The Fear Profiteers
THE FEAR PROFITEERS: Do ‘Socially Responsible’ Businesses Sow Health Scares to Reap Monetary Rewards? Edited by Bonner Cohen, Ph.D. John Carlisle Michael Fumento Michael Gough, Ph.D. Henry Miller, M.D. Steven Milloy Kenneth Smith Elizabeth Whelan, Sc.D., M.P.H. Hundreds of thousands of deaths a year from smoking is old hat, but possible death by toxic waste, now that’s exciting. The problem is, such presentations distort the ability of viewers to engage in accurate risk assessment. The average viewer who watches story after story on the latest alleged environmental terror can hardly be blamed for coming to the conclusion that cigarettes are a small problem compared with the hazards of parts per quadrillion of dioxin in the air, or for concluding that the drinking of alcohol, a known cause of birth weight and cancer, is a small problem compared with the possibility of eating quantities of Alar almost too small to measure. This in turn results in pressure on the bureaucrats and politicians to wage war against tiny or nonexistent threats. The “war” gets more coverage as these politicians and bureaucrats thunder that the planet could not possibly survive without their intervention, and the vicious cycle goes on. ––Michael Fumento, Science Under Siege CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..................................................................................... i-iii PREFACE.................................................................................................................I-III ACCIDENTALLY POISONOUS APPLES: Does Everything Cause
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