Trust Us, We’re Experts
Trust Us, We’re Experts by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber was published in the U.S. early in 2001 by Penguin Putnam Inc. [ISBN: 1-58542-059-x]. The authors place the sorry saga of asbestos within a wider context: the domination of democratic debate by the public relations industry. Although the space devoted to asbestos is very limited, it is informative to compare strategies adopted by industry re: silicosis, tobacco and genetically-modified foods with those pursued by asbestos multinationals.
David Ozonoff’s witty and astute summation of the standard defenses mounted by asbestos companies in U.S. litigation is quoted:
"Asbestos doesn’t hurt your health. OK, it does hurt your health but it doesn’t cause cancer. OK, asbestos can cause cancer but not our kind of asbestos. OK, our kind of asbestos can cause cancer, but not the kind this person got. OK, our kind of asbestos can cause cancer, but not at the doses to which this person was exposed. OK, asbestos does cause cancer, and at this dosage, but this person got his disease from something else, like smoking. OK, he was exposed to our asbestos and it did cause his cancer, but we did not know about the danger when we exposed him. OK, we knew about the danger when we exposed him, but the statute of limitations has run out. OK, the statute of limitations hadn’t run out, but if we’re guilty we’ll go out of business and everyone will be worse off. OK, we’ll agree to go out of business, but only if you let us keep part of our company intact, and only if you limit our liability for the harms we have caused."
_______
December 3, 2001
