The Empire of Lies

Kevin Drum has a story on the tobacco lobby's attempts to claim that millions have died due to banning DDT. Why, you might ask? Because they were trying to discredit the World Health Organization just as it was mounting a big anti-tobacco campaign.

Their basic premise is a lie, naturally:

Is DDT a banned substance? Answer: for widespread agricultural use, which produces increased resistance in many insect populations, yes. For vector control (primarily to contain mosquito-borne malaria), no.

For the last decade or so, however, a group of right-wing "sound science" advocates has been implying that the agricultural ban on DDT is really a blanket ban and that millions of poor Africans have died as a result. Why? DDT isn't patented and is only minimally profitable, so it's not as if the DDT industry is bothering to push this. So who is?

Short answer: the tobacco industry. Surprise! Turns out that the DDT disinformation campaign was really an effort to discredit the World Health Organization, which was planning a major anti-smoking initiative back in 1998. Discredit WHO on malaria, and you discredit WHO on its anti-smoking activism. And all the while you get to look like you're standing up for millions of impoversished black Africans. Neat, eh?

Kevin has links to more.

Meanwhile, Eli Rabett has an extensive series of posts on the associated libels against Rachel Carson, whom the same tobacco lobbyists try to blame. Eli has lots of juicy details, like, who, what, and how much they got paid for their lies - and even some key tobacco company memos laying out the strategy.

I was not quite surprised to find that the scoundrels involved heavily overlap with our friends the climate denialists. Tobacco denial, says Eli, was the original sin. As that became less profitable, the gang moved into ozone denial and, most recently, global warming denial.

The cast of characters includes:

To maintain their profits the tobacco companies created a sophisticated public relations effort supported by a small but virulent group of professionals including scientists, economists and policy sluts. Among these were our old friends the Freds, Seitz and Singer who have gone on to further dishonor and but, alas, good fortune.

The centenary of Rachel Carson's birth has brought one of these, a Roger Bate to the forefront. Bate, an economist, currently dishonouring the American Enterprise Institute has set up a front organization, Africa Fighting Malaria, but to what purpose the innocent bunnies ask.

Not to fight malaria, but to fight the World Health Organization while it attempts to battle the twin curses of malaria and tobacco. Yesterday, Eli pointed to Roger Bate's solicitation letter to Philip Morris, today Rabett Institute will briefly consider the funding proposal SENT TO THE TOBACCO COMPANIES in which the clear purpose of Africa Fighting Malaria is layed out.

Eli has more here.

I keep expecting a torch and pitchfork march on the American Enterprise Institute, but I guess that's one more disappointment I will have to live with.

The pity is that this crap is picked up by the credulous press and others among the weak minded and treated as credible.

UPDATE: I think I fixed the killer tomatoes link.