Wendy Wagner is Guest Speaker at School of Law Jan. 31

Akron, Ohio, Jan. 22, 2008 — Wendy E. Wagner, Joe A. Worsham Centennial Professor at the University of Texas School of Law, will discuss her new book from the Harvard University Press, “Bending Science: How Special Interests Corrupt Public Health Research,” at 3 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 31 at The University of Akron School of Law, 150 University Ave. in Room 151. The lecture is free and open to the public.

In “Bending Science,” Wagner and co-author Thomas O. McGarity assert that ideological or economic attacks on research are part of an extensive pattern of abuse. The authors reveal the range of sophisticated legal and financial tactics political and corporate advocates use to discredit or suppress research on potential human health hazards. They say scientists can find their research blocked, or find themselves threatened with financial ruin, while corporations, plaintiff attorneys, think tanks and even government agencies have been caught suppressing or distorting chemical product safety research.

With stories drawn from the public record, McGarity and Wagner describe how advocates attempt to bend science or “spin” findings. They reveal an immense range of tools available to partisans determined to manipulate research. "Bending Science" exposes a pattern of corruption and makes a case for reforms to safeguard both the integrity of science and the public health.

Wagner is a leading authority on the use of science by environmental policy-makers. She received a master's degree in environmental studies in 1984 and her law degree in 1987, both from Yale, where she was senior editor of the Yale Law Journal and managing editor of the Yale Journal of Regulation. Before entering teaching, she practiced for four years, first as an honors attorney in the Enforcement Division of the Department of Justice's Environment and Natural Resources Division, and then as pollution control coordinator with the Department of Agriculture's Office of the General Counsel.

Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Texas, Wagner taught at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. Among her many articles, "The Science Charade in Toxic Risk Regulation" (Columbia Law Review, 1995) and "Equal Treatment for Regulatory Science" (co-authored with David Michaels in American Journal of Law and Medicine, 2004) were chosen as one of the best environmental law articles of the year and reprinted in the Land Use and Environmental Law Review. She currently serves on the National Research Council's Committee on Reducing Stormwater Discharge Contributions to Water Pollution. Wagner also is a member scholar of the Center for Progressive Reform.

Return...