WHO knew that carcinogens had their own lobby in Washington?

The title of this post is the 1st line of The Cancer Lobby, Sunday's New York Times column by Nicholas Kristof.

He uses the example of formaldehyde, describing our various encounters with it, and reminding us that it causes cancer. He then writes:

The chemical industry is working frantically to suppress that scientific consensus — because it fears “public confusion.” Big Chem apparently worries that you might be confused if you learned that formaldehyde caused cancer of the nose and throat, and perhaps leukemia as well.

The industry’s strategy is to lobby Congress to cut off money for the Report on Carcinogens, a 500-page consensus document published every two years by the National Institutes of Health, containing the best information about what agents cause cancer. If that sounds like shooting the messenger, well, it is.

And that is the key - restricting the flow of information that might potentially affect their profits.  We have seen it in many areas, notably in the refusal of drilling companies to disclose the chemicals they inject during the fracking process, claiming that it is proprietary information.

And to put it bluntly, as Kristof does:

The larger issue is whether the federal government should be a watchdog for public health, or a lap dog for industry. When Mitt Romney denounces President Obama for excessive regulation, these are the kinds of issues at stake.

Please keep reading.