Addicted to Koch: Part 8
Posted by Michelle Moquin on September 9th, 2014
Good morning!
Many of these writes are a few years old. But don’t think that means enough time has gone by and the Koch Brothers have changed. Nope. They are still the same.
From Pro Publica.
Koch Fact Number 8: The Kochs lobbied against recognition of formaldehyde as a cancer-causing carcinogen because it might be bad for their business.
Company Owned By Cancer Research Donor Lobbied Against Designation of Formaldehyde as Carcinogen
Aug. 25: This post has been updated.
A prominent philanthropist, cancer survivor, and American businessman, David Koch, has given millions to the cause of cancer research, while his company—Koch Industries—has lobbied against formal recognition of formaldehyde as a carcinogen, The New Yorker reported in a piece published today.
The National Cancer Institute published a study in 2009 concluding that formaldehyde causes cancer in humans. Here’s The New Yorker, describing that study’s findings:
The study tracked twenty-five thousand patients for an average of forty years; subjects exposed to higher amounts of formaldehyde had significantly higher rates of leukemia. These results helped lead an expert panel within the National Institutes of Health to conclude that formaldehyde should be categorized as a known carcinogen, and be strictly controlled by the government.
As we’ve noted, prior to the May 2009 study, the National Cancer Institute had also performed a preliminary study that linked formaldehyde to leukemia, but members of Congress including Sens. James Inhofe, R-Okla., and David Vitter, R-La., managed to delay the EPA from officially designating the chemical as a “known carcinogen.” (The EPA in June, however, released a draft assessment of formaldehyde that supports that designation, but it’s not yet official.)
In 2005, Koch Industries bought Georgia-Pacific, one of the world’s largest plywood manufacturers and a major formaldehyde producer. The company has donated to both Vitter and Inhofe.
In a letter to federal health authorities sent last December, the company’s vice-president of environmental affairs wrote that “the company ‘strongly disagrees’ with the N.I.H. panel’s conclusion that formaldehyde should be treated as a known human carcinogen,” reported The New Yorker.
The National Cancer Institute’s director, Harold Varmus, told The New Yorker that at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center—where he used to work and where Koch donated $40 million dollars and serves on the board—it wasn’t uncommon for donors to have large business interests, but “the one thing we wouldn’t tolerate in our board members is tobacco.” Varmus was “surprised,” however, when The New Yorker told him about Koch Industries’ stance on formaldehyde.
We’ve asked Koch Industries to comment the matter but have not yet heard back.
For more, read the full New Yorker piece—a profile of David Koch and how he’s influenced American politics for right-wing causes.
Update: Koch Industries didn’t respond with a comment when we emailed and called, but has issued a response to The New Yorker piece in the comments section of this post. It links to a fuller response on its own website, from which I’ve pulled out the relevant section on formaldehyde:
We believe any/all regulations should be based on sound science. Georgia-Pacific meets standards currently set for formaldehyde in a variety of applications and has provided comments on formaldehyde’s classification as part of the established regulatory development process in the United States. The debate over EPA’s recent review of formaldehyde is not simply an industry concern. Several federal agencies have submitted formal comments urging caution and questioning some of the data and information on which EPA’s decision was based. There are numerous indications that the science EPA has employed may not be the best and to make any final decisions prior to the current comprehensive scientific review of formaldehyde by the National Academy of Sciences would be inappropriate.
We had originally asked Koch Industries whether there’s a conflict between David Koch’s position on the advisory board of the National Cancer Institute and his company’s opposite stance on formaldehyde. The company did not address this question in its response.
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September 9th, 2014 at 9:14 am
Thank you Michelle for keeping these predators on the front page. They are killing the people on this planet one chemical at a time for a few dollars more.
September 9th, 2014 at 9:32 am
If anyone doubts that the white boy is destroying the planet check this link out http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2014/09/04/dnt-record-setting-gator-caught.wapt.html
You will find yourself watching a video and asking yourself WHY?
WHY are they killing alligators just because they have found some big ones. All you get from this video is that they are being killed because it is legal to kill them and they are big.
We need someone else in charge.
