sherry ford

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">new 819 see hayes, syng, atrazine</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref schizo envir will drop scandal</font></div><div><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/686406-100reporters-syngenta-clare-howard-investigation.html#document/p2/a103429">https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/686406-100reporters-syngenta-clare-howard-investigation.html#document/p2/a103429</a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref</font></div><div><a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/712553-sherry-ford-deposition.html#document/p6/a105738">http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/712553-sherry-ford-deposition.html#document/p6/a105738</a></div><div>
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</div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://m.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/pesticide-manufacturer-targeted-uc-berkeley-professor/Content?oid=3641149&storyPage=2"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://m.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/pesticide-manufacturer-targeted-uc-berkeley-professor/Content?oid=3641149&storyPage=2</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">P</font><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" font-style="font-style" inherit="inherit" font-variant-ligatures="font-variant-ligatures" font-variant-caps="font-variant-caps">esticide Manufacturer Targeted UC Berkeley Professor</span></b></div><div id="StoryHeaderMobile" class="content-header StoryHeaderMobile MainPage ContentDefaultMobile newsopinion feature " style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><h2 class="subheadline" style="margin: 0.647727em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.25rem; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Newly released documents reveal that Syngenta, the maker of atrazine, attempted to personally discredit a Cal professor whose research suggests that the herbicide feminizes male frogs.</font></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span class="authorAttribute" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">by</span>&nbsp;<a href="https://m.eastbayexpress.com/author/clare-howard-of-100reporters-and-environmental-health-news" rel="author" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">Clare Howard of 100Reporters and Environmental Health News</a><span style="font-style: inherit;">&nbsp;n</span></font></p><time datetime="2013-07-03" pubdate="" class="date" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">July 03, 2013</font></time></div><div id="StoryHeaderMobile" class="content-header StoryHeaderMobile MainPage ContentDefaultMobile newsopinion feature " style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><time datetime="2013-07-03" pubdate="" class="date" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></time></div><div id="StoryHeaderMobile" class="content-header StoryHeaderMobile MainPage ContentDefaultMobile news___opinion feature " style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">To&nbsp;</span><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">protect profits threatened by a lawsuit over its controversial herbicide atrazine, Syngenta Crop Protection, a major manufacturer of pesticides, launched an aggressive multimillion-dollar campaign that included hiring a detective agency to investigate scientists on a federal advisory panel, looking into the personal life of a judge, and commissioning a psychological profile of a leading UC Berkeley scientist who has been critical of atrazine.</span></font></div><div id="StoryLayoutMobile" class="content-body StoryLayoutMobile MainPage ContentDefaultMobile " style="margin: 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div id="storyBody" class="page1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Switzerland-based company also routinely paid "third-party allies" to appear to be independent supporters, and kept a list of 130 people and groups it could recruit as experts without disclosing ties to the company. Recently unsealed court documents also reveal a corporate strategy to discredit critics and to strip plaintiffs from a class-action case against Syngenta. The company specifically targeted one of atrazine's fiercest and most outspoken critics, Tyrone Hayes of UC Berkeley, whose research suggests that atrazine feminizes male frogs.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Syngenta's campaign is spelled out in hundreds of pages of memos, invoices, and other documents from Illinois' Madison County Circuit Court that were initially sealed as part of a 2004 lawsuit filed by Holiday Shores Sanitary District. The recently released documents, along with a batch made public in late 2011, open a window on the company's strategy to defeat a lawsuit that it maintained could have effectively ended sales of atrazine in the United States.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The suit originally sought to force Syngenta to pay for the removal of atrazine from drinking water in Edwardsville, Illinois, northeast of St. Louis, but ultimately expanded to include more than 1,000 water systems covering 6 states. For Syngenta, which had $14.2 billion in total revenues last year, the stakes of the litigation were high. Atrazine has been popular with farmers since the 1950s because it is effective and economical in killing a broad spectrum of weeds. About 80 million pounds are used in the United States each year, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency, most of which are applied to corn in the Midwest. Three-quarters of all US corn is treated with atrazine; the herbicide is also used on golf courses, Christmas tree lots, and public lands.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Atrazine has long stirred controversy at the EPA, which approved its use as recently as 2003 but plans to launch another registration review this summer. Research has shown that atrazine is prone to running off fields and contaminating water supplies. It also drifts hundreds of miles by air from sites where it has been sprayed.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Relatively few studies have examined atrazine's health effects on human subjects. It has been shown to act as an endocrine-disrupting chemical — meaning that it can block or mimic hormones — and some human studies have suggested that it may harm fetuses and reduce men's sperm quality. An Indiana University study found that women who lived in areas with higher atrazine levels in water had children with higher rates of some genital birth defects (see sidebar, page 15).</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Holiday Shores case grew into a class action lawsuit, which was ultimately settled in 2012 after eight years of litigation. While not admitting culpability, Syngenta agreed to pay $105 million last year toward filtration costs for more than 1,000 community water systems in Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Indiana, Iowa, and Ohio. Discovery documents from the lawsuit were unsealed by the Madison County Circuit Court in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by 100Reporters, a nonprofit investigative journalism group.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a prepared statement, Syngenta defended its actions, describing the suit as an attempt to end atrazine sales in the United States. The demands of plaintiffs to receive reimbursement of their cleanup costs, the company wrote in an email, "would have effectively banned the use of this critical product that has been the backbone of safe weed control for more than 50 years."