The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) is a pro-industry advocacy organization founded in 1978 by Elizabeth Whelan with support from the Scaife Foundation and John M. Olin Foundation. ACSH's publications focus on industry advocacy related to food, nutrition, health, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, biology, biotechnology, infectious disease, and the environment. Its critics have accused it of being a front group for anti-science denialism.
History
The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) was founded in 1978 by Elizabeth Whelan. In the 1970s, ACSH scientists, saying they were concerned with what they described as the lack of sound scientific basis, common sense, reason, and balance in public forums and public policy regarding such issues as health and the environment, began to produce their own policy statements. In 1981, ACSH decided to start taking some corporate funding, but not for specific projects or programs, only for general support. Over the years, their articles have included such topics as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), obesity, chemophobia, phthalates, DDT, fracking, e-cigarettes, GMOs, atrazine, and bisphenol A.
Whelan says she was motivated to found the American Council on Science and Health after doing research for the pharmaceutical company Pfizer about a section of the Food Additives Amendment of 1958 to ban certain chemicals from foods. With further research, she says she found that public discourse and public policy were chemophobic. Her first book, Panic in the Pantry (1976), challenged the notion, popular in the 1970s, that "natural" was better and that "chemicals" were dangerous.
In 1978, along with Frederick J. Stare, founder of the Harvard Nutrition Department, Whelan invited 50 other scientists to "bring the message of sound science to consumers, via the media" in a "consumer education consortium". Their first financial support came from the Scaife Foundation and the John M. Olin Foundation. By 2003, almost 400 scientists had joined ACSH.
In September 2014, Whelan died. She was replaced by Hank Campbell in July 2015. Thom Golab became president in August 2019.
Issue advocacy
Chemicals in the environment
ACSH frequently advocates against "regulating chemicals without scientific proof of harm." A 2009 editorial by board member Henry I. Miller in Investor's Business Daily criticized the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s employment of the precautionary principle to regulate chemicals such as bisphenol-A, phthalates, flame retardants, the herbicide atrazine and fluorinated chemicals used to make Teflon, all of which he described as "important" and "demonstrably safe."
In February 2009, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act imposed regulations of several substances and banned the manufacture for sale, distribution in commerce, or import any children's toy or childcare article that contains concentrations of more than 0.1 percent of di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), or benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP). Michael Kamrin, who was on ACSH's Board of Scientific and Policy Advisors, published a critical review in 2009 in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, saying that phthalates were "safe." ACSH's advocacy on the issue extends back to 1999, when it worked with former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop to advocate for the ingredient used in many soft plastics.
Food safety and nutrition
ACSH has advocated against taxation of foods known to contribute to weight gain as a means to combat obesity. The group opposed New York State's move to require food chains to post calorie information on their products. ACSH has also called for better regulation and testing of dietary supplements.
In a 2009 interview by The Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee, an ACSH spokesperson criticized the Obama's family's White House Vegetable Garden, calling the Obamas "organic limousine liberals" and calling their promotion of organic food a "public health concern" since not everyone could afford it and also claimed that organic farming would "lead to famine" and said Michelle Obama "should use pesticides in the garden."