Topic: Health and Wellness / Public Health

 
Truth, Lies, and Public Health
How We Are Affected When Science and Politics Collide
Madelon Lubin Finkel
978-0-31308-220-7

This eBook may be purchased through the following distributors:

 
Madelon Lubin Finkel
ADD COPY 2009 ABC-CLIO
Customer Service 800-368-6868

Truth, Lies, and Public Health

How We Are Affected When Science and Politics Collide

Madelon Lubin Finkel Madelon Lubin Finkel

August 2007

Praeger

Cover
Pages
Volumes
Size
Hardcover
256
1
6 1/8x9 1/4
 
ISBN
eISBN
978-0-275-99128-9
978-0-313-08220-7
Print in Stock
$49.95

add to cart

Reveals how most often research findings have been misused, mininterpreted or misunderstood, resulting in flawed public health policy.

The politicalization of research findings has become prevalent over the past two decades. Politics often prevents the implementation of policy supported by irrefutable science. Most of us understand something about how this is happening with stem cell research, but Cornell's Madelon Finkel delves deep into the subject to make the issues clear, also revealing how ideology and politics are distorting, diminishing and destroying scientific research results regarding topics from needle exchange, HIV/AIDS prevention and medical marijuana to antiobiotic use with animals later marketed for human consumption.

When ideology—whether it is the ideology of scientists and clinicians or of politicians—distorts scientific findings and public health judgment, public welfare is endangered, potentially affecting every person in our nation. Finkel also discusses how research is funded and how ideology has influenced that process. Numerous examples are given to illustrate the consequences of co-opting the scientific integrity of a program in this way.
Reviews
"The intrusion of ideological concerns into science endangers public health. In this well-informed and balanced account, Finkel demonstrates that especially since the 1980s, scientific findings have often been misrepresented to serve sectarian interests. Avoiding polemics, especially in her discussion of the debate over stem cell research, Finkel surveys several medical issues to show how distortion of science for politically expedient purposes has deprived Americans of health care often readily available in Europe and Canada. The religious right and other conservative groups have pressured politicians to erode women's reproductive freedom and deny federal funding for needle exchange programs (for AIDS prevention), and have made therapeutic marijuana unavailable to those it would benefit. At the other extreme, conservatives' protection of business freedom has left the food supplement industry virtually unregulated. Finkel provides lucid explanations of the public health significance of each topic she presents; then, in language easy for laypeople, she details the surrounding controversies and scientific findings. For most areas she highlights, politicians and local officials have undermined definitive scientific conclusions by yielding to emotional rhetoric, e.g., the FDA's handling of Plan B emergency conception--a form of birth control, not an abortifacient. This is an important book that will benefit all reading audiences. Recommended. All levels."—Choice





Other Titles Of Interest
Prostitution Cover ImagePolio Voices Cover ImageOne Hundred Years of Heroin Cover ImageMedical Anthropology and African American Health Cover ImageLife, Death, and In-Between on the U.S.-Mexico Border Cover ImageHealth of Black Americans from Post-Reconstruction to Integration, 1871-1960 Cover ImageHealth Care Reform Around the World Cover ImageHealth and Medical Care of African-Americans Cover ImageGlobal HIV/AIDS Politics, Policy, and Activism Cover ImageFatal Freedom Cover ImageFamily Planning and Reproductive Health Services in Ghana Cover ImageEnvironmental Impacts on Human Health Cover ImageDisability and Managed Care Cover ImageCommunity Child Health Cover ImageCollaborative Health Care Cover ImageChemical Risk Assessment and Occupational Health Cover ImageAging Cover ImageAging Cover ImageAbortion in the New Europe Cover ImageA Call to Be Whole Cover Image50 Health Scares That Fizzled Cover Image
Prostitution Cover Image
Prostitution
An International Handbook on Trends, Problems, and Policies

Nanette J. Davis, ed.

1993 / Greenwood

 

Hardcover $127.95

 

 

Polio Voices Cover Image
Polio Voices
An Oral History from the American Polio Epidemics and Worldwide Eradication Efforts

Julie K. Silver, M.D., Daniel J. Wilson, Ph.D.