September 9th, 2014 at 10:18 am
Alycedale, you and I are on the same page about that useless BF of that woman TM (forgot her initials actually, sorry), but ‘do the best you can’ – wtf? And agreed I would’ve done same thing, get him to drop trow and then handle it, make calls, etc…& I’m glad you wrote so already one woman took action against a cop who molested her. Excellent.
Cops have to be held accountable, it’s getting worst bc they are supplied with military surplus gear, that should not be how civilian situations should be handled. Ever. On top of that if police depts do not use that gear within a year the military budget get cuts so it’s encouraged to use it. It has to stop, and especially in areas where citizens haven’t take recourse, think Ferguson…
It is creating the only that can happen: vigilantism and I’m down with it. I totally get why you’d hate most white people actually, most of my kind are fucking idiots and oblivious to the plights of other white people let alone OTW’s – self centered by design. Pretty pathetic.
Ray Rice forgot that with celebrity comes cameras everywhere, he could’ve done a fireman carry of his woman rather than drag her out of an elevator. I won’t even get into what happened inside and I’ll agree that if there’s a way to take home down completely bc of it, it happen. Even regular people are not immune to being taped doing everything…
Peace, Zen Lill
September 9th, 2014 at 11:20 am
Zen Lill, I waited until you weighed in on the Ray Rice situation. I’m glad I did because we are on the same page on this issue.
I too feel that he should have to pay for his actions, but this is going overboard especially since his wife says that it is.
TMZ edited the video to take out Janay Rice (his wife) spitting and hitting on him in the elevator before the punch. http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/national-international/Ray-Rice-Assault-Video-Elevator-Casino–274445021.html
That is of course not an excuse for a man to hit a woman, but it doses point out the intentions of TMZ to use their edited version to make people more angry with Ray Rice than they should be.
Most of us in domestic situations have had moments with our other halves that we wish we could take back.
This is an appalling example of the white press using its position to ruin another black males life.
September 9th, 2014 at 7:22 pm
Good article Michelle. Hold these greedy Kochs’ feet to the fire. Make them squim.
Excellent Work! Bring on more of it.
September 9th, 2014 at 7:26 pm
The Kochs are mentally ill…
nothing else can explain such incredible behavior.
September 9th, 2014 at 7:27 pm
Follow the money
If you follow the money, then you will find the answers.
September 9th, 2014 at 7:27 pm
hmmmm…karma for these two would be leukemia
September 9th, 2014 at 7:27 pm
Hard to believe these rich rethugs are so cold-hearted and
money hungry, but there it is. Worse is Inhofe and Vitter, but we’re not hearing a word about their financial take.
September 9th, 2014 at 7:28 pm
I seem to remember their ad campaign
“Formaldehyde! It’s What’s For Dinner!”
Didn’t go over too well, IIRC.
September 9th, 2014 at 7:30 pm
Covert Operations:The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama.
Covert Operations:The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama.
Source: The New Yorker
The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry—especially environmental regulation. These views dovetail with the brothers’ corporate interests. In a study released this spring, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute named Koch Industries one of the top ten air polluters in the United States. And Greenpeace issued a report identifying the company as a “kingpin of climate science denial.” The report showed that, from 2005 to 2008, the Kochs vastly outdid ExxonMobil in giving money to organizations fighting legislation related to climate change, underwriting a huge network of foundations, think tanks, and political front groups. Indeed, the brothers have funded opposition campaigns against so many Obama Administration policies—from health-care reform to the economic-stimulus program—that, in political circles, their ideological network is known as the Kochtopus.
….
The anti-government fervor infusing the 2010 elections represents a political triumph for the Kochs. By giving money to “educate,” fund, and organize Tea Party protesters, they have helped turn their private agenda into a mass movement.
Bruce Bartlett, a conservative economist and a historian, who once worked at the National Center for Policy Analysis, a Dallas-based think tank that the Kochs fund, said, “The problem with the whole libertarian movement is that it’s been all chiefs and no Indians.
There haven’t been any actual people, like voters, who give a crap about it. So the problem for the Kochs has been trying to create a movement.” With the emergence of the Tea Party, he said, “everyone suddenly sees that for the first time there are Indians out there—people who can provide real ideological power.”
