Rescuing Science from Politics: Regulation and the Distortion of Scientific Research

Abstract:     
Rescuing Science from Politics debuts fourteen chapters by the nation's leading academics in law, science, and philosophy who explore the ways that special interests can abuse the law to intrude on the way that scientists conduct research. The high stakes and adversarial features of regulation create the worst possible climate for the production and use of honest science, especially by those who will ultimately bear the cost of the resulting regulatory standards. Yet the academic or popular literature has paid scant attention to efforts by dominant interest groups to distort the available science in support of their positions. The book begins by establishing what should be noncontroversial principles of good scientific practice. These principles serve as the benchmark against which each chapter's author explains how science is misused in specific regulatory settings and isolates problems in the integration of science by the regulatory process. Dr. Donald Kenney, editor of Science, writes the prologue for the book.

Keywords: regulation, environment, science, health, industry

Accepted Paper Series