</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The recently released documents show that the company conducted research into the vulnerabilities of a judge and professor Hayes' personal life. Sherry Duvall Ford, Syngenta's former head of communications, ranked strategies that Syngenta could use against Hayes in order of risk, according to her notes from Syngenta meetings in April 2005. One possibility: offering "to cut him in on unlimited research funds." Another: Investigate his wife.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b>In her deposition, Ford read from a memo emailed to her colleagues indicating that Syngenta had hired a detective agency to investigate members of an EPA <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Scientific Advisory Panel [SAP] </span>examining atrazine.</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"I don't think it would be helpful if it were generally known that we research SAP members," Ford read. "The real good stuff I have kept for myself... . It [sic] protection for Janis on atrazine." </span>(Janis E. McFarland is a Syngenta employee involved with the public relations campaign.)</span></font></p><p style="margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: inherit;">Syngenta did not respond to questions about its use of a detective agency to investigate scientists on an EPA advisory panel, or why it looked into the personal life of a judge</span><b>. In response to a question about why it commissioned a psychiatric profile on Hayes, the company issued a statement saying:</b></font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"In its defense of atrazine Syngenta focused on the science and the facts. And the scientific facts continue to make it clear that no one ever has been or ever could be exposed to enough atrazine in water to affect their health. Despite eight years of litigation, the plaintiffs were never able to show that atrazine ever caused any adverse health effects at levels to which people could be exposed in the real world. Most water systems involved in the litigation had never detected significant amounts of atrazine in their water."</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;" /><hr width="20%" align="center" noshade="" style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 2em 0px 1em; border: 0px; height: 1px; background: -webkit-linear-gradient(left, rgb(204, 204, 204), rgb(51, 51, 51), rgb(204, 204, 204)) rgb(51, 51, 51);" /><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;" /><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to memos and emails between Syngenta and the public relations firms it hired, the company also secretly paid a stable of seemingly independent academics and other "experts" to extol the economic benefits of atrazine and downplay its environmental and health risks, without disclosing their financial ties to the company. At the same time, the company provided strict parameters for what these experts would say.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b>Don Coursey, Ameritech Professor of Public Policy at the University of Chicago,</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> collected $500 an hour from Syngenta to write economic analyses touting the necessity of atrazine, according to an April 25, 2006, email from Coursey to Ford of Syngenta. The company supplied Coursey with the data he was to cite, edited his work, and paid him to speak with newspapers, television stations, and radio broadcasters about his reports, without revealing the nature of his arrangement with the corporation, according to Ford's deposition. Coursey's work, presented in 2010 at the National Press Club, was widely picked up as independent analysis by newspapers across the country. Coursey also is affiliated with the Heartland Institute, a libertarian nonprofit focused on environmental regulations.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: inherit;">In one document dated 2005,</span><b> Ford noted areas of vulnerabilities of a Madison County judge </b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">that the corporation thought might be assigned to the case: "Not showing up for work. Personal conduct. Skybox from Tillery. Dating websites – pic in robes."</span></font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Stephen Tillery, whose firm, Korein Tillery, represented plaintiffs in the class-action suit against Syngenta, said his firm had never given the judge a skybox. "I was never with the judge in a skybox," Tillery said, adding, "He was not the judge in the case. They thought he might be, and they were looking for ways to disqualify him."</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The allegation over the skybox was the basis of a formal complaint Syngenta filed against Tillery with the Illinois Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission. The complaint was dismissed as without merit.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At least four public relations firms were hired to work on the Syngenta campaign, according to the documents. The White House Writers Group, based in Washington, DC, and Jayne Thompson & Associates, based in Chicago, were heavily involved. Invoices show that the White House Writers Group received more than $1.6 million in 2010 and 2011 from the Syngenta campaign. Thompson is Illinois' former first lady, wife of former Governor Jim Thompson.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"They did everything they could with dirty tricks," Tillery said. "The extent they went to was unprecedented." He added that only one firm working on behalf of Syngenta, McDermott, Will & Emery of Chicago, did not engage in "dirty tricks."</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;" /><hr width="20%" align="center" noshade="" style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 2em 0px 1em; border: 0px; height: 1px; background: -webkit-linear-gradient(left, rgb(204, 204, 204), rgb(51, 51, 51), rgb(204, 204, 204)) rgb(51, 51, 51);" /><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;" /><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">UC Berkeley's Hayes, a leading atrazine researcher and critic, became a major target. His published research showed that exposure to atrazine chemically castrates male frogs and makes them viable females, able to produce eggs that can be fertilized.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hayes began his atrazine research in 1997 with a study funded by Novartis Agribusiness, one of two corporations that would later form Syngenta. Hayes said that when he got results Novartis did not expect or want, the corporation refused to allow him to publish them. He secured other funding, replicated his work, and released the results: exposure to atrazine creates hermaphroditic frogs. That started an epic feud between the scientist and the corporation.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The recently released documents show that the company commissioned a psychological profile of Hayes. In her notes taken during a 2005 meeting, Ford of Syngenta referred to Hayes as "paranoid schizo and narcissistic."</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Syngenta tracked Hayes' speaking engagements and arranged for trained critics to attend each event, sometimes videotaping his remarks, according to a strategy proposed in 2006 memos by Jayne Thompson and later confirmed by Hayes. Syngenta explored the idea of purchasing "Tyrone Hayes" as a search word on the Internet and directing searches to its own marketing materials, but appeared to have ultimately decided against it.