{"id":170,"date":"2009-10-26T12:42:02","date_gmt":"2009-10-26T17:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/nanotechnology\/?p=170"},"modified":"2024-02-12T11:00:47","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T16:00:47","slug":"immaculate-deception-new-coalition-for-chemical-safety-is-actually-an-industry-front-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/2009\/10\/26\/immaculate-deception-new-coalition-for-chemical-safety-is-actually-an-industry-front-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Immaculate Deception: New “Coalition for Chemical Safety” is actually an industry front group"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s got pictures of kids and families.\u00a0 People of all colors.\u00a0 Gentle hands cradling our fragile planet.\u00a0 A hard hat resting on a pair of worn work gloves and a hammer.\u00a0 It says the coalition is “people like you.”\u00a0 It bears an uncanny resemblance to the website of the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families<\/a><\/em><\/strong> campaign, of which EDF is a founding member.\u00a0 But dig deeper and you’ll discover that the website of the “Coalition for Chemical Safety<\/a>” is actually created and run by industry.<\/p>\n

It actually takes quite a bit of digging to ferret out who’s behind this group.\u00a0 Click on “About Us<\/a>” and you’ll be told the coalition is “a non-profit social welfare organization.”\u00a0 Click on “Contact Us<\/a>” and you’ll get only a nondescript form to fill out to have more information sent to your email address.<\/p>\n

Nowhere does the website reveal who runs or is behind it.\u00a0 But clues begin to emerge when you are invited to “Click here <\/a>to make your business<\/em><\/strong> the latest member of the Coalition for Chemical Safety,” and when you find that, to do so, you must check a box to avow “I agree to support balanced<\/em><\/strong> chemical safety reform that protects public health, innovation, and economic growth” and to identify yourself as “an advocate supporting reasonable<\/em><\/strong> reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).” (emphases added)<\/p>\n

A clickable map suggests there are coalition chapters in 13 states, although only eight of them list any members.\u00a0 But the members are hardly the promised “people like you.”\u00a0 Heading the list is the Chemical Industry Council of California.\u00a0 While the list of members is quite a hodge-podge, others include the Louisiana Propane Gas Association, the Montana Agribusiness Association and the Virginia Biotechnology Association.<\/p>\n

[10\/27 UPDATE:\u00a0 I see that, apparently in response to my post and to my comment below, at least a couple of changes have been made to the coalition’s website.\u00a0 First, the “Click here” statement I described above has been changed to remove the reference to “business.”\u00a0 It now reads:\u00a0 “Click here to become the latest member of the Coalition for Chemical Safety.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Second, a new link on the map has been\u00a0added for Washington, DC, which now lists the American Chemistry Council as a coalition member.<\/em><\/p>\n

Still no indication anywhere on the website as to what company or organization is\u00a0behind or running the coalition, although a Mr. Joe Householder<\/a> has come forward and identified himself as its Executive Director, via comments on this post (see below) and at the bottom of\u00a0 the “Contact Us” webpage.]
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

By searching for who registered the domain name<\/a> of the coalition’s website, we have learned that the website is developed and run by DDC Advocacy<\/a>, one of several arms of The DDC Companies (short for Democracy Data & Communications, LLC).\u00a0 The companies “provide comprehensive public affairs services for corporate, trade association, and non-profit clients,” specializing in so-called “issues management” \u2013 industry-speak for product and corporate reputation defense and protection.<\/p>\n

You can read more about DDC Advocacy and its parent, the Alfred Street Partners<\/a>, at SourceWatch<\/a>.\u00a0 DDC Advocacy boasts having nine of the Fortune 10 among its clients.\u00a0 DDC Advocacy’s CEO is B.R. McConnon III<\/a>, who also serves as a key spokesperson for the National Federation of Independent Business and is a former analyst at the anti-regulatory think tank, Citizens for a Sound Economy<\/a>.\u00a0 Its Senior Vice President of Strategic Development is Julie Cram<\/a>, former Director of Public Affairs for Burson-Marsteller.<\/p>\n

Now, far be it from me to suggest industry isn’t a key stakeholder in the debate over TSCA reform, or that it doesn’t have a right to organize and advocate for its views.<\/p>\n

But surely it can do all of that without wrapping itself in a “people like you” cloak of deception!<\/p>\n

All this leaves me with two questions:<\/p>\n

First, who is paying DDC Advocacy to set up and run the website and organize the coalition?<\/p>\n

And second, why are they so afraid of showing themselves?<\/p>\n

Real engagement demands transparency.\u00a0 A good first step would be for the company or organization that started the new coalition to step out from behind the curtain and identify itself.<\/p>\n

_________________<\/p>\n

Below is the list of companies and organizations identified as members of the Coalition for Chemical Safety, current as of October 25, 2009.<\/p>\n

California<\/span><\/p>\n

Chemical Industry Council of California<\/p>\n

Gallade Chemical Inc.<\/p>\n

Ross Organic Specialty Inc.<\/p>\n

Illinois<\/span><\/p>\n

Chemical Industry Council of Illinois<\/p>\n

Indiana<\/span><\/p>\n

C.M. Hobbs, Inc.<\/p>\n

Calvin Landscape<\/p>\n

Dorfman Design Builders<\/p>\n

Louisiana<\/span><\/p>\n

Louisiana Propane Gas Association<\/p>\n

Maryland<\/span><\/p>\n

Cytherian Solutions<\/p>\n

Eastern Scientific, Inc.<\/p>\n

Golden, Inc.<\/p>\n

Maryland Biotechnology Entrepreneurs Coalition<\/p>\n

Sequella, Inc.<\/p>\n

Marlin Steel Wire<\/p>\n

Systems Consulting Group<\/p>\n

Intelect Corporation<\/p>\n

Medical Supplies Corporation<\/p>\n

Regional Manufacturing Institute<\/p>\n

Fraley Corporation<\/p>\n

Minnesota<\/span><\/p>\n

Denny C\u2019s Produce<\/p>\n

G&G Property Maintenance<\/p>\n

Montana<\/span><\/p>\n

Montana Agribusiness Association<\/p>\n

Montana Contractors Association<\/p>\n

United Property Owners of Montana<\/p>\n

Virginia<\/span><\/p>\n

Virginia Retail Merchant Association<\/p>\n

Virginia State Police Association<\/p>\n

Virginia Biotechnology Association<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist. It’s got pictures of kids and families.\u00a0 People of all colors.\u00a0 Gentle hands cradling our fragile planet.\u00a0 A hard hat resting on a pair of worn work gloves and a hammer.\u00a0 It says the coalition is “people like you.”\u00a0 It bears an uncanny resemblance to the website of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,56093,114108],"tags":[731,5021,5020,134],"coauthors":[114100],"class_list":["post-170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policy","category-industry-influence","category-tsca","tag-front-group","tag-chemical-industry-tactics","tag-safer-chemicals-healthy-families","tag-states"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t