2007 / Praeger

 

Hardcover $39.95

 

 

One Hundred Years of Heroin Cover Image
One Hundred Years of Heroin

David F. Musto, ed.,

2002 / Praeger

 

Hardcover $102.95

 

 

Medical Anthropology and African American Health Cover Image
Medical Anthropology and African American Health

Eric J. Bailey

2000 / Praeger

 

Hardcover $131.95

 

 

Life, Death, and In-Between on the U.S.-Mexico Border Cover Image
Life, Death, and In-Between on the U.S.-Mexico Border
As^D'i es la vida

Martha Oehmke Loustaunau, ed., Mary Sánchez-Bane

1999 / Praeger

 

Hardcover $131.95

 

 

Health of Black Americans from Post-Reconstruction to Integration, 1871-1960 Cover Image
Health of Black Americans from Post-Reconstruction to Integration, 1871-1960
An Annotated Bibliography of Contemporary Sources

Mitchell F. Rice, comp., Woodrow Jones Jr.

1990 / Greenwood

 

Hardcover $95.00

 

 

Health Care Reform Around the World Cover Image
Health Care Reform Around the World

Andrew C. Twaddle, ed.

2002 / Praeger

 

Hardcover $119.95

 

 

Health and Medical Care of African-Americans Cover Image
Health and Medical Care of African-Americans

Wornie L. Reed

1993 / Praeger

 

Hardcover $63.95

 

 

Global HIV/AIDS Politics, Policy, and Activism Cover Image
Global HIV/AIDS Politics, Policy, and Activism
Persistent Challenges and Emerging Issues

Raymond A. Smith, Editor

2013 / Praeger

 

Hardcover $194.00

 

 

Fatal Freedom Cover Image
Fatal Freedom
The Ethics and Politics of Suicide

Thomas Szasz

1999 / Praeger

 

Hardcover $36.95

 

 

Family Planning and Reproductive Health Services in Ghana Cover Image
Family Planning and Reproductive Health Services in Ghana
An Annotated Bibliography

Yaw Oheneba-Sakyi

1994 / Greenwood

 

Hardcover $83.95

 

 

Environmental Impacts on Human Health Cover Image
Environmental Impacts on Human Health
The Agenda for Long-Term Research and Development

Sidney Draggan, ohrssen, orrison

1987 / Praeger

 

Hardcover $98.95

 

 

Disability and Managed Care Cover Image
Disability and Managed Care
Problems and Opportunities at the End of the Century

Arnold Birenbaum

1999 / Praeger

 

Hardcover $106.95

 

 

Community Child Health Cover Image
Community Child Health
An Action Plan for Today

Judith S. Palfrey

1994 / Praeger

 

Hardcover $78.95

 

 

Collaborative Health Care Cover Image
Collaborative Health Care
A Family-Oriented Model

Michael Glenn, M.D.

1987 / Praeger

 

Hardcover $119.95

 

 

Chemical Risk Assessment and Occupational Health Cover Image
Chemical Risk Assessment and Occupational Health
Current Applications, Limitations, and Future Prospects

C. Mark Smith, David C. Christiani, Karl T. Kelsey

1994 / Praeger

 

Hardcover $119.95

 

 

Aging Cover Image
Aging
Demographics, Health, and Health Services

Elizabeth Vierck, Kris Hodges

2003 / Greenwood

 

Hardcover $82.95

 

 

Aging Cover Image
Aging
Issues and Policies for the 1980s

Ted Tedrick

1985 / Praeger

 

Hardcover $101.95

 

 

Abortion in the New Europe Cover Image
Abortion in the New Europe
A Comparative Handbook

Bill Rolston, Anna Eggert

1994 / Greenwood

 

Hardcover $112.95

 

 

A Call to Be Whole Cover Image
A Call to Be Whole
The Fundamentals of Health Care Reform

Barbara J. Sowada

2003 / Praeger

 

Hardcover $55.00

 

 

50 Health Scares That Fizzled Cover Image
50 Health Scares That Fizzled

Joan R. Callahan

2011 / Greenwood

 

Hardcover $85.00