David Rosner: Neilly Series Lecture

Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution, which chronicles the history of environmental and industrial illness, is authored by David Rosner, Professor of History and Public Health at Columbia University and Director of the Center for the History of Ethics of Public Health at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health, and Gerald Markowitz. Rosner will discuss attempts by the chemical and lead industries to deceive Americans about the dangers their products pose to workers, consumers, and the public. Journalist Bill Moyers described the book as "The best detective story I've read in years." In the face of other perceived threats, industrial pollution may well be overlooked, but it is holds great consequences for public health.

A February 7, 2005 article in The Nation cites Deceit and Denial as being at the center of a controversy involving twenty of the biggest chemical companies in the United States. The companies are attempting to discredit Rosner and Markowitz, and five other academics who recommended that the University of California Press publish the book as part of a high stakes court case scheduled for September, in which the companies face potentially massive liability claims.

Introduction by Ted Brown.