Table Of Content

DECEIT AND DENIAL California/Milbank Books on Health and the Public 1. The Corporate Practice of Medicine:Competition and Innovation in Health Care,by James C.Robinson 2. Experiencing Politics:A Legislator’s Stories of Government and Health,by John E.McDonough 3. Public Health Law:Power,Duty,Restraint,by Lawrence O.Gostin 4. Public Health Law and Ethics:A Reader,edited by Lawrence O.Gostin 5. Big Doctoring:Primary Care in America,by Fitzhugh Mullan 6. Deceit and Denial:The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution,by Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner 7. Death Is That Man Taking Names,by Robert A.Burt DECEIT AND DENIAL The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution gerald markowitz and david rosner University of California Press berkeley los angeles london The Milbank Memorial Fund new york The Milbank Memorial Fund is an endowed national foundation that engages in nonpartisan analysis,study,research,and communication on significant issues in health policy.In the Fund’s own publications,in reports or books it publishes with other organizations,and in articles it commissions for publication by other organizations,the Fund endeavors to maintain the highest standards for accuracy and fairness.Statements by individual authors,however,do not necessarily reflect opinions or factual determinations of the Fund. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles,California University of California Press,Ltd. London,England ©2002by the Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Markowitz,Gerald E. Deceit and denial :the deadly politics of industrial pollution / David Rosner. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN0-520-21749-7(alk.paper). 1.Environmental health. 2.Environmental health—Social aspects. 3.Factory and trade waste—Environmental aspects. 4.Pollution— Health aspects. I.Rosner,David,1947– II.Title. RA566.M265 2002 615.9'02—dc21 2001058515 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992(R1997) (Permanence of Paper).∞ For Andrea and Kathy Contents Foreword ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xvii Introduction:Industry’s Child 1 11. The House of the Butterflies: Lead Poisoning among Workers and Consumers 12 12. A Child Lives in a Lead World 36 13. Cater to the Children The Promotion of White Lead 64 14. Old Poisons,New Problems 108 15. Better Living through Chemistry? 139 16. Evidence of an Illegal Conspiracy by Industry 168 17. Damn Liars 195 18. Ol’ Man River or Cancer Alley? 234 19. A Hazy Mixture: Science,Civil Rights,Pollution,and Politics 263 10. Science and Prudent Public Policy 287 Conclusion 299 Notes 307 Index 389 Foreword The Milbank Memorial Fund is an endowed national foundation that engages in nonpartisan analysis, study, research, and communication on significant issues in health policy.The Fund makes available the results of its work in meetings with decision makers,reports,articles,and books. This is the sixth of the California/Milbank Books on Health and the Public.The publishing partnership between the Fund and the Press seeks to encourage the synthesis and communication of findings from research that could contribute to more effective health policy. Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner demonstrate the significance for policy of the methods and findings of historical scholarship.On the basis of research that has been reviewed by experts in history, biomedical science, and policy, they describe decisions by executives of corporations that produce lead products and plastics to withhold information about the health hazards of their products and production processes from their employees and regulators.These decisions contributed to the severe illness and death of many employees of these corporations as well as of persons who lived in the wrong place at the wrong time. The authors’ findings are both dismaying and encouraging.On the one hand, executives of major corporations systematically compromised the health of many people.On the other hand,the independence of the Amer- ican judiciary and the attentiveness of many legislators to the concerns of their constituents brought dangerous situations and their consequences to public attention.This attention yielded compensation for victims and their families and new policy to prevent health hazards in workplaces and communities. Daniel M.Fox,President Samuel L.Milbank,Chairman Millbank Memorial Fund ix