The Best Scientists Money Could Buy

General Motors and Ford have spent at least $23 million between 2001 and spring of 2006, for the consulting and publishing services of Exponent and Chemrisk, and scientists including Dennis Paustenbach, Michael Goodman, David Garabrant, Mary Jane Teta, Patrick Hessel, Patrick Sheehan, Elizabeth Lu, Gregory Brorby, and Brent Finley. (D. S. Egilman and S. R. Bohme, "Scientific Method Questioned" Int. J. Occ. Env. Health 12: 292-293, 2006).

So, in addition to their technical shortcomings, such as selectivity in what was included in these reviews and what was not, the recent meta-analyses and commentaries of Exponent and Chemrisk authors should be read with it in mind that they were solicited for the purpose of fighting personal injury claims brought by mechanics and their family members.

These publications were part of a strategy of corporate defense lawyers, approaching and generously supporting the scientist-authors, most of whom had previously published little or nothing on asbestos.

These publications were created to provide evidence that mechanics’ asbestos exposures do not cause asbestos diseases. They were to be published by the best scientists money could buy.