates of crime. Just because red-headedness and freckles likely than authors or students to have a genetic basis. Well, as Steve Gould said in his talk this assign a very low value to distant morning, that's a rotten argument. This kind of logic asserts that, should it turn out rewords." Well that doesn't really that people with black skins make up a disproportion of the unemployed, we're explain why criminals murder, on the trail of a genetic correlate for unemployment. Just because black skin pillage, and rope rather than just has a genetic basis. Well, we are on such a trail, of course. occupy vacant spaces at the But a purely experimental explanation attributing black unemployment to racism beaches and tennis courts left by need not deny that the skin color of blacks is attributable to their genes. Though their Harvard professors. genes are correlated with the state of being unemployed, there is no meaningful sense in which the genes of black people cause choices. Something I hope journalists this same behavioral choice between a their unemployment. We can easily understand is that in the behavioral small, immediate reward and a delayed imagine a society where skin color would s\iences, when people are working with larger one. The corre!.ation between the no longer be a genetic correlate of live human subjects, the biases and two choices when made one year apart­ unemployment. theoretical preconceptions of the experi­ you arc not going to believe this-was The confusion between the genetic menter cannot help but influence, and literally minus 0.01. That is, there was correlates and their causes is plain) y often profoundly, the behavior of the nothing but an absolute chance relationship illustrated by Hermstein's earlier observation, subject being studied. And if you have between the child's choice today and that that as technology advances, the tendency experimenters doing studies upon children same child's choice a year from today. to be unemployed may run in the genes of who are convinced that a particular type of But the major flaw in Crime and Human a family as certainly as bad teeth do now. child can't delay gratification -I'm in no Xature isn't really in the data. Far more The simple fact is that unemployment, like sense impugning the integrity of the seriously, the book, in common with much crime, is a social phenomenon. Neither can experimenter-most scientists would of contemporary social science, suffers run in the genes. 9

10 Science for the People 0 .u R N A L I s M SCIENCE WRITING Reporting on the Front Lines

BY JULIE ANN MILLER appeared to be girls and then at age 12 suddenly turned out to be boys. This think that we need to look at science article quotes the researcher as saying that journalism as a type of journalism, they were able to make this adjustment rather than a subfield of science. I easily because they had a male brain hidden feel really uncomfortable when I hear in a girl's body. Ipeople talking about science writing I thought there was more than that, and I having a special purpose beyond that of looked up an article I had written about this other parts of the news-beyond informing story in 1980, when it first came out. In my people about what scientists are doing and article, I quoted the same researcher as why it might be relevant to them. saying that the seemingly easy acceptance On the one hand, you have scientists of the sex change must be viewed in the who are proprietary about science perspective of the Dominican society, journalism, thinking that maybe they will where there is clearly an advantage to become writers when they retire. On the being male. The men had all the good other hand, you have people who see things, and the women stayed home. For science writers as wise evaluators of somebody to find out at age 12 that they're science. That would be very nice, but I not in the bottom class but in the top class­ write three or four stories a week and there that was a relatively easy adjustment to is no way I can do a thesis-style evaluation make. of everything that I write. There aren't any examples that I know So hopefully, you are just alerting of going the other way. But I think that it people to what's going on, and getting would be a lot harder if someone had been scientists in touch with each other. But raised as a boy to suddenly hear, "Oh no, some people are going to misinterpret what you have to stay home and cook and sew you say. I wrote an article about a fairly now." Well, I guess it was just a year later, esoteric genetic work that had some and the researcher had forgotten or implications for cancer research, and this stopped talking about that. Or maybe the work happened to be done in yeast. I got a science writer hadn't asked that question. letter from someone saying, "I knew yeast As for scientists, what they can do is to causes cancer. I am never eating bread try and keep science writers informed. If again." But I don't think that was a reason there is a particular issue you're really not to write about it. concerned with, you can write to a science I think we have a responsibility to try to reporter and suggest people they can talk point out the different implications of new to. research, rather than not writing about Recently, I've been very impressed with them. With the topic of PMS, some people Jeremy Rifkin. Whatever you think about interpreted it as another sign that women his approach to biotechnology, he are all a little bit crazy. Other people certainly knows how to put out a press interpreted it as finally taking seriously release. And he includes the names and these symptoms that some women have. telephone numbers of not only the people Up to that point, some doctors thought who support him, but the people who that women were just complainers, always oppose him. This really guarantees that he talking about feeling bad before their will get stories written. Sometimes you get periods. Now maybe the medical profession about them. So I think these issues can have a story, and if the scientist doesn't will address PMS more seriously. medical implications, and are worth volunteer information about who might be It's the same sort of thing with brain writing about and bringing up in as on the other side, it can take you a week to differences. Some people will look at brain responsible a way as possible. You don't track someone down. So sometimes the differences and say, "Well, this proves that want to ignore the topic just because it has story gets written without having the men are smarter than women." But if there certain political implications. other side in it at all. really are differences in the male and female One way to do this when you are talking The editors play a role in the sort of bias brain, I want my brain surgeon to know to people is to ask questions that reveal that gets into science writing. That causes social bias. I was really struck by one of the writers to over blow stories, to make them Julie Ann Miller is a science writer for articles in the conference materials packet longer, and to try to get better placement. Science News, and holds a doctorate in from Discover about a disorder in the Editors also have a role in the assignment of neuroscience. Dominican Republic, where children articles, and they tend to assign somebody

July/August 1986 11 c I I N c I 0 u R N A l I M

to a story who supports their own political writer on our staff, because I have a lot of pressure of deadlines and changing topics view. And if someone else on the staff problems with a lot of the work we write all the time. You also want to say to wants to write about a certain topic, they about. If it were my job to choose the scientists, "Every time you do a research will subtly or overtly discourage them. stories, there wouldn't be very many. But project, you should do this, this, and this." Also, the people writing about a certain this also makes for a certain bias in But I really have doubts that a lot of field tend to be the ones impressed with the reportmg. scientists would come to a conference like work going on in that area. I have often had It's nice to think ideally what we would this to hear journalists tell them what they nightmares about being a psychology do to cover a story. But you are under the are doing wrong in their research. 9 BIOLOGY IS NOT DESTINY A Transactional Model for Gender Differences in Behavior

BY ANKE A. EHRHARDT convincing for the journalist, and conclusive. variable. You have several examples of this The problem with the main effect model is in your conference reading material. The y field is the study of gender that many cases do not fit such a one-factor math gene is one of the most recent differences in human behavior. model. Therefore, we are particularly examples. Investigators contribute by not And over the last 20 years or vulnerable to going from one new collaborating with those in the other so, I have attempted to identi­ discovery to the next in the hope of finding disciplines, thus making it impossible to fy both biological and social a better explanation of the behavior under link their knowledge with that of others. Menvironmental factors which may contribute I think that the difficulties really begin study. • to gender differences of behavior of boys I would like to make a plea for an with terminology. The dichotomies of and girls, and of men and women. My area interactional, or even better, a transactional nature versus nurture, constitutional of research has gone through some model. This model assumes that a variety versus acquired, and heredity versus dramatic changes, from attributing major of factors may have their source, at environment reflect a bipolarity that does or exclusive importance to social factors, different points of their development, not exist. The bipolarity is a false one, and more recently to becoming very either in their constitution or in the outside since both social and biological influences focused on biological factors. world, exerting influence on the central affect behavior through the central Perusing the material that was distributed nervous system. All these factors actively nervous system, irrespective of how they for this conference, I was struck by how participate and interact with each other and gain their entry-either internally, by way much our thinking is still cored in too­ are therefore plastic modifiers. The of genetics, for instance, or externally, by simple models. We continue to strive for transactional model does not assume way of stimuli transmitted through the the one crucial determinant of behavior directionality in development that gives senses from the environment. which would give us the ultimate truth. I greater ideological importance to one Learning and memory are just as much would suggest that we will fail and not particular factor. biology as a process of ON A replication. make progress in our understanding, It appears that scientists as well as Now why is that distinction made over unless we apply more complex thinking journalists have great difficulty in and over again? I think, in part, because we that includes a muitifactoral approach. applying such transactional thinking. And divide those different classes and influences So far, the model most often applied is I would like to mention a few reasons why into immutable, and that usually means the main effect model, which postulates I think that is so. There are some traps biological, versus modifiable, and that that one factor determines, or predominantly which both scientists and journalists fall usually means learning. Obviously, that's influences, a particular behavioral outcome. into again and again which impede the another trap, if you follow my thinking, That model has the advantage of being investigation of human behavior and the since all effects are more or less modifiable. simple, practical for the researcher, accurate reporting of such investigations. For instance, enormous importance has At this point in time, no scientist or been attributed to the influence of sex Anke A. Ehrhardt is a professor of psychiatry journalist should be unaware that human hormones on gender-related behavior. at the Columbia College of Physicians and gender-related behavior is determined by According to my thinking, sex hormones Surgeons and a research scientist at the ;vew many factors. However, we continue to play a part, but they only play a limited York Psychiatric Institute. reduce the roots of behavior to one part in a whole network of factors in the

