Green | September 16, 2009 | 3 comments

Up Next: David Michaels - Obama's Nominee for OSHA

source: http://www.commondreams.org/further/2009/09/16-0

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SeaJade
From Commondreams:

"With rabid wingnuts having successfully felled Van Jones, they have set their sights on the next victim: Dr. David Michaels, Obama's eminently qualified choice to head the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. To Red State, Michaels is "a radical...who makes Van Jones look tame" and who had the audacity to "smear BPA, an innovative chemical used to make plastics stronger." To sane people, Michaels is a progressive, knowledgeable, award-winning occupational epidemiologist who wrote the highly regarded book, "Doubt is Their Product: How Industry's Assault on Science Threatens Your Health." Ergo: When the time comes, people, let's speak up."
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3 comments // Up Next: David Michaels - Obama's Nominee for OSHA

  • hunzedog
    • 0
      hunzedog  

    • how about all the illegal aliens with a first grade education . walking above me carrying a big concrete block. WHERE IS OSHA WHEN THAT BULLSHIT IS GOING ON.??? get them all out.....

    • 2 years ago
  • SeaJade
    • 0
      SeaJade  

    • from youtube:
      "Author David Michaels visits Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Ca, to discuss his book "Doubt is Their Product: How Industry's Assault on Science Threatens Your Health". This event took place August 27, 2008, as part of the Authors@Google series.

      In Doubt is Their Product, David Michaels reveals how the tobacco industry's duplicitous tactics spawned a multimillion dollar industry that is dismantling public health safeguards. Product defense consultants, he argues, have increasingly skewed the scientific literature, manufactured and magnified scientific uncertainty, and influenced policy decisions to the advantage of polluters and the manufacturers of dangerous products. To keep the public confused about the hazards posed by global warming, second-hand smoke, asbestos, lead, plastics, and many other toxic materials, industry executives have hired unscrupulous scientists and lobbyists to dispute scientific evidence about health risks. In doing so, they have not only delayed action on specific hazards, but they have constructed barriers to make it harder for lawmakers, government agencies, and courts to respond to future threats.

      David Michaels is a scientist and former government regulator. During the Clinton Administration, he served as Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environment, Safety and Health, responsible for protecting the health and safety of the workers, neighboring communities, and the environment surrounding the nation's nuclear weapons factories. He currently directs the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy at The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services."

    • 2 years ago
  • SeaJade
    • 0
      SeaJade  
    • Image

    • An associated article:

      "Scurrilous attacks on Obama's OSHA nominee (no surprise)
      Category: Occupational health • Politics • Wingnut wrongosphere
      Posted on: September 15, 2009 6:21 AM, by revere

      It was only a matter of time before the Right Wing smear machine set its sites on Obama's nominee for Director of OSHA, Dr. David Michaels. And now that time has come. David is a friend and colleague and his name is not a stranger here (and here, here, here and probably other posts as well). His name comes up not because he's my friend but because of his contributions to public health. His PhD is in occupational epidemiology and he's made important contributions in the area of popcorn workers lung (despite the humorous name, it is a deadly disease) and beryllium poisoning. He knows government well, having served as Assistant Secretary for Environment, Safety and Health at the Department of Energy in the Clinton years, and he has written a highly praised book, Doubt is their Product: How Industry’s Assault on Science Threatens Your Health (one of Library Journal's top 10 sci-tech books of 2008 and an Honorable Mention in the Society for Environmental Journalism's 2009 Awards for Reporting on the Environment for the category Rachel Carson Environment Book Award). Not good enough for you? In 2006 David got the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award and shortly Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society will give him the John P. McGovern Science and Society Award. Still not good enough for you?

      The right wing hates him. That should be all you need to know. But if you are a glutton for punishment, here is some of the garbage they are peddling:

      1. Michaels will take away workers’s guns. There have been multiple blog posts claiming he is going to OSHA to take away the right of Americans to bring guns to work. Here are a few:

      http://www.examiner.com/x-1417-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m8d19-OSHA-pick-Michaels...
      http://overlawyered.com/2009/08/david-michaels-and-gun-control/
      http://nationalgunrights.org/blog/?p=201

      NB: OSHA has no jurisdiction over guns in the workplace and he has never worked on it as an issue (I believe he once wrote a blog post on it). In any event, the claim is pure delusion.

      2. Michaels is behind the “anti-Bisphenol A scare”.
      Like me, David has written about BPA and the close relation between funders of research and its outcomes. It's an issue he hasn't taken scientific sides on.

      In case you're not familiar with the issue, there is more about BPA and the gang of crooks that peddle it (see Milloy below, #4) here, here, here, here and here:

      3. He’s funded by George Soros
      The Open Society Institute, along with others, has supported a project he worked on examining the role of scientists in civil society. You can read about it here.

      4. He peddles “Junk Science”
      He is a target of lawyer "Junkman" Steve Milloy, a notorious right wing defender of the chemical and tobacco industry and climate change denier.

      David nailed him in his book, exposing Milloy's usual tactic of accusing a scientist whose results are inconvenient for one of his clients as a "junk scientist."

      None of that crap is about OSHA or the workers who will be killed in trench cave-ins or scaffold falls or health care workers unprotected from pathogens (including flu) in the hospital. It's just more cynical smear attacks, but this time it has potentially deadly consequences. It is a Very Big Deal, not just for public health but for the health of working men and women in this country. David has been my friend and colleague for many years. Much more importantly, he is a friend and colleague of workers and their progressive advocates everywhere."

    • 2 years ago
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