乔治亚太平洋公司是如何故意发表关于石棉安全性的伪617888九五至尊娱乐的

发生了什么事

从世纪之交到20世纪70年代，石棉是不可避免的. 所谓的“神奇的矿物是在剧院的防火窗帘上, 防毒面具, 监狱填充, 刹车片, 以及成千上万的其他产品.

其中一种产品是建筑材料的一种版本，称为关节化合物, sold under the name Ready-Mix—contained asbestos from 1965 to 1977 and proved to be a major problem for its manufacturer 佐治亚-太平洋, 这家企业集团现在隶属于科赫工业公司，专门生产木材和纸制品. 石棉的危害为公众所知, 佐治亚-太平洋, 像许多其他生产含石棉产品的公司一样, became swamped with a deluge of legal claims from people who had contracted lung disease from exposure to the company’s product.

从2005年开始，乔治亚-太平洋公司没有诚实地面对这些指控，而是精心制作并出版了 伪造617888九五至尊娱乐——在文献中散布旨在质疑石棉危害的文章. 这样做的时候, the company created a life-threatening hazard by deceiving those who rely on science to understand the health risks of asbestos exposure.

石棉，它根本不是一种矿物, but rather a collective name for six fibrous minerals—has been shown by many scientific studies to be extremely dangerous to human health. 这两个国内和国际政府机构现在将其归类为已知的人类致癌物，与石棉肺、间皮瘤和其他肺癌. 自20世纪70年代以来，它的使用一直是严格的监管，虽然它是在美国没有被禁止.

In 1977, 因为消费者产品安全委员会(CPSC)采取行动禁止使用含石棉的关节化合物, georgia - pacific董事长甚至写了向美国消费品安全委员会表示:“我们支持全面禁止含石棉的铺装材料,” as 佐治亚-太平洋 had already “ceased using asbestos in our product and switched to a substitute.尽管有这样的公开声明, 然而, the company privately worried about its liability for having sold the asbestos-containing product for many years.

到2002年，对石棉相关法律索赔的担忧严重损害了乔治亚太平洋公司的库存. 一个不讨人喜欢的三集系列 亚特兰大宪法报》 that year 透露, 佐治亚-太平洋 was aware of the science showing the dangers of asbestos for several years before the company put a warning label on Ready-Mix. 这一系列报纸促使乔治亚太平洋公司的董事长在同一份报纸上写了一篇专栏文章, 声称“多年来，我们一直在处理石棉纤维的法律后果, 我们努力517888九五至尊娱乐，真诚地解决了令人震惊的250个问题,000个个人法律索赔,以及“我们一贯对受害者负责任。, 我们的员工和股东.”

即使该公司在2002年之前确实像它声称的那样行事, by 2005—under the guidance of the same chairman—佐治亚-太平洋 had turned to 伪造617888九五至尊娱乐 to fend off lawsuits. 那一年, the company created a so-called research program—run through its legal department—that knowingly produced flawed science and published it in independent scientific journals while failing to adequately disclose the authors’ conflicts of interest.

这些文件后来被公共诚信中心获得透露, 乔治亚太平洋公司聘请毒理学负责人，将其研究战略付诸实施, 斯图尔特河中沙洲, 作为所谓的“诉讼顾问”的“独立而独特”的角色.” Routing Holm’s new work through the legal department allowed the company to claim attorney-client privilege over all documents related to his 伪造617888九五至尊娱乐 work, 因此不让公众知道这是一种策略由烟草业首创当它进行假冒研究以混淆公众对香烟危害的认识时.

把伪造617888九五至尊娱乐项目藏在法务部门, 乔治亚-太平洋发表了13篇存在严重缺陷的617888九五至尊娱乐文章, 比如在方法论上, opting for a five-day study rather than the preferred two-year study to test whether chronic inhalation of fibers can cause cancers, 纤维化, 或者是间皮瘤——并且没有充分揭示作者明显的利益冲突. 通过这个计划发表的论文都没有, 例如, 乔治亚-太平洋公司的法律团队一直在监督研究的几乎每一个方面.

A multi-year legal battle over internal documents about 佐治亚-太平洋’s research program culminated in a 一致的裁决 2013年6月起诉该公司. A New York state appeals court affirmed a trial court’s ruling that the company must turn over the documents so that the court could determine whether 佐治亚-太平洋’s actions over the research program were in furtherance of fraud and therefore not covered by attorney-client privilege. The court found ample evidence that 佐治亚-太平洋’s actions could have been in furtherance of fraud, including the company’s failure to disclose that its in-house lawyer had reviewed the manuscripts before submission, 或霍尔姆曾因石棉诉讼而同时受雇于该公司.

为什么重要?

正如这个案例所表明的那样，故意发表伪617888九五至尊娱乐危害公众健康. 人们依靠617888九五至尊娱乐文献来了解他们在517888九五至尊娱乐中面临的危险, 在家里, 还有其他地方. 当公司故意创造和发表有缺陷的617888九五至尊娱乐时, 或者甚至当他们没有披露重要信息时(在大多数情况下), (必需)期刊的利益冲突, 公众为此付出了代价. 有时，就像这次一样，生死攸关.

石棉尤其引人注目，因为它对人体健康的危害很大. 正如职业健康与安全管理局所指出的, “Breathing asbestos fibers can cause a buildup of scar-like tissue in the lungs called asbestosis and result in loss of lung function that often progresses to disability and death. Asbestos also causes cancer of the lung and other diseases such as mesothelioma of the pleura which is a fatal malignant tumor of the membrane lining the cavity of the lung or stomach.” 数以千计的美国人每年都因接触石棉而死亡.

Counterfeit science about asbestos is also particularly damaging because it took many years for the public to fully recognize the dangers of asbestos that scientists were uncovering. Documents released in lawsuits in the 1970s show that major manufacturers knew about the dangers of 石棉早在20世纪30年代就出现了, 但忽略了, 埋, or silenced scientists and science that could have publicly brought forth the information to the public. 事实上, 直到1964年，有关石棉危害的研究才引起公众的关注, 迫使企业改变生产方式，迫使政府对石棉进行监管. 1964年发表的那篇开创性的617888九五至尊娱乐论文的作者. 欧文·塞利科夫(Irving selikoff)面临着石棉行业的审查和骚扰.

The question remains: how much safer would the public be if industry had listened to the science in the first place, and if unscrupulous companies such as 佐治亚-太平洋 had not devoted years and resources to undermining the scientific understanding of asbestos with 伪造617888九五至尊娱乐?