12 Science for the People s I c • J 0 u R N A L I s M etiology of some very specific aspects of the testosterone level. Or hormonal behavior. One should certainly never fluctuations in some women may, through­ Covering assume-there is no evidence-that sex out the menstrual cycle, affect mood. But hormones have a major or predominant also mood and stress rna y affect the Controversy influence. hormonal fluctuation and menstruation. For example, testosterone may increase My own research has particularly In Seienee sexual desire. Sexual desire, under certain involved the role of prenatal hormones and circumstances, may lead to sexual behavior. the development of sex differences of Audio Tapes &. Bur then, and that's very important to keep behavior. Now I think that the misinterpreta­ Transeripts in mind, sexual behavior may then affect tions of my work have usually happened when my research has been thought to Available support a simple-minded, biological, deterministic point of view. My own KEYNOTE ADDRESS thinking is that variations of sex hormones BIAS IN SCIENCE before birth may predispose some specific Stephen Jay Gould behavior tendency, such as, for instance, a ARE THERE GENES FOR CRIME? propensity to physical activity level. However, there is no question that the Leon Kamin positive or negative social enforcement YELLOW RAIN & THE PRESS will determine whether that physical Matthew Meselson activity level will be amplified, modified, or altogether suppressed. PANEL DISCUSSIONS Not only is it important to see sex Sex Roles Research & the Press differences as the end result of the complex Statistics, Models & Data interplay of various factors. It is crucial that we not exceed the boundaries of our Reporting about AIDS Research information. Star Wars & the Media As an example, if boys show, on the {A)utaet Seieuee for the People average, a stronger propensity towards 897 Main St., l'Ambri~e. MA 02139 physically active play than girls, we (617) 547-0370 should not and cannot extrapolate or conclude that girls are more passive, more dependent, have less initiative, less leadership behavior, or are generally less assertive and could not, therefore, become airline pilots or president of the . A difference in physically active play behavior may be simply a difference in physically active play behavior. When we generalize, we not only become imprecise, but we perpetuate stereotypes. One last point. To include constitutional variables in the analysis of sex differences of behaviors, such as sex hormones, evokes heated political arguments from opposite GY sides. Those concerned with defining human behavior in a less prejudicial and restrictive way for both sexes become ECONOMY& deeply alarmed by the attribution of biological factors to gender differences. PHOTOVOLTAICS And those on the other side, holding views of prescribed roles for men and women, proclaim biologically-rooted differences as the final truth. Both points of view lack CHRISTOPHER C. SWAN the perspective an interactive model would Learning and provide. Both sides ascribe power and A non-technical exploration importance to biological variables that are of an astounding memory ore just not justified-except in what now should breakthrough technology he outdated thinking. that will dramatically change Our newly-acquired knowledge on as much biology biological factors and gender differences in our lives. human behavior is so far very preliminary as a process of and fragmentary, and it behooves us to be At your bookstore now. cautious in interpretation and reporting. DNA replication. But it is clear now that we have no support SIERRA CLUB BOOKS for the notion that biology is destiny. 9

July/August 1986 13 s c I E N c E • J 0 u R N. A L 1 >s M j

BY DAN WARTENBERG

am going to talk about three problems INTERPRETING that are important for journalists and scientists to know about. The first is the concept of multiple testing: how many times do you test something, and STATISTICS lhow does that affect the interpretation of statistics? There is also a question of data standardization: what did you really expect to occur, and how does that What Did influence the interpretation of the results? Finally, there's the question of statistical power: what does it mean if you get You Expect? negative results? The first question relates to some of the work that I do, and it has to do with clusters. Just what is a cluster, and when do you think you have a cluster? A lot of times there will be a health outcome, like cancer or birth defects. And people will say, "Gee, that looks pretty unusual." So we think that it's a cluster, since it's unusual and there are a large number of cases, either close together or aggregated in some other way. What do we mean by an unlikely chance? It shouldn't happen 1 in 10 times? Or you wouldn't expect it to happen 1 in 100 times, unless something unusual were going on-something like that. Then it becomes important to ask, "Well, how often did we look?" If we were looking at a cluster in a neighborhood of a few blocks, then we could look at all such areas in the United States too, and there might be millions of them. If we looked a million times, we might expect to see this cluster 1,000 times, just by chance alone. As it turns out, we really have to ask the context in which we were thinking about this cluster, and how often we asked the question, "Is this unusual?" A similar sort of thing happens when one looks at cancer rates and then ranks them. You might see in the newspaper that some county or town on Cape Cod has the highest lung cancer rate in Massachusetts. And people say, "Well, there must really be some problem there. I wonder what's causing that." Again, it really depends upon how you ask the question. In fact, it may be true that there's a problem. There may be something that people are being exposed to. On the other hand, we can take the cancer rates for the 3 51 towns in Massachusetts and order them, and there is always going to be one that's the highest. That's the consequence of ordering them. So if we then say that it happens to be this

Dan Wartenberg is a research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health and a long­ time member of Science for the People.

14 Science for the People s c I E N c E • J 0 u R N A L I s M

town out on Cape Cod, there might not be and one's in Syracuse. So what's hap­ so it must not be dangerous. A recent a problem. That's just a natural variation in penning is that there are more cancer Scientific American article states, "Concern numbers, and finding the highest one cases, but there are more cases because that this material is harmful to health and doesn't tell us there's a problem. What we there are more people in those cities. The the environment may be misplaced. really want to know is, "How high is it?" rates might not be high. And that's the Although it is toxic to certain animals, How different is it from the other rates? point of the article: that we have to adjust evidence is lacking that it has any serious, How unusual is it? for population, and we have to talk about longterm effects on human beings." On the other hand, what if someone had rates in proportion, not numbers, or else Well, if evidence is lacking, does that come and said, "I think there is a real they can be very deceptive. .mean it's safe? I'm not saying whether it is problem in this town. Would you look at or isn't. It just seems that conclusion is the lung cancer rates?" And if you look at Standardizing Data completely unjustified. We don't have those rates and find that, in fact, that town sufficient information. So what we have to has the highest lung cancer rate, then we've In a similar incident, I worked with ask is, "Why didn't we find it if we looked? gone about the problem in a different way. people in a county health department What was the problem?" We've asked that if we pick a town at lookmg at how groundwater contamination random, how likely is it that town will had spread from a certain source. We Finding an Effect have the highest cancer rate? And that looked at how many wells were contami­ chance would be 1 out of 3 51. The fact nated as we went away from the source. That gets into the issue of statistical that we hit it is pretty unusual, so that They published a report saying that most power: if there is an effect, how likely are suggests that there might be a problem. of the wells that were contaminated, over we to find it? This is a very complicated 80%, were within 500 feet of the source. concept, and lots of scientists don't utilize Looking for Causes And once one got out to about 1200 or it in designing their studies. Epidemiology I300 feet, they said there was no chance of is a very difficult science-a lot of people I What I'm getting at is that one has to contammanon. know say it's like using a blunt instrument look for causes. You can't just say that Well, I went back and looked at the data to try and find something. something's unusual or that it's a cluster, and asked, "How many wells are there that So the fact that we can't find an effect and therefore we have a major public are greater than I500 feet away?" And it doesn't mean that it's not there. It means health problem. When we find some sort of turned out that there weren't many. So that our methods are just not quite data that suggests an unusual situation, when you normalize for the number of sensitive enough to pick it up. It might be that should prompt us to ask, "What's wells out there, you have a 10% chance of that we have to see a five-fold increase in a causing it?" You shouldn't just accept the having a contaminated well, even if you particular outcome, such as a type of birth statistics as showing that there's an unusual live over 2000 feet away. They were defect, to even begin to suggest that it was situation. drawing the wrong conclusion because unusual. Well, that doesn't mean that if it's There is even a question about how one they weren't standardizing their data to less than that, there's nothing going on. It asks, "Is it unusual?" What do you say if what was expected. And that turned out to means that our methods are not very someone says, "We just found five new be a very important problem. They were effective at picking this up. leukemias in Woburn"? How unusual is telling people that if they lived more than In looking at results, it seems important that, over the past two years? Or what if 1500 feet away from this source, they to ask the question, ' 1How big an effect we didn't find any over the next five years? didn't have a problem. That wasn't true. It would you have to have before you found Is that unusual? What they're not telling just meant that you probably didn't have a it?" Could you have picked up a doubling you is very important, which is the well that you were drawing drinking of the rates? Or even one-and-a-half times number that's expected. What is the water from. But if you did, you had better the rate? If you're looking at a disorder expected value of the number of cases of worry. that's very common in the population, it's cancer or the number of cases of leukemia? Also, people often forget to consider a very small fluctuation. If it's a disorder I think that's a really important question confounding variables-variables that arc that's verv rare, it's much more difficult to that journalists have to ask. likely to be misleading. One factor that's find in the population. That doesn't say When someone comes out with a often ignored is age. You can look at anything about the effect; that just says number and tells you, "We just found this general cancer rates and it may turn out whether or not we can find it. You also rate that's very high," we have to ask, that there is a community that has a very have to ask how big the study was. If you "What did you expect? And how different high cancer rate relative to another looked at I 0 people, it's going to be a lot is it from what you expected?"There are a community. Again, you have to ask, tougher to pick up an effect than if you variety of ways that one can do that. It "What is expected?" If it turns out that the looked at I 0,000 people. depends on, in the case of leukemia rates, community that has the high rate has many These arc issues related to statistical the number of people that are considered, very old people, that may not be power that arc very important. People for one. How many children are there in surprising. In fact, it may turn out to be a should be very cautious about taking Woburn that we might want to consider in low rate. So it's very important to consider negative effects and assuming that we deciding that there is an unusual number of the other factors that could contribute to have, in fact, proved something. We leukemia cases? Often, people will report the outcome that you're looking at. Have haven't. When we're trying to disprove a data in terms of rates, like standard those factors been taken into account? null hypothesis-for example, that dioxin mortality ratios or some relative risk. Finally, I want to mention the topic of is harmful--and we can't, the converse-­ Getting back to clusters, one of the negative results. People put a lot of that dioxin is safe-just doesn't follow. things that people often forget to adjust for credence in them. A common example is What it shows is that, at this point in time, is population. In an article published about dioxin-it seems to be pretty popular we have not been able to demonstrate that a particular type of cancer, there's some today-where there are reports that it is harmful. But maybe we haven't looked data that looks like clusters-but look, scientists looked for epidemiological at it the right way or asked the right one's in New York, and one's in Buffalo, effects from dioxin and couldn't find them, questions. 9

July/August 1986 15 NOT IN ANYONE'S BACKYARD Communities Fight Nuclear Waste Dump Siting

BY DAN GROSSMAN "The cltlzens made the difference," he AND SETH SHULMAN says. "DOE saw the reaction in Maine and they retreated." n a surprise victory for the anti­ The DOE's nuclear waste program is nuclear movement, the Department of designed to dispose of 12,000 tons of Energy (DOE) reversed itself and highly radioactive spent fuel rods that lie in decided to "indefinitely postpone" its cooling pools at nuclear power plants search for a second high-level nuclear across the country. In the next decade, the Iwaste repository. This turnabout followed amount of nuclear waste in storage is the DOE's selection, in January of this expected to almost triple, filling many of year, of 12 sites for a second repository for these cooling pools to near capacity. high-level radioactive waste, which caused In addition to this commercial waste, a furor in seven states east of the DOE stores one million cubic feet of its Mississippi River. own liquid, highly-radioactive waste at The nuclear waste issue, which pitted three sites, the vast majority of it resulting states and local communities against federal from the production of nuclear weapons. representatives, has raised public sentiment Because this waste is extremely hazardous, against the whole nuclear industry. Public DOE believes that it should be isolated meetings this spring in communities like from the environment and human contact Naples, Maine and Asheville, North for at least 10,000 years, necessitating a Carolina drew thousands of concerned permanent disposal facility. citizens, often lasting into the early Some of the high-level nuclear waste, morning hours. Within a few months, large both from commercial plants and from community groups mobilized, raising nuclear weapons manufacture, has been hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight held in "temporary" on-site storage for as the siting of nuclear dumps near their long as thirty years because no permanent homes. facility has ever been built. At the site in Alan Philbrook of the Maine Nuclear Hanford, Washington, where much of the Referendum Committee claims that it was liquid high-level waste is stored below the opposition of citizens in Maine and ground, one storage tank alone is known to other states to the crystalline repository have lost 115,000 of its 500,000 gallons, that caused DOE to cancel the program. seeping into the ground and risking contamination of the groundwater supply Dan Grossman is a graduate student of science and the Columbia River. policy and American politics at MIT and is a member of the editorial committee of Science he Nuclear Waste Policy Act for the People. (NWPA), signed into law by ------~---- President Reagan in January Seth Shulman is a freelance writer on science 1983, mandated a solution '9 issues and coordinator of Science for the to the high-level nuclear waste §- People's editorial advisory board. problemT by requiring that DOE develop