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hayes said he had been&nbsp;unaware&nbsp;that Syngenta had discussed purchasing his name as an Internet search word. "Given some of the things they did, that doesn't surprise me," he said. "This clearly shows they went beyond science and academia. It was all PR and tricks."</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hayes readily admits he has "crossed the line" from dispassionate academic to anti-atrazine warrior. He raps about atrazine and has a website, "<a href="http://atrazinelovers.com/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">AtrazineLovers.com</a>," with information on the dangers of the herbicide. Asked why he has become increasingly vocal, Hayes said, "I went to Harvard on scholarships. I owe you! I did not go to school to let someone pay me off to say things that are not true."</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In heated and sometimes mocking emails to Syngenta, Hayes has rapped and used profanities and sexual taunts.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The corporation filed an ethics complaint with UC Berkeley and publicly released the emails in 2010. The ethics complaint was judged to be without merit.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hayes accused Syngenta of pressuring him through UC Berkeley officials. He said he now pays as much as twenty times more than other researchers for his lab operations. He added that his federal grant applications have been getting the highest scores in evaluations, but are being turned down. He suspects the company of being involved in the sudden hurdles he is facing.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hayes said Syngenta employees had threatened him verbally and said they were going after his family, but this was the first time he knew these plans were in writing. "They impacted my professional and personal life," he said. "It's sobering to get substantiation of the verbal attacks they made."</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The company contends that Hayes' frog studies are flawed, and that its own research has not replicated his findings. Other scientists, however, are showing that atrazine disturbs the sexual development of other amphibians as well.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In one memo, the company denied pressuring Duke University not to hire Hayes, but in her deposition on June 9, 2011, Ford, Syngenta's former spokeswoman, said that Gary Dickson, a Syngenta employee, contacted a dean at Duke to inform him of the contentious relationship between Hayes and Syngenta.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another document, from Jayne Thompson & Associates, suggested why: "Duke, located in Durham, is close to Syngenta Crop Protection headquarters in Greensboro and to our research facility in RTP [Research Triangle Park], and we wanted to protect our reputation in our community and among our employees."</font></p><p style="margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">Ford also said Syngenta gave financial support to the</span><b> Hudson Institute and had asked Alex Avery, </b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">at the institute's Center for Global Food Issues, to write reports critical of Hayes.</span></span><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> She later said that unlike Hayes, Avery has not published in any peer-reviewed journals that she knew of and he did not disclose payments from Syngenta. The Hudson Institute is a conservative nonprofit focused on shaping public policy on issues ranging from international relations to technology and health care.</span></font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In one&nbsp;document, Ford noted that a principal with the White House Writers Group taped a phone call with Hayes and "set him up." Hayes was baited through emails from Syngenta's army of allies. The scientist's emails were posted on the Syngenta website as part of the campaign to discredit him.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;"If TH [Tyrone Hayes] is involved&nbsp;in scandal, the enviros will drop him," Ford wrote. "Can prevent citing of TH data by revealing him as non-credible," she added.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;" /><hr width="20%" align="center" noshade="" style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 2em 0px 1em; border: 0px; height: 1px; background: -webkit-linear-gradient(left, rgb(204, 204, 204), rgb(51, 51, 51), rgb(204, 204, 204)) rgb(51, 51, 51);" /><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;" /><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Court documents also include a "Supportive Third Party Stakeholders Database" of 130 people and organizations that the company could count on to publicly support atrazine, often for a price. Documents&nbsp;show people on the list were coached, their statements in support of atrazine were edited by the company, and payments to them were not publicly disclosed. In some cases, Syngenta or its PR team wrote op-ed pieces and then scanned its stakeholder database for a signer.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In an October 17, 2009, memo to Syngenta's Ford, Jayne Thompson warned that some of the language in four op-eds penned by the White House Writers Group is suggestive of their source, which "should be avoided at all costs."</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Court documents include an email dated October 28, 2009, from a Syngenta employee asking her boss how to pay these third-party allies who write in support of atrazine. There are consistent warnings to be sure supporters appear independent, with no links to the corporation.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In one case, Syngenta paid&nbsp;$100,000 to the nonprofit American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) for support that included an op-ed piece criticizing the work of journalist Charles Duhigg of&nbsp;<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The New York Times</i>, who wrote a story on atrazine as part of the paper's Toxic Waters series in 2009. Without disclosing this financial support from Syngenta, president and founder Elizabeth Whelan derided&nbsp;<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The Times</i>&nbsp;article on atrazine as "All the news that's fit to scare."</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ACSH is a nonprofit that advocates against what it considers government's over-regulation of issues related to science and health.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Dear Syngenta friends," began a 2009 email from Gilbert Ross, a physician at ACSH, thanking Syngenta for its payments and financial support over the years. "Such general operating support is the lifeblood of a small nonprofit like ours, and is both deeply appreciated and much needed."</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In response to emailed questions for this article, Ross defended the decision not to publicly disclose the payments, and dismissed Hayes as an "outlier."</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"To 'disclose' funding on every topic we cover – and there are many – would give the mistaken impression that the donations came first to encourage or persuade us to cover a topic, and cover it in a manner beneficial to the donor," Ross wrote.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Atrazine, he continued, "has been well-known and widely proven to be highly beneficial for agriculture and crop yields and economics of farming. Those who promote hysteria and baseless (commonly litigation-driven) attacks on it are not coming from a sound-science POV [point of view], and we have no apologies nor explanations needed for accepting support from companies who develop and market crop protection chemicals which are manifestly beneficial and pose either no health risk or merely hypothetical 'risk.'"