[Remarks delivered by ACSH's chairman, John Moore, at ACSH's twenty-fifth anniversary celebration in New York City.]
Tonight we celebrate the silver anniversary of an organization that is the Gold Standard in bringing solid, sound science to public health issues the American Council on Science and Health. Americans many of us, at least seem to be extremely sensitive to any matter that concerns health. Nearly every day brings a new media blitz on the latest alleged threat to our health in the environment, in drugs, in the food we eat. Chemicals that injure laboratory animals at extremely high dosages are immediately labeled threats to us, even though our exposure is orders of magnitude less. Often, these scares do not concern new technology (although that is by no means exempted) but old technologies and chemicals that have been in use for decades, if not centuries. And many concern elements that are not only beneficial but would create real voids in our lives if eliminated.
For twenty-five years, ACSH has sought to serve American consumers by bringing the very best in scientific expertise to bear on such issues from Alar to statins to pesticides to vitamins, ACSH has been there to educate, to demonstrate, to explain.
Where there are truly dangers, ACSH has not hesitated to point them out. Tobacco is the most visible of these, and the Council's unwavering position on the harm done by smoking and other uses of tobacco has cost it dearly over the years. But where unwarranted fears are stoked by self-styled "consumer groups" and their friends in the media, ACSH has been there not merely to debunk, but to call on the very best scientists to explain why the fears are unfounded.
The American Council was founded in 1978 by Dr.s Elizabeth Whelan and the late Fredrick Stare, who each concluded that public health policy had to be grounded in sound scientific principles. In order for that to happen, they concluded, scientists must speak out directly to the American public, through the media and through popular and accessible books, in order to separate health facts from hype.
Some critics believe that ACSH arose as a front group for business and industry. Nothing could be further from the truth. Dr. Whelan, ably abetted by Dr. Stare, started ACSH using their own resources for seed money, and established ACSH with the legal assistance of Beth Whelan's husband, Steve, and her father. ACSH's founding support came from two independent foundations, Scaife and Olin, not from corporations.
ACSH has never been a large organization in terms of sheer size. Yet its impact has been powerful. The Council's leadership is in great demand by the media. Through interviews and publications, its work is widely known and its influence on issues undoubted.
A recent study of access to Google, the popular Internet search engine, showed that ACSH is at the very top with the number of "hits" on all of the most important public health issues
ACSH can fairly be regarded as the brainchild of one woman, Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. I don't think that Beth left Harvard after receiving her doctorate in public health thinking that she would spend her career trying to offset the hysterics of the media and others about non-existent dangers in food, drink, medications, diet, and all the rest. But she got hooked when she was asked to do a study of the Delaney Clause. That led her to begin working on food scares in general. And that work led to her first book, Panic in the Pantry, which was published in 1976.
Hundreds of books, articles, pamphlets, and interviews later, Beth now leads a powerful and influential organization. She has attracted leading scientists, many of whom are here tonight, to work with her on key issues of public health. She has developed a lean and efficient administration to support the work. She has fought to find the financial support that ACSH must have in order to do its work. And ACSH, under her leadership, has done all this while never deviating from its mission: devotion to peer-reviewed sound science, never deferring to other pressures. ACSH is a unique organization, and I am continually amazed at how much they accomplish with a modest budget and staff. But that is, I think, attributable to the vision and dedication of one person Beth Whelan.