Science for the People plans for two permanent, so-called deep recent decision, the second repository was since DOE's decision found that 58.5% of geological high-level nuclear waste scheduled to follow the first by approximately Maine voters favored closing the plant repositories, or "national sacrifice areas." seven years, each facility costing approxi­ immediately. Similarly, in Maine's coming The power utilities' lobby was a major mately $6 to $9 billion. gubernatorial race, eight of nine candidates driving force behind NWPA. They faced DOE justified its decision to drop plans also favor shutting down the plant. criticism that there was no safe way to for the second nuclear dump, citing At the request of Maine Governor dispose of the waste from nuclear power satisfactory progress on the first repository, Joseph Brennan, a proponent of nuclear plan~s, according to Rep. Edward Markey revised projections of the amount of power who has actually appeared in (D-Mass.), chair of the Subcommittee on nuclear waste that will be generated, and statewide advertisements paid for by the Energy, Conservation and Power, who the expense of the search for the site. nuclear power industry, a study was voted against NWPA in 1982. Secretary of Energy John S. Herrington recently completed of the costs of shutting The lack of a national disposal plan said he believed the decision was "in the the reactor down. Stating publicly that he threatened to halt the growth of the nuclear best interest of the American people and is reconsidering his support for Maine power industry. California, Wisconsin, the most effective course for implementing Yankee, Brennan asked an audience of Massachusetts and other states even passed NWPA." 2,300 at a DOE briefing this spring, "Isn't laws which prohibited the construction of But citizen opposition to the second it logical to say if we don't want (a nuclear new nuclear plants until a safe method of nuclear waste dump was probably a waste repository) here, you should say permanent disposal was demonstrated. stronger factor in the DOE's pirouette. we close that plant?" The desire to show that nuclear waste Protest over the proposed second site was But Maine was not the only state could be handled safely led Congress to fierce in all of the seven states targeted in promising stiff opposition to DOE's plans include a very explicit and strict schedule in the January report, taking DOE officials for the second repository. Angry protesters the act for each step of the process leading by surprise. "The people are very opposed the proposed facility in all six of to the two repositories. energized," remarked Philbrook in.May. the other states under consideration. The proposed facilities would deposit "We almost had open revolution." Wisconsin Governor Anthony Earl told the waste in mines 1,000 to 4,000 feet deep Ironically, the protest threatened the the House Subcommittee on Energy at sites with one of three types of rock very nuclear power industry NWP A had Conservation and Power this spring, "We formations: salt, basalt (solidified volcanic been written to rescue. In Maine, haven't purchased any F-Ills yet, but we lava), or tuff (solidified volcanic ash). opposition to the nuclear dump has led to expect to use every technical and political Until the recent DOE announcement, a widespread calls to shut down the state's resource at our command in order to keep fourth type of rock, crystalline, such as one nuclear plant, Maine Yankee. While this dump and all of its problems out of granite that's located in midwestern and citizens voted in favor of Maine Yankee in Wisconsin." In Asheville, North Carolina, eastern states, was also under consideration two previous referenda, in 1980 and 1982, a resident told DOE officials at a public for the second repository. Prior to DOE's a poll conducted by the Associated Press meeting, "I will never let anyone on my

July/August 1986 17 property to do any testing and, if maintain that DOE will be unable to select necessary, I will die for it." three candidate sites for the second HEAD? Not only was DOE opposed at the grass repository by the 1989 deadline, as roots, but many aspects of its program, mandated by NWP A, and is thereby HEART? including the strict timetable in the act and currently violating the spirit of the law. DOE's site selection process, were under Meanwhile, on the federal level, two SOCIETY? fire at the national level in Congress and the Washington congressmembers have intro­ WHERE ARE PSYCHOLOGICAL courts. David Berick, director of the duced legislation to amend NWP A, PROBLEMS LOCATED? Nuclear Waste and Safety Project of the requiring DOE to follow what they see as These critical questions ore stirring new Environmental Policy Institute, believes the original intent of the act. This debate among psychologists. Practice, DOE attempted to make up for missing its legislation would halt the siting process the controversial journal features arti­ own deadlines under the NWP A by until the second tier of sites is reinstated. cles devoted to a Theory and Practice shortening the time allotted for public In addition, more than a dozen members for a New Psychology. If you wont to comment on the draft report which of the House and Senate have written a know the latest exciting developments orginally announced the sites under letter to Secretary of Energy John S. and bold advances, get your subscrip­ consideration for the second repository. Herrington, questioning the legal basis for tion today. "The timetable was never realistic," he DOE's elimination of the second site. One The new Spring issue includes: stated. of the authors is Senator McClure (R­ • Crisis Normalization And still facing criticism was a provision Idaho ), chairman of the Senate Energy and • Ethnoculturol Relevance in of the act which states that DOE will take Natural Resources Committee and sponsor Clinical Treatment responsibility for the utilities' nuclear of the original bill, who believes that • A Social Therapeutic Approach waste in 1998. If, as appears likely, the first DOE's actions may be in violation of to Child Sexual Abuse site is not ready to open by that date, DOE NWPA. The Journal will have to find other ways to accommodate Representative Edward Markey, who the law, such as by paying the utilities for also believes that DOE lacks authority to of Politics, continuing to store the nuclear waste postpone selection of a second nuclear Economics, themselves-an ironic prospect. waste dump, questions why the agency Psychology, DOE's implementation of the act was didn't recommend amendments to the Sociology, under fire as well. The Environmental NWP A instead. "A postponement will & Culture. Policy Institute is currently awaiting a keep a nuclear cloud hanging over the twelve sites that have been selected as Published by decision on a suit filed in the U.S. 9th The Institute lor Social Therapy and Research. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco potential second-round repository sites. 7 E. 20th STREET • N. Y.C., N.Y. 10003 challenging DOE's site selection guidelines. Citizens in these seven states may well be (212) 505-0170 "There is not a single factor, either in nuclear limbo for years," he claims. geologic, or environmental, or transporta­ Unfortunately, whatever the results of tion, that actually gets resolved in the these challenges to DOE's recent actions, screening stage," says Berick. "It allows many tons of waste are already in storage DOE to make highly subjective judgments. and have to be safe! y disposed of The less information, the better a site somewhere. Some observers in the looks, and therefore the more suitable a site environmental movement see DOE's is." For instance, according to DOE's decision as detrimental to the program's guidelines, there is no aquifer in the U.S. ability to safely dispose of this waste. which is so valuable or so irreplaceable that "DOE's decision amounts to putting all it could not be put at risk when considering our eggs in one basket," says Brooks the location of a nuclear waste repository, Yeager of the Sierra Club, "and the basket at least in the early stages of the site doesn't look very good." selection process. So far, there does not appear to be In Congress, a number of amendments sufficient support to reopen NWP A, either to NWP A were proposed to halt the by proponents or opponents of the recent second repository program. One of these, decision, because the compromise which S-2354, sponsored by Senator George gave birth to the bill would be irrevocably Mitchell (D-Maine), would eliminate the lost. But some fear that the compromise has automatic assumption by DOE of responsi­ already been violated and that the program bility for the commercial nuclear waste in is doomed. According to David Berick of 199.8, abandon plans for a second the Environmental Policy Institute, "Its a repository, and remove the cap of 70,000 foregone conclusion that this program is metric tons allowed in the first repository. mortally wounded." In Congress and in court, in city halls he recent victory for opponents and on Capitol Hill, almost every aspect of of the second repository may tum the nuclear waste disposal program is being out to be pyrrhic, or at best questioned. But whatever the outcome of short-termed. Sponsors of these disputes, the decision about where NWP A, and western congress- the waste will ultimately rest is certain to T be controversial. Even DOE acknowledges men and governors who feel that the bargain upon which it was based has been this. As Bernard C. Rusche, head of the violated, arc attacking DOE's decision. Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste The state of Washington, which previously Management of DOE, stated, "We know endorsed the site selection process, has enough to do everything we are talking now joined Nevada to challenge DOE's about. We just have to find the right place policies in court. These western states to do it." 9

