Il 22/09/2010 15.49, felipe ha scritto:
> intendo la tendenza fondamentale della scienza "moderna" e
> "contemporanea", interamente sottomessa ai bisogni del capitale. poi
> quello che c'è di positivo (che c'è ed è importantissimo!) sono le
> briciole, quelle più piccole...
>
>
Io non intervengo mai in lista, ma eccomi che mi butto a capofitto
nell'accesa discussione!
Visto che secondo me la scienza, come atteggiamento verso il mondo, può
essere qualcosa di estremamente critico e potente, cioè l'atteggiamento
scientifico (leggi 'pubblico, critico e sistematico') che ognuno di noi
può avere, allora ecco che 'ste 'briciole' vanno tirate fuori e messe
insieme. Pollicino c'aveva svoltato colle briciole!!
Sotto l'insegna del motto "meglio prevenire che curare" vi incollo un
pezzettino di un libro che racconta una storiella, per sommi capi, di un
omino che lavorava alla Mobil Oil dove studiava le proprietà del
benzene, quel composto che tutti i giorni ci respiriamo e che c'entra
qualcosa con chi partecipa a questa lista.
Questo scienziato, ad un certo punto, ha fatto prevalere la sua
coscienza sugli interessi dell'industria per cui lavorava ... e cosa
succede ........... ?!?!?
MI SCUSO IN ANTICIPO CON CHI NON LEGGE L'INGLESE ma ho solo questa versione
da 'The secret history of the war on cancer' di Devra Davis,
Myron Mehlman was one of Marvin Legator’s frequent collaborators.
A 1957 graduate of the City University of New York,
Mehlman’s first job was with the Army Chemical Center at Edgewood
arsenal, where he ended up in charge of the lab. In 1964, he earned his
doctorate at MIT. As the director of toxicology and manager of Mobil
Oil’s Environmental Health and Science Laboratories from 1978 to
1989, Mehlman directed the work of dozens of top ranked industry
researchers in epidemiology and toxicology, in the United States,
Japan and globally.
From where he stood, Mehlman was watching an epidemic in slow
motion. He had a simple idea about benzene. From inside Mobil, he
argued that gasoline, which could contain benzene and hundreds of
other known and suspected carcinogens, should be labeled as a carcinogen.
He made these statements based on research conducted by
Mobil scientists with animals and with workers that consistently
showed increased risks of leukemia at levels commonly encountered
by workers in refineries and gas stations.
In September 1989, Mehlman went to Japan, where he was surprised
to learn that gasoline in that country could be as much as 5.7
percent benzene. Shocked, Mehlman told his Japanese counterparts,
“This is extremely high and very dangerous. You have to do something
about it.” The managers responded that they couldn’t do this because
to do so would cost their refineries hundreds of millions of dollars.
Mehlman retorted, “Then you shouldn’t be selling it.” This turned out
to be one of his last official acts as a Mobil employee. That same year,
Mehlman claimed that the company in the early 1980s had falsely reported
his toxicological studies to company officials and to outside
agencies.
When Mehlman returned from this trip, he was fired and barred
from setting foot on Mobil property. He wasn’t allowed to clean out
his office or talk to his staff. He was charged with improper usage of
postage and personnel as part of his work with Princeton Scientific
Publishing Company, an activity he had been operating for several
years. On May 3 of this same year, Mobil’s vice president of research
had nominated Mehlman for membership in the National Academy of
Sciences. On September 14, he had been given a $12,800 raise. Two
weeks later he was a former employee.
Mehlman did not exactly go meekly. He estimates that in fighting
the lawsuit he filed for wrongful termination, Mobil spent about $20
million just for copying and filing documents. As part of the New Jersey
Conscientious Employee Protection Act—the whistleblower
law—he was awarded nearly $10 million under his countersuit, an
amount that was upheld despite company appeals.
Even today, the battle on benzene is not over. Part of it has moved
to China. Unhappy with the efforts under way by the NCI and others
in China, five major oil companies, including ExxonMobil, British Petroleum,
Chevron-Texaco, ConocoPhillips and Shell, are betting $27
million that they will be able to “contradict earlier claims that link
low- and mid-levels of benzene to cancers and other diseases from exposure
to benzene.” The Houston Chronicle reported that a research
proposal submitted to Marathon Oil stated that “the [Chinese] ben-
zene research was expected to provide scientific support for the lack
of a leukemia risk to the general population, evidence that current
occupational
exposure limits do not create a significant risk to workers
and proof that non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma could not be caused by benzene
exposure.”
Whatever the role general exposure to benzene may or may not
play for cancer overall, it’s clear that two groups have unusual risks of
leukemia that have not been generally appreciated until quite recently.
[...]
Myron Mehlman continues to speak out on the problems of
cancer-causing ingredients of fuels in this country and internationally
and the need for preventive policies. Judy Braiman is now leading efforts
to keep pesticides out of schools and promote local organic agriculture.
Joanne Pacinelli is the chief operating officer of an international green
technologies company that is working to replace toxic everyday products
with safer alternatives.
Ciao!
Flavio
> Il 22/09/2010 15:27, Intrepid Lynx ha scritto:
>
>> On Sep 22, 2010, at 3:07 PM, felipe wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>> ... e con esso della scienza che fa tutt'uno con
>>> esso.
>>>
>>>
>> ?!
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