</font></p><p style="margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b>Steven Milloy, publisher of&nbsp;<a href="http://junkscience.com/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">JunkScience.com</a>&nbsp;and president of Citizens for the Integrity of Science, is also in Syngenta's Supportive Third Party Stakeholders Database.</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> In a December 3, 2004, email to Syngenta, Milloy requested a grant of $15,000 for the nonprofit Free Enterprise Education Institute for an atrazine stewardship cost-benefit analysis project.</span></font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a letter dated August 6, 2008, Milloy requested a $25,000 grant for the nonprofit Free Enterprise Project of the National Center for Public Policy Research. In an email on that date, he wrote, "send the check to me as usual and I'll take care of it."</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While op-eds aim to shape public opinion, economic and cost-benefit analyses were also important, because EPA rulings on pesticide use are based on health, environmental, and economic effects.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">In an email to Syngenta's head of communications, Thompson praised an essay that ran in the&nbsp;</span><i style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Belleville News Democrat</i><span style="font-weight: inherit;">, an Illinois newspaper based about twenty miles from Edwardsville, the community that initiated the lawsuit. The 2006 essay was signed by </span><b>Jay Lehr of the Heartland Institute</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">. The essay claimed the Holiday Shores lawsuit could, if successful, shrink the nation's food supply.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b>"These are great clips for us because they get out some of our messages from someone (Lehr) who comes off sounding like an unbiased expert," Thompson wrote. "Another strength is that the messages do not sound like they came from Syngenta."</b></font></p><p style="margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b>The Heartland Institute fought a subpoena all the way to the Illinois Supreme Court in 2012 that would have forced it to disclose any financial relationship with Syngenta and the source of its articles supporting atrazine.</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> The Heartland Institute argued disclosure would violate its First Amendment rights. The case settled before a ruling was issued, so the relationship remains undisclosed.</span></font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In response to an emailed question, the Heartland Institute did not deny receiving funding from Syngenta. Any money it receives, the institute maintained, is considered a donation to a nonprofit, and Heartland is not obligated to disclose donor information. Its president, Joseph Bast, has said he would go to jail for contempt of court "rather than share a single note he had ever made during a meeting with a donor."</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;" /><hr width="20%" align="center" noshade="" style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 2em 0px 1em; border: 0px; height: 1px; background: -webkit-linear-gradient(left, rgb(204, 204, 204), rgb(51, 51, 51), rgb(204, 204, 204)) rgb(51, 51, 51);" /><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;" /><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to working with third-party allies, another Syngenta effort to fight the class-action lawsuit was to go directly to plaintiffs, both actual and potential. In her deposition, Ford confirmed the company convened focus groups and contacted managers at community water systems to discuss the lawsuit, explain the financial and political implications of participation in the suit, and help them evaluate whether they should stay in the class action or opt out.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In her&nbsp;deposition, Ford confirmed a discussion with Syngenta attorneys about how to pressure homeowners and real estate agents in Holiday Shores to drop out of the lawsuit by telling them the suit would harm property values.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ford insisted the strategy was not carried out, but was then asked to read from a meeting agenda that stated: "assign who will identify groups and assemble lists of Realtors/Holiday Shores residents/growers" and "determine collateral materials needed for briefing these folks. Determine who will actually be reaching out to these individuals."</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">She said that according to her recollection, these contacts&nbsp;did not take place.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Syngenta released a statement about the settlement agreement, saying: "This settlement ends the business uncertainty and expense of protracted litigation surrounding this critical product that has been the backbone of weed control for more than 50 years. It allows farmers to continue to realize the benefits of atrazine to agriculture, the economy, and the environment."</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 1.35714em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 25px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Following the settlement, Tillery has shifted his legal strategy. He does not plan on filing another class-action lawsuit over atrazine in drinking water. Instead, he said, he plans to start filing individual lawsuits on behalf of children with birth defects.</font></p></div></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In one document dated 2005,<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">&nbsp;</span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Ford </span>noted areas of vulnerabilities of a Madison County&nbsp;judge</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;the corporation thought might be assigned to the case: “Not showing up for work. Personal conduct. Skybox from Tillery. Dating websites – pic in robes.”</span>

Stephen Tillery, whose firm, Korein Tillery, represented plaintiffs in the suit, said his firm had never given the judge a skybox. “I was never with the judge in a skybox,” Tillery said, adding, “He was not the judge in the case. They thought he might be, and they were looking for ways to disqualify him.”

The allegation over the skybox was the <b>basis of a formal complaint Syngenta filed against Tillery with the Illinois Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission</b>.&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The complaint was dismissed as without merit.</span>

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At least four public relations firms were hired to work on the Syngenta campaign, according to the documents.&nbsp;The White House Writers Group,&nbsp;based in Washington, D.C., and Jayne Thompson & Associates, based in Chicago, were heavily involved. Invoices show that the White House Writers Group received more than $1.6 million in 2010 and 2011. Thompson is Illinois’ former first lady, wife of former Gov. Jim Thompson.</span>

Tillery said, “They did everything they could with dirty tricks. The extent they went to was unprecedented.”&nbsp; He added that only one firm working on behalf of Syngenta, McDermott, Will & Emery of Chicago, did not engage in “dirty tricks.”