18 Science for the People GESUNDHEIT INSTITUTE

BY PATCH ADAMS An widespread dehumanization of care. How could a physician know a patient in a ten­ hen I went to medical school, minute interview-especially in a group I was very interested in the Experiment practice where patients might see a roles of the physician in I different physician each visit? There were society and appropriate health no required lectures on developing a close Wcare delivery systems. I grew 1n rapport with patients. There were no up a science nerd, with laboratories instead lectures on what constituted healthy living of baseball bats. There was never any or any preparation for the horrendous, doubt that my career would be in science. Medicine agonizing family and individual suffering The civil rights movement and the fervent that would confront the doctor every day. antiwar movement were instrumental in Patients were reduced to their diseases, and directing the focus of that science toward as a often attendants wore their prejudices on social change. I feel that all my life that their sleeves. focus has led me to the medical field. All of these problems arc overwhelming I entered medical school in I 96 7 a very to a medical student who cannot find self-confident person, with a zeal for Caring models to follow outside of this svstem of voraciously interviewing and reviewing all greed, paperwork, fear, and alienation. those connected with the health care One can go to the Third World and find a field-doctors, students, nurses, orderlies, Service meaningful niche, but here in the United patients. I sought out literature, both lay States none were visible or encouraged. I and professional, about all aspects of health knew I could not practice this style of care delivery. I was looking for clues on Now this is impossible. medicine because it would hurt me. I how best to use my training for social Hospitals, fNmerly the pride of a would not because I felt medicine should change. community and symbol of its caring, be a service to all people-a loving, moving It was becoming obvious then that big became a prime market for investment. interchange among friends. I would not changes were occurring in medicine which With flagrant conflict of interests, cheat the patients by giving less. But just as would undermine its focus as a service to physicians were found investing in labs, true, I would not cheat myself. I decided society. Medicine was becoming big hospitals, and supply companies. In my senior year to design a practice that business. In fact, it was becoming the medical schools, students spoke of wealth would address all of those issues head on. biggest business in the United States. The as their motivation, and attending For the I 5 years I have been in medical focus of the delivery systems seemed to be physicians spoke of investments while practice, we have never charged money, on how to produce maximum profit from scrubbing for operations. Where were the accepted third-party insurance, or carried people's suffering. And what a perfect echoes of the thrill of serving humanity? malpractice insurance, and we have opened alibi-to do this in the name of helping And if the healing arts were so concerned our home to all who came. For the first humanity. about containing costs, why did we have eight years, a group of I5-20 staff lived in a What's more, a perfect fail-safe tool was so little, if any, training in prevention of large single-family dwelling in a suburban at the core of this extravagance-third disease? country setting where we could farm and party reimbursement. In the name of equal Another pernicious element beginning develop outdoor programs. access to all people, insurance companies to surface in I 96 7 was the specter of We saw I 5,000 people from all over the and the government agreed to fund malpractice. Here was a force taking away United States for all kinds of medical whatever measures were necessary to the physician's humanity-their right to problems. Those people who needed insure good health care for all. Rampant make a mistake, and their right to intuition. inpatient care we admitted to our house, if waste became the profile for health care A complex system of defensive medicine possible. Only about I 5 had to go to delivery. was developing, further driving up costs hospitals. Over the most active period, The cost of care, of hospital beds, has by high insurance premiums and because 500- I 000 people camt; per month, with 5- become so great that, were these reimburse­ physicians would over-order tests to 50 guests per night. We fed all, helped ment companies to cease payment, the protect themselves. Diseases began to have many find jobs, and tried to help people whole system would collapse. It was not standard treatments, and even if they become more interdependent in their long ago that even blue collar workers weren't successful, it was better to do those community. Not only did we not charge could pay medical bills from their wages. than try something new, because the threat money, but the staff worked part-time jobs of malpractice charges brought fear. How to pay to give care to others. Patch Adams is a physician and founder of the can the doctor give meaningful medicine if Our ideal patient was someone who Gesundheit Institute, which is located at 404 every interaction has this element of fear? wanted a deep personal friendship for the N. Nelson St., Arlington, VA 2 2203, One of the saddest conclusions from all rest of our lives, so we wove our medical telephone 7031525-8169. of my investigations was that there was a work with social work and recreational

JulyI August 1986 19 activities, as an exuberant extended family. equipment to offer much wider care. for the style we had before. With some fear, The structure was one person, one vote, Rather than power play the disenchanted, we decided to forego the ban on publicity with any new staff requiring a unanimous we let them keep the beautiful property we and go to the nation for help. vote. The tasks were shared by all, had acquired, and we chose to regroup. For three years now, we have devoted including the visitors, who were usually Those people should be saluted for lasting the bulk of our time to raising funds and anxious to help with the cleaning, farming, so long-after all, we had nothing building a facility in an under-served area and cooking. We wanted to be accepting of resembling a private life. in West Virginia. We shall still be open to all who came, so we had very few rules, but For the next four years, we tried to see all people-it's cheaper to come there from prohibited physical fighting and hard patients in a modified style, and put more anywhere in the U.S. than the first day in drugs. time into fundraising. With the large any hospital in the country. We regret not After eight years, many of the support demand for-and thrill of-caring, fund­ seeing patients, but realize that for the staff were burned out and tired of waiting raising took a backseat. But this was bigger picture of social change, we need to for a facility. All along, we dreamed of unacceptable. We had a huge staff ready if have a model that's operating. We have building a facility with beds, space, and we got a facility, and we old-timers longed enough staff for five free hospitals, but to operate on the old frontier style would burn many of them out quickly. There were problems in our crude facility, where even the staff did not have a room to retreat to. Part of why we are now waiting for a facility rather than continuing Subscriptions are available for $29.00 for 50 issues (1 year) and in the frontier style of our past is that we do $17.00 for 25 issues. Special introductory offer 12 not want to waste the great folk ready to weeks/$8.00. make the sacrifices it takes to live with patients. The new facility will have a room for each staff person and space for each to Send check or money order to Gay Community News, 167 Tremont develop their own interests. We want it Street, Suite 5S, Boston, MA 02111. to be too fun and enriching to leave. Our major problem has centered around establishing believability. Even with free GCN is published by the non-profit Bromfield Street Educational Foundation. labor to build, we need a million dollars to get our first facility, and after 15 years we are just beginning to have the respect that attracts funds. Since our kind of care costs $2000-$4000 per week on the market, we have had investors willing to build for us Every year Crnnmunity Jobs lists for profit. CHANGE over 2,000 job openings in com­ Impatience could make that look munity work nationwide. If you attractive, but with 15 years in a glorious, are a college student looking for fun practice, most of that impatience is JOBS gone. The bottom line for me is that the an internship, a disgruntled lived experience has been too rich and worker looking for meaningful dynamic to consider alternatives. I see no Change work, or an activist wanting to. alternatives out there where practitioners keep informed about what's hap­ are ecstatic about their healing lives. the pening at the grassroots, you'll Another problem is patient oriented. When one wishes to focus care on trying to want to subscribe to prevent illness and stay away from World Community Jobs. unnecessary, potentially dangerous treat­ No Risk Guarantee! If Community Jobs doesn't meet your ments, one realizes it is not just "the needs, just write and we'll promptly send you a full refund on all system" that is the problem. Less than five unmailed copies. percent of our patients really want to A one year subscription to Community Jobs ( 12 issues) costs only address their lifestyle, and would rather take pills. We find that we have to have $12.00-50% off the cover price! contact for years to really see meaningful lifestyle changes. But this closeness is part 0 $12 payment enclosed (check or money order) of our freedom from fear of malpractice. It is also our securitv in times of need. 0 I've also enclosed an extra $10 for first class delivery I cannot really ·describe the thrill these past 15 years have been. From the book­ smart student, I have learned to farm, herd NAME goats, build houses, produce plays, and ride unicycles, to name just a fraction of ADDRESS what has been my reward. The day-to-day love has made the experience the thrill of a CITY STATE ZIP lifetime. And professionally, as a doctor and scientist, the joy of living a life in -•COMMUNITY JOBS-• service to this great planet is an honor without complaint. I believe I could not be 1520 16th St., NW, SuiteR, Washington, DC 20036 a greater revolutionary for social change than to carry on this work. 9

20 Science for the People CHERNOBYL WAS INEVITABLE Analyzing Anti-Soviet and Industry Propaganda

BY GERRY WANECK

he world first learned of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl when a Swedish Tmonitoring station detected a large surge in the level of background radiation. Based on the composition of radioactive isotopes in air samples, together with the aid of satellite photography, Western experts concluded that a serious accident involving the reactor core had occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear plant. The death toll was believed to be in the thousands. Europe was threatened by radioactive fallout, especially if the meltdown were to spread to the other three reactors at the site. Politically, the incident was worsened by the failure of Soviet authorities to acknowledge the accident until 48 hours afterward. During this time, U.S. anti-Soviet rhetoric was plentiful. The incident was used by the Reagan administration to undermine any trust of the new Soviet leadership toward agreements on nuclear arms control. When the Soviets reported that initially only two people had died and 19 5 were hospitalized, the world reacted in disbelief and further distrust. In the U.S., representatives of the nuclear industry extolled the merits of the better containment design of American-built reactors, and assured the public that our technology is superior, and our concern for safety higher than that of the Soviets. Then the reality of the situation began to emerge. This nuclear accident was indeed the most serious to date, but not a complete meltdown as initially feared. Like other accidents involving complex technologies, such as the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island, the chemical disaster in Bhopal, and the space shuttle Challenger explosion, a combination of

Marchers at National Day of Gerry W.rneck is fundraising coordinator for Nuclear Protest, May 24, 1986, in Scimce for the People. lie is a sciemist, Seabrook, New Hampshire. en·;:iromnental act h•ist, and longstanding opponmt of nuclear pou:er.

July/August 1986 21 faulty equipment and human error was Chernobyl reactor had no containment responsible. (as is the case with older Soviet reactors), Just as the plant operators at· Three the plant was newer in design and able to Mile Island initially underestimated the withstand the same pressures as many severity of that accident and then failed American nuclear reactors. Although to warn officials for 24 hours, the reportedly substandard to U.S. reactors, Chernobyl operators reacted in kind. the Chernobyl nuclear station used many When the Soviets finally realized the of the same safety devices as its American extent of the crisis, 92,000 people were counterparts. However, the accident evacuated in 36 hours. Many of these occurred during a routine maintenance people had already received dangerous procedure and was caused by problems levels of radiation, and most will never be which have plagued U.S. reactors, such able to return home because of widespread as stuck valves and operator errors. contamination. A Nuclear Regulatory Commission In retrospect, the silence of Soviet safety analysis admits that nearly one­ officials, while inexcusable, related more third of U.S. containment structures are to their own ignorance in understanding likely to fail in the event of a core and managing the situation, and their meltdown. The probability of this preoccupation with evacuating the area occurring within the next 20 years is and bringing the fire at the reactor under about 45 percent, according to an NRC control. One can imagine how a similar report. In the past year, the safety record situation might be handled by authorities of the U.S. nuclear industry was the in the U.S., or in other countries with worst since the 1979 accident at Three nuclear plants close to population Mile Island. Thus, comparisons between centers. Soviet and American designs are Now we have learned that differences irrelevant. in design and containment between U.S. Workers at the Chernobyl No existing plant uses foolproof plant pictured in and Soviet reactors have been exaggerated technology, and the consequences of a Soviet Life, February 1986. by the U.S. nuclear industry. Although meltdown, no matter how remote the most U.S. reactors use water rather than probability of its occurrence, arc so graphite to moderate the reaction, 3 8 should a complete meltdown occur, then serious that anv benefits of nuclear plants in the U.S. built by General the molten core would convert this water power can tWc';r outweigh the risks. Electric use huge outside ponds of water into atmospheric radioactive steam. The Moreover, the death and destruction underneath the reactor, like the Chcrnobyl Soviets barely managed to bring the resulting from the Chcrnobyl accident is plant, to relieve steam pressure in case of Chcrnobyl reactor under control before but a hint of what life would be like in the an accident. Should this emergency this happened. aftermath of even a "limited" nuclear system fail, as it did with Chernobyl, and Contrary to earlier reports that the ~~m~ 9 BHOPAL LITIGATION RULING India Wins