The Kochs, he said, are “trying to shape and control and channel the populist uprising into their own policies.”
A Republican campaign consultant who has done research on behalf of Charles and David Koch said of the Tea Party, “The Koch brothers gave the money that founded it.
It’s like they put the seeds in the ground. Then the rainstorm comes, and the frogs come out of the mud—and they’re our candidates!”
….
Oddly enough, the fiercely capitalist Koch family owes part of its fortune to Joseph Stalin. Fred Koch was the son of a Dutch printer who settled in Texas and ran a weekly newspaper. Fred attended M.I.T., where he earned a degree in chemical engineering.
In 1927, he invented a more efficient process for converting oil into gasoline, but, according to family lore, America’s major oil companies regarded him as a threat and shut him out of the industry. Unable to succeed at home, Koch found work in the Soviet Union…
more…
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_…
September 9th, 2014 at 7:31 pm
The koch family has been funding covert political ops since daddy fred endowed the john birch
society in 1958.
the ruling class = traitors.
September 9th, 2014 at 7:59 pm
Betty, seriously? “…..but this is going overboard especially since his wife says that it is.”
Are you for real? Do you know *anything* about battered woman syndrome? It’s typical for a woman to defend their abuser, sometimes they take responsibility, they even feel that they deserved the beating. I could be wrong but you seem to be saying that if the wife’s okay with it, everybody else should be too.
and “This is an appalling example of the white press using its position to ruin another black males life.”
Nice way to deflect responsibility there! Let’s blame the media for ruining his career, not his actions. He did the crime he can pay for his time in the public arena. Yes, its all over the press, but it needs to be! People are angry and rightly so. It just so happens the guy is black but if a white football player did the same thing, I think you’d get the same result of public anger.
Domestic violence is no joke! Sick American misogynist culture accepts it as the status quo but it needs to STOP! And Women need to stop protecting these men and excusing their violent behavior!
/SB
September 9th, 2014 at 11:30 pm
Betty, I think you misunderstood my statement, it’s okay, people here sometimes so that – please read this:
http://time.com/3309687/why-women-stay-in-abusive-relationships/
It may help you get why Janay thinks it’s over the top …
I’ve seen this TED talk mentioned in the article and it also explains the psychology of the abuser process very well …
- ZL
September 9th, 2014 at 11:30 pm
*do that
September 10th, 2014 at 7:18 am
You two ladies have opened my eyes. However, I will wait and see. Murderers have been allowed to return to the NFL in a year. So I don’t think this warrants more punishment.
September 10th, 2014 at 7:23 am
Social Butterfly#13, You are correct. I spent 11 years of my life excusing the abuse my violent husband heaped upon me. It wasn’t until the law of my state changed and the state prosecuted him that he went to prison for breaking my nose and arm for the 4th time that I got the help I needed.
Even then it took 2 years for me to stop blaming myself and divorce him.
September 10th, 2014 at 7:24 am
Who cares what color the abuser is. If a man hits me, I’m going to shoot him.
September 10th, 2014 at 7:26 am
Thank you Social Butterfly and Zen Lill for your astute comments. My sister took the blame for her abuse until he killed her.
September 10th, 2014 at 7:37 am
Alycedale#18, I know you don’t I? We met after one of your trials. I was a juror. You said that you didn’t trust whites even women. I said you were the first negro that I had wanted to talk to.
You threatened to kick my ass if I didn’t get the “f**k” out of your face. I said it was me that convinced those other 6 whites to let your black ass off. You smiled and said, “I’lll be back.”
Elaine said you were a regular on a bitch that was a traitor to the white race’s blog. And here you are. I know you remember Elaine. You broke her brother’s jaw with a water pipe tool. She said there couldn’t be two homicidal “N” like you in _________.
September 10th, 2014 at 7:40 am
If only muslim women had the help American women get.
September 10th, 2014 at 7:43 am
I live in England. Women here are abused as a matter of right. Men get away with it all the time. The bobbies don’t care.