&nbsp;</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LI</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sherry R. Duvall, APR</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>PR / communications pro with legal, issue management and science savvy.</div><div>Greater Atlanta Area418 connections</div><div>Sign in to Connect</div><div>Sandvik</div><div>Sandvik</div><div>Miami University</div><div>Miami University</div><div>About</div><div>Equally skilled at rooftop communication—promoting thought leadership, brand and corporate reputation—and "boots on the ground," entrepreneurial know-how.&nbsp;</div><div>
</div><div>Accredited communicator with skills in litigation, issue management, media relations, marketing communication and community service.</div><div>
</div><div>Legal education and experience in business and civil litigation complement communication skills.</div><div>
</div><div>Experience in contract law, corporate communications, agency PR and non-profit marketing.</div><div>
</div><div>Distinguished by strategic thinking, polished writing, attention to detail and collaborative approach.</div><div>
</div><div>Experience</div><div>Sandvik</div><div>Corporate paralegal and contracts analyst</div><div>Sandvik</div><div>May 2018 – Present1 year 4 months</div><div>
</div><div>Smyrna, GA</div><div>
</div><div>Duvall Communications</div><div>Writer/Communications Consultant</div><div>Duvall Communications</div><div>Apr 2011 – Present8 years 5 months</div><div>
</div><div>Greater Atlanta Area</div><div>
</div><div>Tuggle Duggins P.A.</div><div>Paralegal & Accounts Receivable Manager</div><div>Tuggle Duggins P.A.</div><div>Dec 2013 – Dec 20152 years 1 month</div><div>
</div><div>Greensboro/Winston-Salem, North Carolina Area</div><div>
</div><div><b>Syngenta</b></div><div><b>Head, Community Engagement; Head, External Communications; Communications Manager</b></div><div><b>Syngenta</b></div><div><b>Feb 1999 – Apr 2011 (12 years 3 months</b></div><div>
</div><div>Greensboro/Winston-Salem, North Carolina Area</div><div>
</div><div><b>Ciba Specialty Chemicals</b></div><div>Internal Communications Manager</div><div>Ciba Specialty Chemicals</div><div>Jan 1998 – Feb 19991 year 2 months</div><div>
</div><div>High Point, NC</div><div>
</div><div>Duvall Communications</div><div>Freelance Writer/Communications Consultant</div><div>Duvall Communications</div><div>Aug 1993 – Jan 19984 years 6 months</div><div>
</div><div>Greensboro/Winston-Salem, North Carolina Area</div><div>
</div><div>Roberts Communications</div><div>Account Supervisor</div><div>Roberts Communications</div><div>1989 – 19934 years</div><div>
</div><div>Education</div><div>Miami UniversityMiami University</div><div>Miami University</div><div>Bachelor of Arts (BA)</div><div>Guilford CollegeGuilford College</div><div>Guilford College</div><div>Paralegal Education Certification Program</div><div>Volunteer Experience</div><div>Board of DirectorsPiedmont Land Conservancy</div><div>Board of Directors</div><div>Piedmont Land Conservancy</div><div>Jul 2011 – Dec 20154 years 6 months</div><div>
</div><div>Environment</div><div>
</div><div>Led marketing and served as president of a 16-member board for a non-profit, grassroots land trust operating in nine North Carolina Counties. Piedmont Land Conservancy permanently protects important lands to conserve the region's rivers and streams, natural and scenic areas, wildlife habitat and farmland that make the Piedmont a healthy and vibrant place to live, work and visit.</div><div>
</div><div>www.piedmontland.org</div><div>Led marketing and served as president of a 16-member board for a non-profit, grassroots land trust operating in nine North Carolina Counties. Piedmont Land Conservancy permanently protects important lands to conserve the region's rivers and streams, natural and scenic areas, wildlife habitat and farmland that make the Piedmont a healthy and vibrant place to live, work and visit.</div><div>
</div><div>www.piedmontland.org</div><div>Bethel Land Trust</div><div>Board Of Directors</div><div>Bethel Land Trust</div><div>Jun 2017 – Aug 20181 year 3 months</div><div>
</div><div>Environment</div><div>
</div><div>Licenses & Certifications</div><div>Accredited in Public Relations (APR)</div><div>Accredited in Public Relations (APR)</div><div>Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)</div><div>See credentialExternal link</div><div>North Carolina Certified Paralegal</div><div>North Carolina Certified Paralegal</div><div>North Carolina Bar Association</div><div>Recommendations</div><div>A preview of what LinkedIn members have to say about Sherry R.:</div><div>
</div><div>“</div><div>Sherry Duvall is a professional of unsurpassed integrity and effectiveness, with whom it was my privilege to work for several years on complex, challenging, highly technical and very significant communications questions. I have never known anyone, in my work as a reporter, Congressional aide, news anchor, public official or consultant, with greater concern for accuracy and adherence to facts. I cannot make a more considered or enthusiastic recommendation than I do for Sherry Duvall.</div><div>“</div><div>Sherry is excellent and delivers excellent product. She is not locked in to a single solution into which she tries to press every problem but she brings a large portfolio of possibilities to the issue. Broad experience on national and international scale and a delight to work with.</div><div>4 people have recommended Sherry R.</div><div>=</div><div>scrape</div><div>
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</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no date</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/harassing-scientistmessenger-exposing-risks-herbicide-atrazine"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.ucsusa.org/harassing-scientistmessenger-exposing-risks-herbicide-atrazine</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Dr.&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Tyrone Hayes’s work on the dangers of atrazine made him a target for agribusiness giant Syngenta.</span></b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</span></font></div><div class="callout" style="padding: 1.2rem; background-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin-bottom: 1.2rem; margin-left: 1.2rem; max-width: 30%; float: right;"><a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/center-science-and-democracy/disinformation-playbook" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><img src="https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/images/2017/10/play-blitz.png" alt="" style="border: 0px; display: block; max-width: 100%; height: auto; margin-bottom: 0.6rem;" />This case study appears in The Disinformation Playbook. Read on for further examples and tactics.&nbsp;</font></a></div><p style="line-height: 1.4; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dr. Tyrone Hayes remembers thinking the gig would be harmless. Approached in 1997 by the corporate predecessor of agribusiness giant Syngenta, Hayes—at the time a young U.C. Berkeley assistant professor—agreed to study the effects of the company’s herbicide atrazine on amphibians. Hayes was a rising expert on the endocrine systems of frogs, and he assumed he would not have been hired if the company thought there was anything to find. “My hypothesis was, nothing’s going to happen,” he&nbsp;<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2012/02/tyrone-hayes-atrazine-syngenta-feud-frog-endangered/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">later told</a>&nbsp;<em>Mother Jones</em>.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.4; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Hayes&nbsp;<em>did</em>&nbsp;find something—namely, that atrazine seemed to be impeding the sexual development of frogs. Now, decades into Hayes’ studies on atrazine, his discoveries have most famously linked atrazine exposure with changing genetically male frogs into functional females, leading to a bitter dispute with Syngenta. Internal documents made public in litigation reveal Syngenta’s plans to harass Hayes in an effort to both discredit his science and tarnish his reputation as a researcher.