BY SATISH CHANDRA Union Carbide asked Federal Judge and dependence, of such an abdication of John F. Keenan to dismiss the cases on sovereignty and responsibility by the fter a poisonous gas leak the grounds that the proper forum for such Indian government for the sake of a little from Union Carbide's plant litigation was in India, where the accident bit of money now. In my brief, I quoted A in Bhopal, India in Decem- occurred. To obtain the much higher the New York Times, which said "if the ber 1984 killed over 2,000 persons, damage awards characteristic of American argument (of the plaintiffs in the Bhopal injuring hundreds of thousands more, the courts, the Indian government pleaded cases) was successful, it would cause Indian government, acting as a guardian inability to provide justice to its own many third world countries to bring of the victims, filed a damage suit, in citizens, citing overloaded courts and more claims in the United States." I company with other suits filed by private underdeveloped law. added, "The results would be multiple American lawyers in American courrs. As a citizen of India, I saw the long­ and complex, however; for one thing, term folly of such a stance and filed a such a process would consolidate the Satish Chandra is a psychologist and friend-of-the-court brief, drawing attention 'colonial' relationship that exists between consultant in Cambridge, Alassachusetts. to by-products, regarding dominance the two sides. This may have long-term

22 Science for the People deleterious consequences, threatening the had not taken account of. But "control" little incentive for the Indian government very survival of the 'third world' was precisely the rub, in my brief, to improve unless it faced the task of countries." because leaving the dispensing of justice cleaning up the mess, including the legal There was satisfaction, therefore, in for Indian victims in U.S. hands was a and social mess, and little long-run justice Judge Keenan's ruling sending the cases further abdication of control and for the Indians. to India, which said, "In the court's view, sovereignty. Such a result was to be Judge Keenan recognized this when he to retain the litigation in this forum, as avoided. wrote, "The Indian interest in creating plaintiffs request, would be yet another Judge Keenan's ruling transfers the standards of care, enforcing them or even example of , another situation cases to India, but only if Union Carbide extending them, and of protecting its in which an established sovereign agrees to accept any judgment against it citizens from ill use is significantly inflicted its rules, its standards and values in India and to submit to rules of pretrial stronger than the local interest in on a developing nation. This court discovery used in U.S. civil cases, thus deterring multinationals from exporting declines to play such a role. The Union of giving India, in a sense, the best of both allegedly dangerous technology." India is a world power in 1986, and its worlds-control over the litigation and There would have been irony in that a courts have the proven capacity to mete access to the assets of the parent company United States judge should have had to out fair and equal justice. To deprive the for the judgment. act as a guardian of India's sovereignty Indian judiciary of this opportunity to Together with "control" goes respon­ and independence, in the face of the stand tall before the world and to pass sibility, which is the other part of Indian government's subservient stance. judgment on behalf of its own people sovereignty, and the responsibility of the But this irony is dissipated by the fact that would be to revive a history of Indian government was also an issue. where the Indian government failed, a subservience and subjugation from Union Carbide said that the Indian private Indian citizen took the responsibility which India has emerged.'' government wanted the case tried in the to protect the longer-term interests of the On the principle argument the Indian United States because India itself is a Indian people, and the judge's opinion government has in the case, that Union defendant in hundreds of cases in India. reflected his brief. Carbide controlled its subsidiary in India , My brief referred to "derelictions of The Bhopal litigation is not over yet, (and is therefore liable for damages from duty" of the Indian government and but a crucial step has been taken and, for the accident), my brief supported the suggested that insofar as the disaster the moment at least, the Indian nation has Indian government, and even pointed to resulted from conditions the Indian been saved from humiliation and defeat. mechanisms of control that the plaintiffs government tolerated, there would be 9

Warren Anderson, president of Union Carbide, at televised press conference following the poisonous gas leak in Bhopal, India.

July/August 1986 23 R E A D E R R E s p 0 N s E SCIENCE AND GENDER Critiquing the Issues/Defining the Terms

BY MARK BRIDGER wrong, but we would hope to hear three presidents. During that time, if she AND MAXINE BRIDGER arguments mostly from total vegetarians. felt any dissent towards the AEC's cold It might be more instructive if the war policies, she kept it a great secret. he issue of gender and science is, dissection could be replaced by a class visit Stanford also invokes the argument indeed, a very important and time­ to an abattoir, but that is another issue. One about women's "intuitive" mode of ly one. We were therefore pleased of the important principles of science­ reasoning. We have, once again, an account to see the attention you have even on a high-school level-is observation of how women are "yin": holistic, givenT the subject; for the same reason we of the actual world. intuitive, nurturing. If the National were disappointed by the quality of the In the very next paragraph she goes on Science Foundation had given a scientist a articles you chose to represent it, to describe her lack of interest in pouring grant to investigate this mystical genetic particularly that by Barbara Dodds "liquids from one test tube to another" quality of women, and the scientist went Stanford ("Women and Science," SftP, without regard to whether the molecules on to prove that, yes, women did think like January/February 1986). might have been part of her own body. that, would a great victory have been won? In Stanford's article, we have an This is, at best, mystical; it is most likely Should we also prove that Blacks do, after anecdotal account of disillusionment with just foolishness. Did Stanford expect to all, have natural rhythm? We must be a what the author believes to be science. discover the secrets of life in a first course in little careful here; the sociobiologists may Stanford's connection with science was chemistry? Did she object to learning to be right, but let's not concede the game just tenuous at best, and her entire experience spell "cat" in kindergarten because it yet. seems to be with the very softest of the soft wasn't Kierkegaard? Women and men may think somewhat sciences. A course in which a significant Stanford then veers to a different tack: differently because of genetic differences; question involves "choosing between the lack of responsibility of (male) they almost surely have different viewpoints injustice and chaos" is not a science course. scientists to the consequences of their because of social differences. Whether It may be a very worthwhile course for research. Now this is hardly a new or even these differences make their outlook scie':tists-or anyone-to take, but it is not feminist issue, and we will discuss it at incompatible with "Newtonian" or any a SCience course. length below. Nevertheless, she is rather other science is another matter altogether. When Stanford offers her views on real playing to the galleries when she implies We suggest that no great scientific inquiry science, we begin to see her confusion. She that lack of responsibility is uniquely a is ever launched without a great deal of offers the "cold-blooded murder of a frog" male quality; this is sexism. Just to mention "holistic" insight. Newton, Darwin, as an "initiation" rite into high-school one obvious exception: Dixie Lee Ray, a Gauss, and Maxwell were not one­ science. Now there are certainly very woman, served on the Atomic Energy dimensional hacks. convincing arguments which can be made Commission for many years under at least In any case, it is important before about the necessity of each student having to kill a frog in order to see, first-hand, what biological organs look like. But that is not her point: she believes that this dissection was performed to "understand" a frog, and goes on to deny that the ., ... "essential constituents of a live frog were present in the pieces of a dead frog." The fact is that no one presumes to "understand" a frog. No scientist in the world knows how to make a live frog from a pile of chemicals. The goal of the dissection was much more modest: to show students that the organs of which they had read are real, and that they are placed, constructed, and held together in marvelously subtle ways. That many frogs give their lives toward this end may very well be

Mark Bridger is an associate professor of mathematics at Northeastern University m Boston, Massachusetts. Maxine Bridger is Computer Coordinator and Chair of Mathematics at the Cambridge School in Weston, Massachusetts.

24 Science for the People R E A D E R R E s p 0 N s E proceeding further to attempt some sort of number of successes in explaining or From the point of view of classical physics, delineation of the terms which have been modeling the universe. There have also the actual interaction between observer bandied about. While it is rather difficult to been great scientists who have been quite and observed can be quantified, predicted, "define" science, several observations involved in analyzing the consequences of and corrected for-this was never a about it can be made. First of all, scientists their research (most, unfortunately, after mystery. For quantum mechanical effects, don't "prove" that some statement about the research, but, increasingly, some before however, the situation is extremely subtle, the world is true. What they do is make the research is undertaken). since no one knows what meaning to observations, use the observations to make One of the features of the scientific ascribe to this interaction, or even whether hypotheses (models), and then see if method is the use of so-called "simplifying "interaction" is the correct word. further observations or internal inconsist­ assumptions". These are, of course, There are all sorts of experimental encies will disprove these hypotheses. logically necessary: a model of the oddities-the Einstein-Rosen-Podolski Sufficient evidence may make a scientist universe-or even a small portion thereof­ paradox for one-which call into question very confident indeed as to the validity of a which has the same complexity as reality any kind of intuitive notion of interaction particular hypothesis, but strict proof would probably not be a useful model. which most of us might have. Hardly seems, philosophically, impossible. Contrary to what Ruth Hubbard says in anyone could deny that some sort of more In applying this "scientific method", her article "Facts and Feminism" (SftP, general, ''holistic'' interpretation of scientists are supposed to adhere to a March/ April 1986), "neglecting friction" quantum mechanics is necessary. Some viewpoint referred to as "objectivity"; that is not some scam of Newtonian physics to scientists are working on this; most are not, is, they are to treat the items of avoid reality, but rather a stopgap measure which is probably as it should be. All investigation as pure objects, independent to enable one to begin understanding should certainly be aware of the issues. We of the observer. The history and psycholog­ reality. doubt, however, that much-if anything­ ical/sexual implications of this viewpoint There is a kind of arrogance in ascribing of social importance can be learned from have been the source of much inquiry, naivete to the great minds of previous quantum mechanics. most recently in Evelyn Fox Keller's generations. Newton and his successors The methods of science-observation, Reflections on Gender and Science (Yale were well aware of friction, turbulence, experimentation, conjecture, and reexamina­ University Press, 1985). A good case has and many other subtleties which affected tion-are pretty much fixed, much like the been made for the assertion that this the exactness of measurements. Neverthe­ various elements of any trade. It seems "objectivism" makes it easy (but not less, they didn't retreat into paralysis in the unlikely that we could or should replace obligatory!) for many individuals in the face of this complexity, nor did they ignore them with fantasy or mysticism. However, scientific community to avoid considering it; rather, they chose a method for the real-world practice of science, and the the social consequences of their work. proceeding in the face of complexity. They development of its practitioners, is very Popular perception of the "objectivist" tried to take the first steps in understanding much subject to the political/ economic nature of science has even attracted many some aspects of physics by isolating them. winds which blow. It is this point which individuals who have difficulty viewing This is exactly the same point we made Stanford and Hubbard are trying to get at. the world with anything but detachment. about the frog dissection. The kinds of questions scientists ask, and Nevertheless, the issue is decidedly not Hubbard also gives us the obligatory the kinds of people who get to be supported the abandonment of the scientific method­ lecture on the lessons of the Uncertainty as scientists depend as much as any other ology, as embodied in the observation­ Principle: objectivity is dead because the element of a society on the current hypothesis-testing cycle, but, rather, subject, of necessity, interacts with the ideologies and economic policies. raising the level of consciousness of object. This bald statement may be OK for Scientists come in many varieties, and scientists. Science has had an extraordinary pop science, but is a great simplification. the "political" forces select the successes. When Scientist A was studying the correlation between eye color and reading scores, and Scientist B was studying the correlation between skin color and reading scores, we know who got the grant. While research in molecular biology was deemed the proper way to study genetics, Barbara McClintock's research was relegated to the periphery of interest. When algebraic geometry was the hot item in mathematics, combinatorists had to scramble for positions-now the situation has reversed. Who decides what's in? Mostly white, middle-class male administrators and scientists, responding to current ideology, professional self-interest, and, yes, an honest attempt to choose a path which is most productive for science and society. Why are these "decision makers" drawn from this traditional sector of the population? Once again, simply as a natural result of the forces of selection operating in advanced industrialized countnes.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 32