September 10th, 2014 at 7:44 am
Zen Lill, and Social Butterfly. I found the link I was referring to. http://www.campussqueeze.com/post/NFL-Players-Involved-In-Murder.aspx
September 10th, 2014 at 7:49 am
I agree with you Betty. This is a case of the white media attempting to justify a punishment that they wouldn’t do if the abuser was a white man.
Sure he should get punished but not banishment for life. These guys didn’t. http://heavy.com/news/2013/06/nfl-players-arrested-crimes-aaron-hernandez/
September 10th, 2014 at 8:18 am
We need more professionalism on this island. WTF is wrong with the department that is supposed to make sure our water is safe to drink?
———————–
HAGATNA, Guam (AP) — Guam’s Environmental Protection Agency is taking away the water authority’s certification to test drinking water for total coliform and E. coli.
The Pacific Daily News (http://bit.ly/1AfRv30) reports the authority failed to identify a sample as positive for E. coli during recent proficiency tests.
Guam EPA Administrator Eric Palacios said Friday the agency has been working with the Guam Waterworks Authority to make sure its laboratory can regain its certification.
The agency will also run periodic samples for quality control.
Palacios says reliable laboratory reports are critical for ensuring safe water.
Coliforms and E. coli are bacteria. Their presence indicates the water may be contaminated with human or animal waste.
Microbes in these wastes may cause diarrhea, cramps, nausea, headaches or other symptoms.
____
Fire some fucking body and get someone in who knows what to fucking do.
September 10th, 2014 at 8:20 am
I miss you baby cakes
September 10th, 2014 at 8:31 am
Hafa adai, people on Guam please speak up when you see child abuse. People are becoming aware that the way people treat each other is not okay.
We do have quite a number of folks who migrate to Guam from our neighbouring country nations. Perhaps in their communities they do not have any laws that prohibit such behaviour but when they come to Guam, they find out quickly that no it isn’t okay.
September 10th, 2014 at 8:37 am
Hafa adai, Lilli on Guam#25, The island is full of brainless professionals. Take the police department for example. Approximately 95 unsolved death cases lay cold within the Guam Police Department, waiting for new tips or leads that could provide needed closure for the families of the victims.
Their excuse: A lack of manpower at the department caused GPD’s cold case unit to shut down in 2011.
September 10th, 2014 at 8:42 am
Chaz#20, you always were a dumb blond bitch. That was a monkey wrench she broke his jaw with. You like nigger dick or something now?
Elaine said she hasn’t spoken to you since you and that murdering nigger became best friends. She said to tell you to never mention her name again on this nigger loving blog again.
September 10th, 2014 at 8:49 am
Hafa Adai Social Butterfly and Zen Lill. Thank you for coming in and straightening out Betty and others like her. Here on Guam battering women is an every day occurrence. Obama’s administration promised to help, and has.
———————–
Guam – Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo has announced that the U.S. Department of Justice has awarded $525,994 in federal grants to Guam in support of programs to deter violence against women.
READ the release from Congresswoman Bordallo below:
Justice Department Awards Guam $525,994 for Violence Against Women Programs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – September 9, 2014 – Washington, D.C. –
Congresswoman Madeleine Z. Bordallo today announced that the U.S. Department of Justice has awarded Guam $525,994 in federal grant assistance.
Guam Legal Services Corporation (GLSC) was awarded $480,000 through the Office of Violence Against Women’s Legal Assistance for Victims Grant Program.
The award is for a 36-month program in coordination with Victims Advocates Reaching Out (VARO) and Guam Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Family Violence (GCASAFV) to provide quality representation to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and staking on Guam.
The Office of the Governor was awarded $45,994 through the Office of Violence Against Women’s Sexual Assault Services Program. This formula grant will support local rape crisis centers and other nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations that provide services and support to victims for sexual assault.
“These grants will help our community provide critical services to victims of family violence and sexual assault on Guam,” said Congresswoman Bordallo. “Domestic violence and sexual assault are heinous crimes that have no place in our society.
I look forward to these funds being used to assist and represent victims of these crimes and ensure that resources are available to encourage victims speak out and report these crimes so that perpetrators are punished.”
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Women like you two are much needed on Guam. Most women in a battered relationship here fail to press charges and often blame themselves.