Political Abuses of Science
The Union of Concerned Scientists maintains a list of political abuses of science, instances of politically leaders tampering with, ignoring, or otherwise misusing scientific evidence for ideological reasons.
The list includes this story:
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) twice altered their scientific testing procedure before concluding that children’s lunch boxes containing levels of lead that exceeded Federal recommendations were in fact safe. Lead is a powerful neurotoxin in children, and can cause brain damage, mental retardation, behavioral problems, liver and kidney damage, and in extreme cases, death.The CPSC declared in September 2005 that they found “no instances of hazardous levels” of lead in their testing of 60 soft, vinyl lunchboxes, and then refused to release their experiments, saying federal regulation protected the product manufacturers from having such information released to the public. A year later, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) documents obtained by the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) and the Associated Press showed the CPSC manipulated its data to produce artificially “safe” results. The FOIA documents reveal that the CPSC had actually tested fewer than ten lunchboxes at the time of their statement, and that these already had indications of high lead levels. Following these first tests, CPSC then changed the testing procedure until a “safe” level of exposure was recorded.
The list ends with 2008, but a spokesperson for the group recently gave an interview on the Obama administration.