July/August 1986 25 Sex and Germs

REVIEWED BY in the operation of molecules, and are KENNETH HALE-WEHMANN The Politics treated by the application or manipulation of molecules. n Sex and Germs, Cindy Patton That there could be something more to allows that "AIDS is a profound of AIDS a body's malfunction than a nuts-and­ Iassault on the complacent U.S. bolts snafu is a frightening prospect for view of disease: at the verv moment in by Cindy Patton "health providers," because it can lead to history when disease ;as declared the recognition by "patients" that they conquered, a new syndrome removed the South End Press, 1985 have within them the power to influence very elements within the body that had $9.00 paperback their body and, with or without the help once cooperated with the doctor's of a healer, bring their body back to its treatment." But she docs not take this usual state or ameliorate their discomfort. point far enough: the crisis is not that Dossey, in his book Space, Time and This recognition, in turn, loosens the medicine has been unable to come up Medicine, puts the predicament of grip of established medicine on the with a new molecular intervention to medicine in the industrial world succinctly: provision of health care. "cure" AIDS, but that it can conceive of "No medicine can be modern which does In the case of AIDS, the usual no other way of meeting the challenge of not square with the best of contemporary approach of medicine is devilishly AIDS. physical science." Our view of the confounded because the syndrome A strong case can be made that the kind physical world has radically changed in weakens the body's immune functions, of medicine practiced today in the United this century, so that the concept of matter which doctors relv on to work in States is hopelessly out of synch with a as distinct from energy, for instance, has conjunction with ~any cures. Since good many other sciences. Larry had to be discarded. The notion that the Western medicine is obviously not on the Dossey, a physician in Dallas who has universe was mechanistic and objective verge of wiping out AIDS, many have written two groundbreaking books on has been supplanted by the recognition been moved to discover their body's own this question, ·notes that iatrogenic that we arc united with all else. healing powers, intuitively arriving at an illness-a malady actually caused by the This knowledge contrasts with the understanding of health that stands in doctor-is "one of the commonest working assumptions of most physicians harmony with the view of an interconnected diseases of our day." Horrific anecdotes in a striking way. Disorders in the body umversc. about maltreatment at the hands of are thought to be caused by malfunctions In Sex and Germs, Patton's repeated physicians are prevalent-and believable. What is it about current Western medicine that makes it a failure in so many ways? For many people, experience with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) has exposed certain failings of the U.S. health care system as never before. The spread of the syndrome has occasioned a growing radical challenge to technological medicine and the sway it holds over people's feelings of wellncss and illness. Deficiencies of Western medicine which might otherwise have continued to lay low, acknowledged by a few with special knowledge but unrecognized by most lay people, now are reported on the "Living" pages of newspapers, along with stories about how people with AIDS and ARC (AIDS-Related Conditions) are working out their own responses to the challenge of AIDS.

Kenneth Hale- Wehmann lives in Boston and is a member of L'nited Fruit Company, a gay men's political action group. Cindy Patton is a former editor of Gay Community News and works as an am­ bulance attendant.

26 Science for the People Women, Health, and references to "the relatively disease-free if one avoided any contact with body Teehnology U.S. citizen" underline her misconception fluids. Conferenee that we in the U.S. are indeed in better But the attraction of the monogamous health because of high-tech medicine. ideal is so strong and so ingrained that The Women and Technology Project Although Patton criticizes the "industrial "promiscuity" is often reported by the at the University of Connecticut is empire" of the medical economy, she media as one of the risk factors for AIDS. sponsoring a conference on October gives the medical model itself only In this context, the growing popularity 23. 1986. Paper presenters will focus superficial scrutiny. She provides a of J.O. clubs-both commercial and on women as they affect and are thumbnail sketch of the shift from "pre­ noncommercial venues where groups of affected by technology in rational holism," which "integrated men can enjoy mutual masturbation­ occupational and health care functions and symptoms now considered can be seen as a radical and responsible settings. Keynoters are Judy discrete," to doctor-centered, specialized, answer to government attempts to Norsigian of the Boston Women's mechanistic medicine. She points out that control sexual behavior. Health Book Collective. author of a major part of this shift was the One illustration of how the scientific Our Bodies Ourselves. and Evelyn introduction of the idea that "germs" and political aspects of AIDS coalesce is Fox Keller. author of Reflections on enter the body from outside to cause the issue of human T-lymphotropic Gender and Science. For registration illness. virus (HTLV-3) or lymphadenopathy information. contact: Patton ascribes great leaps in the associated virus (LA V), the putative Women, Health, and Teehuolo~y treating of disease to allopathy (the idea cause of AIDS according to segments of Coufereuee that alien entities cause disease), but at the the U.S. and French medical-research Non-ercdit t"roW-ams, One Bishop Cirele same time, allopathy is recognized as the establishments. The mainstream media, Box (J-560, Room 128, ueo­ beginning of a decreased reliance on the ever ready to simplify the unwieldy Storrs, CT 06268; (203) 486-3231 patient's own impressions of her or his truth, played a large part in making condition, and an increase in the authority HTL V-3/LA V the AIDS virus. This, of physicians over a patient's body. along with the single-minded influence Patton seems to dismiss homeopathy of Robert Gallo of the National Cancer (a therapy based on the body's capacity Institute, has had the effect of embargoing Our Issues to bring about and destroy disease) along research into other causative agents. with other "organic theories" as Patton notes, "The wildly careening Never ineffectual next to the technological "AIDS virus' breakthrough dwarfed its Grow Old! wonders of allopathic medicine. She detractors and other research that gives no attention to modern alternative pointed in different or more cautious therapies and the success some-such as directions." Yet she fails to recognize the acupuncture, visualization, and macro­ work of researchers like Jane Teas and biotics-have had in helping people live John Bcldekas on the possible link with AIDS and ARC. between AIDS and African Swine Fever. If Patton's inability to jettison her Reports in the Ne'W York Native and belief in the saving power of medical medical journals that provide evidence of technology mars her discussion of the a government cover-up by the U.S. medical response to AIDS, the book is Department of Agriculture and Centers more convincing in its discussion of the for Disease Control of the AIDS-Swine political implications of the syndrome. Fever link deserve to be examined AIDS has touched the lives of many carefully. people and politicized some who before Patton's two-chapter diversion into 1981 would have denied any interest in the phenomenon she calls "erotophobia"­ things political. The involvement of in which AIDS is mentioned barely eight political neophytes in various AIDS or ten times--is extremely inaccessible to action organizations around the U.S. and readers not versed in modern critical Special Issue on in other countries can be seen as inspired theory. Any relevance to AIDS is Water Contamination by the grotesquely inadequate response obscured by the turgid prose. July/August 1983 from the established loci of medical and Yet one cannot disagree with Patton's Special Issue on Science, political power, as well as facilitated by conclusion. AIDS, she writes, "is double the substantial savvy of socially conscious jeopardy: it endangers life through both Media, and Policymaking gay people. disease and political persecution, and July/August 1984 Patton, recalling the tradition of sex increases the likelihood that at-risk Special Issue on Industrial reformers who targeted prostitutes and populations will be considered guilty Development & the 3rd World others perceived as morally weak, (infected) until proven innocent (disease­ November /December 1 985 observes that "from the beginning, the free). No solution of the AIDS epidemic notion of public health was classist and will be complete until those at risk arc Back issues list available anti-sex." One example of the public neither blamed for the disease nor forced Individual copies $2. SO each health line regarding AIDS is the often­ to live in continued fear for their lives." I COMPlETE SET OF intoned warning that gay men should would add that we can hope to find a way BACK ISSUES ONLY $40 settle down and grow out of their of responding to the proliferation of incessant search for more and more AIDS and ARC only if the tools Send wtth payment to partners. Of course, one could have sex currently used by doctors are radically Science for the People with dozens of men every week and be at altered to reflect a broader vision of the 897 Motn St Combnd.~e. MA 021 39 practically zero risk for acquiring AIDS, body. 9

