Science & Democracy Resources

Trade associations representing indoor tanning salon owners have repeatedly made misleading representations in their advertising and marketing, downplaying evidence of the link between tanning bed exposure and melanoma.

The sugar industry quietly funded public relations firms and front groups to sow disinformation about the health effects of added sugar.

When Dr. John Buse found that a diabetes drug had the side effect of higher risk of heart disease, GlaxoSmithKline officials threatened his integrity and career.

A Koch-funded think tank tried to harass and discredit prominent climate scientist Michael Mann by suing for access to his private correspondence. Mann defeated the effort—but fears the resulting “chill” could deter young climate scientists.

Dr. Tyrone Hayes’s work on the dangers of atrazine made him a target for agribusiness giant Syngenta.

To avoid regulation and protect itself from lawsuits, the fossil fuel industry funded nearly $40 million of research downplaying the link between the petrochemical benzene and cancer.

Scientists from pharmaceutical giant Merck skewed results of clinical trials in favor of the arthritis drug, Vioxx, to hide evidence that the drug increased patients’ risk of heart attack. 

An industry trade association, The Chrome Coalition, funded studies with shoddy methods in an attempt to weaken regulations that protect workers from the toxic heavy metal hexavalent chromium.

After meeting with and listening to talking points from Dow Chemical Company, the maker of the pesticide chlorpyrifos, the EPA announced it would reverse its decision to ban the chemical, which is linked to neurological developmental issues in children.

Coca-Cola quietly funded a research institute out of the University of Colorado designed to persuade people to focus on exercise, not calorie intake, for weight loss strategies.

The top lobbyist for the fossil fuel industry in the western United States secretly ran more than a dozen front groups in an attempt to undermine forward-looking policy on climate change and clean technologies.

Rather than honestly deal with its burgeoning concussion problem, the National Football League went after the reputation of the first doctor to link the sport to the degenerative brain disease he named Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.