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.4; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Atrazine has been banned in the European Union&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/24/business/international/a-pesticide-banned-or-not-underscores-trans-atlantic-trade-sensitivities.html?mcubz=1" style="text-decoration-line: none;">over concerns</a>&nbsp;that it is a groundwater contaminant with potential effects for wildlife and human health. Yet it is the second-most widely used herbicide in the United States, with a whopping 73.7 million pounds&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/24/business/international/a-pesticide-banned-or-not-underscores-trans-atlantic-trade-sensitivities.html?r=0" style="text-decoration-line: none;">applied</a>&nbsp;in 2013. As such, the stakes in the US are high, both financially for Syngenta and environmentally for the nation. Atrazine&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/us/23water.html?r=1" style="text-decoration-line: none;">often</a>&nbsp;washes into water supplies, particularly in the Midwest, and in 2012 Syngenta&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bna.com/syngenta-water-systems-n12884909659/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">reached a $105 million settlement</a>&nbsp;with community water systems over the presence of atrazine in drinking water.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.4; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Atrazine’s exact effects on human and environmental health are still unclear, although the EPA currently notes that atrazine is “being studied as a potential endocrine disruptor and carcinogen to both human and aquatic life.” A 2011 independent panel convened by the EPA&nbsp;<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/food/2011/11/atrazine-cancer-epa/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">found</a>&nbsp;“suggestive evidence” to link atrazine to certain types of cancers, and other studies have linked atrazine to birth defects. In June 2016, the EPA released the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=EPA-HQ-OPP-2013-0266-0315" style="text-decoration-line: none;">preliminary ecological risk assessment</a>&nbsp;for atrazine, which found that “EPA levels of concerns for chronic risk are exceeded by as much as 22, 198, and 62 times for birds, mammals, and fish, respectively.”</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.4; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Back in 2000, Hayes was distraught that Syngenta’s predecessor, Novartis Agribusiness, was not taking his findings seriously. He ended his relationship with the company in 2000 and repeated his experiments with funds from Berkeley and the National Science Foundation, replicating the same disturbing results. From there, Hayes’ relationship with Syngenta—the company was formed in 2000 by a merger between Novartis and AstraZeneca—quickly deteriorated.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.4; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2001, at a meeting to discuss Hayes’ research, Syngenta brought in a statistical consultant who concluded his results were not statistically significant. David Wake, a professor in Hayes’ department,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/10/a-valuable-reputation" style="text-decoration-line: none;">later told</a>&nbsp;the&nbsp;<em>New Yorker</em>&nbsp;“the issues the statistical consultant was raising were routine and ridiculous. A couple of glitches were presented as if they were the end of the world. I’ve been a scientist in academic settings for forty years, and I’ve never experienced anything like that. They were after Tyrone.”</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.4; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While Syngenta and Hayes fought an increasingly public battle over the following years, the company’s new plans to discredit Hayes were formed in 2004 and 2005, according to documents unsealed following the 2012 legal settlement. Notes by<b> Sherry Ford, Syngenta’s communications manager,</b>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/686406-100reporters-syngenta-clare-howard-investigation.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">detail</a>&nbsp;Syngenta’s plans to undermine Hayes, including “publication of 3rd party critique of his science,” “systematic rebuttals of all TH appearances,” “making emails public,” “contact Berkeley,” and even “investigate wife.” Meanwhile, an email from a communications consultant recommended getting hold of Hayes’ calendar of speaking engagements so Syngenta could provide audiences with “irrefutable evidence of his polluted message.” A later proposal floated the idea of purchasing Hayes’ name as a search word on the internet, presumably to tarnish his reputation.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.4; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">While the company claimed that many of their ideas were never implemented, it is clear that several were.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Hayes had long claimed that Syngenta representatives were following him to talks, having noticed one or two suspiciously sharply-dressed men asking pointed questions. A former student of Hayes&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/10/a-valuable-reputation" style="text-decoration-line: none;">commented that</a>&nbsp;“everywhere Tyrone went there was this guy asking questions that made a mockery of him. We called him the Axe Man.” A Syngenta spokeswoman later&nbsp;<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2012/02/tyrone-hayes-atrazine-syngenta-feud-frog-endangered/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">confirmed that</a>&nbsp;“A Syngenta representative does try to attend events where Dr. Hayes is speaking. It’s in our best interest, and farmers’, that we have the opportunity to counter his outrageous accusations.”</span></font></p><p style="line-height: 1.4; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Syngenta also followed through on several other harassment tactics. The company filed an ethics complaint with Berkeley over Hayes’ emails, charging that they were “aggressive, unprofessional, and insulting,” and released more than one hundred pages of messages. While the emails went viral, Berkeley’s chief counsel ruled that no ethics violations had occurred.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.4; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The agribusiness industry also appears to have<b> paid for search engine ads</b> for a period of time. According to the 2012 Mother Jones&nbsp;<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2012/02/tyrone-hayes-atrazine-syngenta-feud-frog-endangered/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">feature</a>&nbsp;on Hayes, “Googling ‘Dr. Tyrone Hayes’ now returns paid results from groups like AgSense, an agribusiness coalition that leads its critique of Hayes by quoting his ‘propriety and professionalism’ outburst.”</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.4; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As public as the feud between Syngenta and Hayes has been, there is evidence that the company’s actions to undermine the science around atrazine extend beyond efforts to harass him. In 2009, the company&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/10/a-valuable-reputation" style="text-decoration-line: none;">filed a subpoena</a>&nbsp;for the emails of the author of a paper that showed women who conceived during peak pesticide application season were more likely to have children with genital birth defects.