JulyI August 1986 27 Health Right, an independent feminist respiratory effects of acidic air pollution Assessing the Nuclear Age collective, and updated by Health/PAC, and health effects from the toxic metals Edited by Len Ackland and Steven which plans clinic distribution in addition leached into drinking water. McGuire to individual sales of the pamphlets. Gould's in-depth explanation of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 1986, 512.95 On the whole, the "Know Your political obstacles to dealing with acid paper Body" pamphlets are plainly written, rain make Going Sour an insightful work. ast August, the Bulletin of the though there are flashes of unexpected After highlighting the major antagonists LAtomic Scientists commemorated the humor. "There's nothing worse than in the drama to prevent the implementation 40th anniversary of the atomic bombings trying to scratch your vulva discreetly in of solutions-the electric utilities, coal of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the a public place," the booklet entitled industry, the Reagan administration, and founding of its magazine, dedicated to the "Infections of the Vagina" wryly a weak and compliant Congress-Gould prevention of nuclear war. Most of the comments. In fact, with the exception of debunks the major objections they raise. essays in this collection appeared in the generally muddy graphics of female From "there is no acid rain problem" to Bulletin's 40th-anniversary issue in anatomy, this is the best pamphlet in the "we don't know what causes the August 1985, and a dozen others series-complete with inexpensive home problem" and "we don't know which appeared in more recent issues. Contributors remedies and a realistic portrait of health polluters are responsible for acid rain," to this collection range from Manhattan clinics. industry and government excuses, lies, Project veterans to arms control analysts The series is most effective when it and duplicity are exposed. and nuclear weapons freeze proponents. provides examples of the social and· As for the Environmental Protection The essays are arranged in five sections. economic obstacles to adequate health Agency's denial of scientific evidence and "Retrospectives" sets a reflective tone for care. The booklet on menopause its chilling effect on the scientific the volume, with essays from scientists provides information and sympathy, community, Gould states that "few involved in developing the atomic bomb noting that "once women are no longer scientists were willing to jeopardize their and nuclear technology. The articles in able to have babies, the government loses research funds by publicly criticizing the "Atomic Culture" provide a social and interest in their health needs," and EPA's ,interpretation of the scientific historical context to the impact of nuclear therefore, "around the time of menopause ... record. weapons on science and politics. Other good low-cost services become harder to Going Sour concludes with an explanation essays examine Star Wars, nuclear find." This situation can be life­ of the need to implement existing winter, arms control, U.S.-Soviet threatening to older women, who should legislation like the Clean Air Act and to relations, and the militarization of be tested for reproductive cancers. amend laws to cover acid rain and society. The final section, "Futures," When grounded in real issues, the interstate pollution. Pollution-control offers different visions of survival and "Know Your Body" series reads like the technologies that reduce sulfer and escape from nuclearism. advice of a learned and compassionate nitrogen oxide emissions are explained, Contributors to this volume include friend. Its distribution should be and Gould suggests energy conservation Victor Weisskopf, Bernard Feld, Hans encouraged by progressive health care and the usc of alternative energy sources Bethc, Jerome Wiesner, Morton Halperin, workers across the country. to replace or reduce reliance on fossil fuels Mary Kaldor, Randall Forsberg, and -llol/y Metz which cause acid rain. An appendix with Robert Jay Lifton. a list of references, a glossary, tables, -LF Going Sour figures, and photos showing the effects of Science and Politics of Acid Rain acid rain complete the book. -joseph Regna Know Your Body by Roy Gould by Health/PAC Birkhauser Boston. 1985. 511.95 17 Murray St. New York, NY 10007, 1985 he causes of acid rain are known and The Second Sickness Set of 8 booklets 56 plus 51 postage & handling Tthe remedy is clear: reduce emissions Contradictions of Capitalist hcoretically, our society is "infor­ of sulfer dioxide and nitrogen oxides .... Health Care The technological solutions to acid rain Tmation rich". But because health by Howard Waitzkin information may be fixed to a high arc at hand, but the political obstacles physician's fee or couched in inaccessible have been formidable." Starting with Free Press paperback. 1986, 511.95 language, it is still possible to be these premises based on the scientific oward Waitzkin examines health care misinformed about a matter as intimate evidence, Going Sour gives the reader an Hpolicy and practice from a Marxist and vital as gynecology. Some women account of the acid rain story: the double perspective, and documents his arguments suffer for lack of advice. tragedy of its pollution and of society's with wrenching personal profiles, In recognition of this problem, the failure to do anything about it. studies, statistics, and examples. The nonprofit Health Policy Advisory The three parts of the book divide book-now available in paperback at a Center (Health/PAC) has updated and evenly into an overview, scientific causes more accessible price-begins with an reprinted an inexpensive series of and effects, and the scientific and legal analysis of the social contradictions pamphlets for women that explain politics of acid rain. Written in a concise which cause medical problems, how the abortion procedures, menopause, vaginal style which is comprehensive and profit motive creates illness, and why infections, breast cancer, and routine accessible to a general reader, Gould those who need it the most receive the gynecological check-ups, while providing discusses the ecological effects of acid rain least health care. space for health resources and records. on lakes, streams, soil, forests, air, crops, The second section uses case examples The "Know Your Body" series was buildings, natural and manmade materials, to bring home his analysis. In his study of originally compiled in the early 1970s by animals and aquatic life, as well as intensive coronary care units, Waitzkin

28 Science for the People shows how an expensive technology was industry and acid rain producers. Swan's the common social and psychological created by corporations, the U.S. book explores the political and economic structures that lead to all forms of government, and the medical community, factors that have stalled development of violence-from battering and raping which resulted in billions of dollars of phorovoltaic technology. women to exploitation of the Third corporate profits without scientific Suncell also provides an in-depth World and the threat of nuclear evidence of its effectiveness over ward explanation of how photovoltaics annihilation. treatment or less expensive interventions. work-their history and technology, Reardon shows how women's issues, In the chapter "Social Medicine and the examples of the latest innovations in long neglected in the male-dominated Community," Waitzkin analyzes the research and industry in the U.S. and field of peace and military research, are growth of private medical care and its other countries, and the global development inextricably linked to the goals of the impact on public hospitals and community of PV markets. , and she calls for an medicine. While public spending on -LF integration of feminist theory and peace health care has increased, most of that research. She concludes that transformation money has gone to private hospitals and Sexism and the War System to a disarmed and demilitarized world research, and many public facilities have by Betty A. Reardon depends on the global adoption of been cut back or closed. Even with feminist values, and the convergence of Medicaid and Medicare, service for poor Teachers College Press. Columbia University, feminism and the peace movement are 1985, $10.95 paper and low-to-middle-income people has necessary to get us there. declined, since poorer communities and rawing on feminist and peace litera­ -LF ininsured people have fewer public Dture for her analysis, Betty Reardon examines the fundamental relationship hospitals and clinics available to them. Co-op America Alternative The last section of the book presents between sexism and militarism, exploring options for social change in health care Catalog policy and delivery. Waitzkin advocates by Co-op America a national health service, changes in 2100 M St., NW, Suite 310, Washington. DC doctor-patient relations, and medical­ 20063, 1986, $1 political activism as strategies to weed out ere's a wonderful way to support pro­ the social roots of illness. Let's hope that gressive groups and businesses. The many health workers will use his book lj as Hproducts offered in Co-op America's an organizing manual. biannual catalog are produced by socially -LF and environmentally responsible organiza­ tions who practice "a spirit of cooperation Suncell in their workplaces." The quality is Energy, Economy & Photovoltaics good, prices are lower than most by Christopher C. Swan commercial outlets, and your money will support the work of family, women and Sierra Club Books, 1986, $17.95 cloth \J worker-owned business, cooperatives, hristopher Swan calls photovoltaic and nonprofit organizations. C cells (PVs) the main course in a "This catalog links socially responsible dinner of renewable energy resources: producers with the consumers who want their use would complement other to support alternative economic enterprises," renewable technologies and practically states Co-op America's director, Paul eliminate the need for nuclear energy and Freundlich. Hundreds of products from fossil fuels in a few decades. around the globe are offered in this A shift to PVs would affect international catalog. economies and industries, and help to Groups like Pueblo to People, Pan demilitarize societies who would no Tropic Hats, Cooperative Trading, and longer need to protect and fight over oil One-World Trading import food, and other nonrenewable resources. clothing, and furniture from cooperatives Environmental destruction and hazards­ in Central America, Africa, and the such as acid rain, toxic waste, pollution, Caribbean. Coffee drinkers can support and radioactive nuclear waste-would 0 Nicaraguan and Tanzanian coffee become history. Furthermore, Swan growers. Women's and third world believes that the development of music are available from Redwood photovoltaics could bring about a Records and Ladyslipper. transition to a decentralized, accessible, There's also lots to read: self-help law environmentally clean, inexaustible, books from Nolo Press, children's books cheap, and more democratic energy from Parenting Press, and subscriptions system. to many alternative periodicals. Co-op These are sizable dreams, but the America also offers an alternative health biggest utilities in the U.S. aren't ready to insurance plan, a socially responsible abandon nuclear, oil, and coal power. investment kit, and "Making Changes", Reagan's government continues to a packet of information about cooperative subsidize and support the I)Uclear workplaces and community-based careers.

JulyI August 1986 29 AAAS IN 1986 Counting Technology's Costs

BY SETH SHULMAN on the scientific community. This year, Carbide explosion in Bhopal, India, and a these issues were all prominent at the seven-year retrospective on the health ''We live in a society on meeting, even overshadowing some of and ecological effects of the nuclear death row, under inde­ the talks about recent advances in accident at Three Mile Island. terminate sentence of different fields. And while the analysis Bur to attribute the extent of discussion death by nuclear war." So began was sometimes not as incisive as it might of technology's costs at this year's Kenneth Boulding, professor emeritus at have been, the social and political meeting solely to the recent technological the University of Colorado in his implications of science and technology disasters would be a mistake. Rather, I keynote address at this spring's annual were paramount on people's minds. believe, the prevalent tone of so many of meeting of the American Academy for Of course, a major reason for the extent the talks at the AAAS meeting this year the Advancement of Science (AAAS), of questioning and handwringing this marks the culmination of a multitude of held the last week of May in Philadelphia. year is the spate of technological disasters gradual changes that have crept into the "The situation is in considerable part a that have occurred around the world consciousness of the public and the product of the world scientific community," recently. Two of the best attended mainstream scientific community. continued Boulding, former president of sessions at this year's meeting were To be sure, there were still many AAAS, "and that community cannot special additions to the schedule: one on sessions that didn't share this type of escape responsibility for it." the space shuttle Challenger's explosion perspective, like "Moving Industry into Boulding's unusually dire tenor may and the other on the meltdown at . Space" or "Chemistry is Fun and have surprised a few attendees, but even Chernobyl. But these were hardly the Fruitful," but these were certainly in the more astonishing than Boulding's only sessions to focus on the underside of minority. Notable were sessions like remarks was the frequency with which technology. Other half-day sessions "Science and Apartheid" and a heavily similar concerns were expressed through­ addressed such somber topics as the attended session on "Gender Bias in out this year's 152nd annual meeting of public health implications of the Union Scientific Studies." To a surprising AAAS. In fact, social concerns and degree, it seems, a more critical, "Science broadranging questions about the costs for the People perspective" has been of technology were so commonplace at incorporated by those looking at the the AAAS meeting they seemed to set the development of science and technology. tone of the entire event. In seminars and For seven years, But to what extent? general discussions throughout the ~ week-long meeting, panelists conveyed a Science for the t three different sessions somber sense about the state of the world over the course of the week, and the role scientists have played in its People struggled A I heard pa~elists use the development in recent years. same phrase when they caught themselves How times change. It was exactly a to get AAAS to making unusually harsh critiques of the decade ago that AAAS broke seven years path a specific technology had taken. One of confrontation by finally giving official include workshops of these was a panelist who spoke at a recognition to Science for the People's session about the impact of biotechnology workshops on topics concerned with the on the political on agriculture. Decrying the displacement political implications of science and of so many farmers in the U.S., perhaps technology. At the time, one newspaper implications of he felt he was sounding a little too anti­ journalist had termed the acceptance of technology. "I'm not a Luddite," this Science for the People's perspective into science & the costs speaker began, "but we do have a the regularly scheduled events "an problem in the way this specific unlikelv turn of events." of technology. technology is-and isn't-being imple­ For ~even years prior to 1976, as many mented." SftPers may remember, Science for the This year, A similar phrase was echoed by a People struggled to get AAAS to include member of the panel on the effects of workshops and discussions at their these issues were Three Mile Island who wanted to make it annual meeting about the political dear to a questioner that he was not implications of science, the costs of all prominent against technology per se. "I'm not a technology, and the effects of the military Luddite," he said, "but the management at the meeting. of a dangerous technology like nuclear Seth Shulman attended the AAS annual power is an issue that should concern us meeting with the MIT Bush Fellows science all." writing program. He is former editor of Particularly interesting about these Science for the People. examples is the fact that the speakers were

