THEIR SECRETS are out — the tobacco industry’s decades-long campaign to undermine the science linking their products to cancer and other deadly diseases has been the subject of numerous media reports, scholarly papers,
books, documentary films, and even a
Hollywood movie.
In his meticulously documented new book, “
The Triumph of Doubt: Dark Money and the Science of Deception,” David Michaels shows that Big Tobacco’s well-known denial tactics have not faded into history, but instead have become an integral part of corporate America’s standard business practices.
Michaels is a professor of environmental and occupational health at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health and previously served as assistant secretary of labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration under President Obama. His new book joins others, like “Merchants of Doubt,” “The Heat Is On,” and “Deceit and Denial,” that have examined corporate manipulation of science, and it continues an exposé he began with his 2008 book, “Doubt is Their Product: How Industry’s Assault on Science Threatens Your Health,’’ which delved into how the tobacco industry sowed confusion over smoking’s health risks and succeeded in delaying regulations that would cut into their profits.
In his new book
, Michaels documents how these same gambits are being put into play across a wide array of industries. Whether the issue is opioid addiction, climate change, or the health consequences of sugar, silica dust, diesel exhaust, or even America’s most-watched professional sport, vested interests are standing by with paid experts to direct the conversation away from known harms to focus instead on uncertainties, real or imagined.