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.4; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meanwhile, atrazine is still widely used as regulation chugs slowly forward. The EPA’s June 2016 preliminary ecological risk assessment for atrazine cites several articles by Hayes, but he refuses to feel vindicated. “Asking me if I feel vindicated is like asking someone who’s been in jail for 10 years for something he didn’t do whether he feels vindicated when he gets out,”&nbsp;<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/06/epa-report-herbicide-atrazine-syngenta-frogs-tyrone-hayes-cancer-corn-weeds/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">he said</a>.</font></p><h3 style="margin-bottom: 0.5em; font-weight: 400; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.2rem; max-width: 80%; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(102, 102, 102); display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; padding-bottom: 0.6rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Further Reading</font></span></h3><ul style="margin-left: 0px; list-style-image: url(" sites="sites" default="default" themes="themes" primary="primary" images="images" bullet.png="bullet.png" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.75em; line-height: 1.4;"><a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/publications/got-science/2013/got-science-july-2013.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Pushing Back Against Corporate "Counterfeit Science"</font></a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.75em; line-height: 1.4;"><a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/our-work/center-science-and-democracy/promoting-scientific-integrity/atrazine-and-health.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Chemical Industry Pressures EPA to Protect Herbicide, not Wildlife</font></a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><a href="http://blog.ucsusa.org/gretchen-goldman/interference-in-the-science-of-atrazine-again-160" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Interference in the Science of Atrazine (Again): Syngenta Tears a Page from the Tobacco Industry Playbook</a></font></li></ul><div><ul style="margin-left: 0px; list-style-image: url(" sites="sites" default="default" themes="themes" primary="primary" images="images" bullet.png="bullet.png" color="color" rgb="rgb" font-family="font-family" mercury="Mercury" text="Text" g1="G1" a="A" b="B" georgia="Georgia" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.75em; line-height: 1.4;"><a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/publications/got-science/2013/got-science-july-2013.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Pushing Back Against Corporate "Counterfeit Science"</font></a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.75em; line-height: 1.4;"><a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/our-work/center-science-and-democracy/promoting-scientific-integrity/atrazine-and-health.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Chemical Industry Pressures EPA to Protect Herbicide, not Wildlife</font></a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><a href="http://blog.ucsusa.org/gretchen-goldman/interference-in-the-science-of-atrazine-again-160" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Interference in the Science of Atrazine (Again): Syngenta Tears a Page from the Tobacco Industry Playbook</font></a></li></ul></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">UCS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/gretchen-goldman/interference-in-the-science-of-atrazine-again-160"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://blog.ucsusa.org/gretchen-goldman/interference-in-the-science-of-atrazine-again-160</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><h1 style="margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px 63px 5px 0px; line-height: 1.2em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">Interference in the Science of Atrazine (Again): Syngenta Tears a Page from the Tobacco Industry Playbook</font></h1><div class="username" style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span class="gretchen-goldman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/author/gretchen-goldman" title="Posts by Gretchen Goldman" rel="author" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">GRETCHEN GOLDMAN</a>,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;RESEARCH DIRECTOR, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">CENTER FOR SCIENCE AND DEMOCRACY |</span> <b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">JUNE 18, 2013,</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;</span></font></div><div class="php-widget-top" data-user="gretchen-goldman" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div id="custom_html-4" class="widget_text widget widget_custom_html" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><div class="textwidget custom-html-widget" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="the_author_nickname" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="article-content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 866px; clear: both;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In last year’s report&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/abuses_of_science/how-corporations-corrupt-science.html" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">Heads They Win, Tails We Lose</a>, we laid out the strategies used by corporations to interfere in the development of science-based policy. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">We pulled from diverse examples—from ozone standards to medical devices to protection of workers from silica dust—in order to showcase the many ways corporations have interfered with the science. But it is only a rare case where a single issue encompasses these many strategies—and now Syngenta Crop Protection has done just that.</span><span id="more-19706" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, recently unsealed court documents have been released that include thousands of Syngenta emails, internal memos, and other documents. The documents detail the strategies the company used to stave off potential EPA regulation of its widely used weed-killer,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tf.asp?id=854&tid=59" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">atrazine</a>. Environmental Health News and&nbsp;<a href="http://100r.org/about/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">100Reporters</a>&nbsp;told the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2013/atrazine" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">story yesterday</a>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And for me, it’s&nbsp;<a href="http://www.yogiberra.com/yogi-isms.html" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">déjà vu all over again</a>—and not just because there’s been past interference around atrazine science (<a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/abuses_of_science/atrazine-and-health.html" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">which there has</a>). But the newly released documents show that Syngenta has used the same time-tested tactics many industries have used when new scientific evidence surfaces that suggests a possible need for regulation. And Syngenta does it with textbook precision. To refresh your memory, let’s walk through these strategies and how Syngenta applied them, page-by-page.</font></p><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.2em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