30 Science for the People delivering such damning cnnques of solve problems, not cause them. To free v1s1on of what should be done­ current technologies at all. Also notable is mankind, not hurt the innocent. But in especially in light of the awesome these speakers' hesitation to take their the span of a few months, the dark side of responsibility for the state of the world critiques "too far;" despite the tremendous technology has asserted itself." that they hold. And it is here that SftP is amount of discussion about the costs of In light of the long struggle by Science particularly needed in the debate. specific technologies, I heard few for the People and other organizations to Specifically, SftP needs to continue remarks about the larger framework that get AAAS and the general sci~ntific and increase the discussion, in these pages these technologies operate within. Most community to acknowledge the non­ and elsewhere, of what is driving our speakers were loathe to make the types of neutrality of science and to take more technologies. Rather than focusing, as the connections between issues that Science seriously the social costs of technology, mainstream media does, on the specific for the People has championed so the pervasive mood at the 1986 meeting mechanisms that led to a technological successfully over the years. and the attitude expressed by the disaster like the space shuttle explosion Before elaborating briefly on how we mainstream media (as represented in the (although these are important questions), might foster discussion of some of these U.S. News article quoted above) are Science for the People takes a different connections in meetings and public particularly noteworthy and instructive. tack. SftP's strength comes from forums, I would like to provide a few As Science for the People plans its key addressing society's reliance on dysfunc­ more examples that indicate how much issues for the future, it is imperative that tioning technological systems in the first counting of technology's costs is going the organization recognize the extent of place, and in looking at how technologies on lately. For instance, this year's the change that has taken place in the might be developed to more closely serve Westinghouse science journalism awards broader scientific community -in the past human needs. (given annually at the meeting by decade and the shorter-term changes that Key issues that need to be raised AAAS) went overwhelmingly to "cost have occurred even in the past year or include discussion of the socioeconomic counting" articles. In the magazine two. But it is also important to see what systems that lead to centralized, potentially category, the winning article was about still hasn't changed. dangerous technology like nuclear nuclear winter, and in the small Realizing that technology will not power, as well as the search for circulation newspaper category, two magically solve all of society's problems­ alternatives. In the case of the Bhopal articles about water pollution tied for the that it provides problems, too-is and has disaster, as was pointed out in the pnze. always been on! y part of SftP' s message. November/December issue of the Only the week before the meeting, Although many AAASscssions this year magazine, this includes an investigation U.S. News and World Report ran a banner paid heed to the costs of technological of our excessive reliance on pesticides, cover story entitled "High Tech development, the scientific community, fertilizers and synthetic chemicals of all Anxiety." Look at the way the piece at least as represented by the AAAS sorts. began: "Technology was supposed to meeting, seems to be floundering for a Equally important, questions must be raised about the growing militarization of society and the way in which that directs technological development. Currently 70% of our tax dollars for federally sponsored R&D go toward military projects. With the current administration attempting to· divert academic scientists in peacetime to work on a Star Wars program which dwarfs even the Manhattan project in proposed funding, the increasing military involve­ ment in academia needs particular attention. And the military is not the only force currently pressuring academia. \ Questions need to be raised, too, about the appropriate role of corporate involvement in an independent academic environment. In short, rather than the limited critiques of specific technologies, we need to help to develop a language for evaluating and saying no (if need be) to I new developments, and a vision of the I future that will help us to know when that's necessary. The time is ripe to bring these perspectives more visibly to forums like the AAAS meeting, where people arc already especially conscious of some of technology's costs. We hope we won't need Ned Ludd and his army of machine smashers to raise these types of questions. But then again, when it comes to turning swords into plowshares, maybe they could help. 9

July/August 1986 31 RESPONSE

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 25 weakened this dogma. Now the reverse reaction-a cause for celebration. All To be a leading scientist or administrator translation step, from protein back to that remains lacking, for the party to requires the kind of commitment to nucleic acid, would seem to refute it begin, is some sportsmanlike profession which most societies have entirely and reinstate the idea, held by acknowledgment from the genetics associated with males. Qualities such as Lamarck, Erasmus, and Charles establishment of the earth-shaking self-confidence, aggressiveness, and the Darwin, of some mechanism of implications of these developments (or willingness to be "married to a job" are environmental adaptational input as the an explanation of how they're wrong), what's expected of men and, generally, source of genetic regulation, difference, an admission of the Central Dogma's discouraged in women. Having the right and change. demise, and an apology to Lamarck's academic and social credentials also helps, What does it matter? Lots! The defamed ghost. Science, justice, and and serves to exclude women and accepted view of genetic regulation, for history await. -Lorraine Roth minorities. Thus, the central administration of science tends to be drawn from a almost a century, has excluded such Brookline, Massachusetts cause-and-effect environmental particular segment of society. influence, in line with the Weissmann We are not claiming that, as a result of concept of an autonomous, sequestered Postcards for Peace this, other segments of society are not genome, conserving traits stabilized by allowed to do science. Important first steps, noninteraction with extra-nuclear Dear SftP: such as some recruiting of women and events. Only random, spontaneous minorities and some "blind refereeing" of ith this letter, we announce the mutation touched this genome of papers, have occurred. Nevertheless, launching of Operation Postcards official genetics doctrine, in what has W women, minorities, and even whne males for Peace. And we invite those of been a carry-over into the 20th century with "non-mainstream" ideas tend to your readers who are as fed up as we of the old pre-Evolution-Theory remain at the periphery of the scientific are with militarism and the conse­ resistance to the idea of mutability and community, working at less prestigious quent waste of human, natural, and institutions, getting fewer grants, and perfectability. financial resources to join us. Random change is as good as no having their works receive less attention. 1) STOP wasting our tax money on Thus, it is the expectations and change at all, in the hope for an more nuclear bombs and other improvable humanity-and no help at limitations which society imposes on weapons! We already have more than certain of its classes, and not scientific all in countering such "genetic blame" enough. So do the Soviets. Both we theories as eugenics and sociobiology, methodology itself, that is the most and the Soviets have shown the important determining factor in who sets whose reactionary force depends upon "resolve" necessary to "build a defense scientific policy. Furthermore, if you're a rigid, stable genetic divisions within second to none." Neither is any more scientist working for the defense depart­ humanity. Rather have such theories secure as a result. ment and you have serious reservations been accommodated by this official 2) START applying the same about weapons research, you don't have genetics scenario of an autonomous "resolve" to a joint search with the too many options-~you obviously don't Weissmann genome issuing genetic Soviets for a civilized, non-military belong: what did you expect? orders down the one-way Watson­ resolution of our differences! We It is possible that women do view the Crick pathway, changeless except by demand something bolder than the world differently from men, and that they acts of chance. wary, stop-and-start poker game of the do ask different questions. If they do good These new discoveries, therefore, arms control experts in Geneva. We science, in the sense that they observe bear an inherently progressive social demand that our president and Mr. correct scientific methodology, they have implication, I believe, in reinserting Gorbachev convene the best minds in every right to expect their work to be causation into genetic regulation both countries in all fields of expertise evaluated fairlv. Nevertheless, as pointed through these reverse mechanisms that into a joint session with instructions to out above, th~y stand a good chance of bring environment back into the remain in conference for as long as it takes being ignored in spite of high-quality picture. It is not by chance that the to draw up a blueprint for peace and a work. It would seem that we, as scientists, reverse transcription and translation of Marshall Plan for the Planet! can prevent this by changing the social Temin (co-discoverer of reverse Millions of handwritten postcards, conditions which select for the current transcriptase) and Haseltine work. It is individually worded, mailed regularly group of scientific decision makers. not chance that Dr. Barbara on the first of every month, arriving at A society which stresses each person's McClintock evokes when positing new the doorstep of the president by the responsibility for the welfare of his or her species formation resulting from the truckload: that is our goal. Simple, fellows, which makes sharing a virtue, and effect of environmental shock on her personal, and effective. The president which forces accountability for the "transposable elements" within the will hear. He will get the message that consequences of one's actions will produce genome (Science, 226:792, 1984). It is, millions of Americans will no longer the kind of citizens to whom we would rather, old-fashioned scientific cause stand for this $800 million-a-day waste care to entrust the direction of science. and effect equilibrating genetic stasis of human and material resources on an Certain! y, producing such a society within and change, environment and heredity arms binge while the social, economic, the framework of American is a through some as yet unknown, but not and environmental foundations of our formidable task. Politically, the times arc random, regulatory mechanism. society's health and security are indeed very inauspicious, though things As such, these are happy allowed to go to rot. may change or be changed. In any case, developments, bringing genetics into -Bogos (Paul) Torikian those of us who are teachers, writers, or the position to counter, rather than Francois Leydet parents have a particular opportunity to inadvertently support, political Forest Knolls, California advance this cause by constant public and private reaffirmation of our ideals. 9

32 Science for the People NICARAGUA

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