Ah, this is a familiar strategy, we’ve seen again and again. Most recently, you may be familiar with the death threats and hate mail received by&nbsp;<a href="http://blog.ucsusa.org/speaking-up-for-scientists-who-receive-death-threats-2" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">climate scientists</a>&nbsp;but this strategy is much older. Back in the 1960s,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rachelcarson.org/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">Rachel Carson</a>&nbsp;was&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/corporateclimate" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">attacked by industry</a>&nbsp;and labeled a “hysterical woman” by industry actors for sounding alarm on the harmful effects of DDT.</font></h3><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">Strategy #1: Attack the Scientist</font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Atrazine also has an outspoken critic with scientific credentials. Dr. Tyrone Hayes, a biologist at the University of California, Berkeley demonstrated atrazine’s effect of feminizing male frogs over a decade ago, published the results in&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v419/n6910/abs/419895a.html" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;"><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Nature</i></a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/99/8/5476" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>,</i>&nbsp;and has since remained critical of the pesticide’s use. The documents show that Syngenta targeted the scientist directly. The company commissioned a psychological profile of Dr. Hayes, investigated his family, and planted trained critics in the audience at his speaking events.&nbsp; “They impacted my professional and personal life,”&nbsp;<a href="http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2013/atrazine-page2" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">Dr. Hayes says</a>&nbsp;in response. “It’s sobering to get substantiation of the verbal attacks they made.”</font></p><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">Strategy #2: Pay “Independent” “Experts” to Tout Your Cause</font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If you can’t discredit the scientist, the next best thing is to create your own expert to counter him or her. The tobacco industry paid seemingly independent scientists to cast doubt over the connection between cancer and cigarettes. Climate science has seen the same, with fossil fuel companies paying individuals to be&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science_and_impacts/global_warming_contrarians/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">climate contrarians</a>&nbsp;in the public realm or through scientific studies. Syngenta, too, paid scientists to downplay the environment and health impacts of the pesticide and paid economists to claim atrazine’s economic necessity.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And it’s not just the same strategy in the cases of tobacco, climate, and atrazine, in at least one instance we are talking about the very same person. In all three examples,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Steven_J.Milloy" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">Steven J. Milloy</a>, a Fox News columnist and blogger, was one of the “independent experts” hired to combat the scientific evidence. In the past, he has also been critical of the science around stratospheric ozone depletion, secondhand smoke, and DDT.</font></p><div id="attachment_19709" class="wp-caption alignright" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px 17px; padding: 5px; float: right; text-align: center; max-width: 250px;"><p class="wp-caption-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 13px 0px 16px 5px; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: left; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Syngenta tried to prevent regulation of atrazine by attacking the science behind the pesticide’s health and environmental effects.</font></p></div><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">Strategy #3: Try to Interfere with Policy Making</font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is a strategy that has taken many different forms, but one that is routinely employed, nonetheless. How a particular issue is regulated will dictate how you can fight it in the policy realm. The Clean Air Act, for example, dictates that regulation of ground-level ozone must be based on the science—in particular, the science of how ozone levels affect human health. So if an industry or politician wants to avoid ozone standards tightening, they need to focus on&nbsp;<a href="http://blog.ucsusa.org/white-house-messes-with-air-pollution-science-again" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">attacking the science</a>&nbsp;behind the regulation. In contrast, pesticide regulation is based on both the science and economic impacts. This is why Syngenta paid economists to produce certain results.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to economic considerations, atrazine regulation is also influenced by a federal advisory panel convened to assess the effects of the pesticide. The released documents also show that Syngenta hired a detective agency to investigate on the EPA scientific advisory panel reviewing atrazine, though it wasn’t clear what Syngenta did with this information.</font></p><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.2em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Keeping the Science Independent</font></h3><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The most shocking thing you might first observe about this case is the incredible lengths that Syngenta went to in order to discredit the science with a multi-million dollar campaign. When large economic interests are at play, the stakes are higher and the tactics get tougher. What is equally concerning to me is the sad truth that this is not an isolated case. In a&nbsp;<a href="http://blog.ucsusa.org/corporate-counterfeit-sciene-both-wrong-and-dangerous-152" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">post last week</a>, the director of UCS’ Center for Science and Democracy Andrew Rosenberg discussed the troubling trends in ghost-writing of scientific articles by conflicted experts paid by industry actors.[<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>ENTINE?]</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But might there be a better way? In each of these cases—tobacco, DDT, ozone, climate change—the science has eventually surfaced and actions have been taken to protect the public from harm (albeit, a&nbsp;<a href="http://blog.ucsusa.org/critical-decade-for-climate-action-new-report-echoes-many-others-we-must-decarbonize-to-stabilize-climate-158" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">work-in-progress for climate</a>). I expect that the case of atrazine&nbsp;<a href="http://www.epa.gov/opp00001/reregistration/atrazine/atrazine_update.htm" target="_blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">will follow suit</a>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rather than fighting the overwhelming evidence of science that inevitably wins out in these cases, we could be focusing on alternatives, innovations, and solutions. My hope is that one day this can be Strategy #1 in the playbook.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Posted in:&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/category/food-and-agriculture" rel="category tag" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">Food and Agriculture</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/category/science-and-democracy" rel="category tag" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">Science and Democracy</a>&nbsp;Tags:&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/tag/attacks-on-scientists" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">attacks on scientists</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/tag/corporate-influence" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">corporate influence</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/tag/pesticides" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">pesticides</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/tag/scientific-integrity" rel="tag" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">Scientific Integrity</a></font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div></div></div></div>