Malcolm Ross

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This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation.

Dr. Malcolm Ross holds a Ph.D. in geology from Harvard University. He is a retired research mineralogist with the U.S. Geological Survey where he has been working for 41 years.

He is the co-author of the book

  • H. Catherine Skinner, Malcolm Ross, Clifford Frondel, "Asbestos and Other Fibrous Materials: Mineralogy, Crystal Chemistry, and Health Effects", Oxford University Press, November 1, 1988, ISBN 019503967X He is also an associate of climate denier, S. Fred Singer and Candace Crandall


Documents & Timeline

1990: Malcolm Ross received from the 'Mineralogical Society of America' (MSA) the 'Distinguished Public Service Medal' for his research on asbestos minerals. For 1991 he was the president of the MSA (a position that changes every year).


1994: Malcolm Ross was a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the pro-tobacco junk science report Science, economics, and environmental policy: a critical examination [1] published on August 11, 1994, by the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution (AdTI). The author of this report was Kent Jeffreys and Senior Reviewer was listed as S. Fred Singer.


1994 Aug A Alexis de Tocqueville report "The EPA and the Science of ETS" has been funded by the Tobacco Institute. The author was Adjunct Scholar Kent Jeffreys, and the senior reviewer was S. Fred Singer, a Professor of Environmental Science (on leave from the University of Virginia) and a Senior Fellow at the Institute. The final report was scheduled to be complete mid-June and it would be entitled "Science and Environmentalism".

A confidential memo by the president of the Tobacco Institute, Samuel D. Chilcote, Jr., described how this secret tobacco-funded report was being used in legislative lobbying:

This morning Reps. Peter Geren (D-TX) and John Mica (R-FL) held a press conference announcing the release of a study by the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution that evaluates the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) scientific principles used to justify policy decisions. Geren and Mica were joined by Cesar Conda, executive director of the de Tocqueville Institution and coauthors Dr. S. Fred Singer and Kent Jeffreys." [2]

"Press coverage included States News Service, Stephens Publishing and Cable Congress. Several congressional staffers also attended, copies of the Geren/Mica "Dear Colleague" letter, press release and the study are enclosed."

[3]

This report is part of a larger coordinated effort to blindside the EPA. A "panel of experts" was assembled to "peer-review" the report. Naturally the majority were people with identified links to tobacco-funded institutes and think tanks, and some who share the same small set of funders.

Academic Advisory Board:

Senior Staff and Contributing Associates
Rachael Applegate,   Bruce Bartlett,   Merrick Carey,   Cesar Conda,   Gregory Fossedal,   Dave Juday,   Felix Rouse,   Aaron Stevens

Ten of the 19 names of the Academic Advisory Board are members of the Cash for Comments Economists Network. At this time S. Fred Singer was a Senior Fellow at the Alexis de Tocqueville Institute, but they chose not to credit him with such close links.

These attempt to link the tobacco industry's problems to arguments about climate change were part funded by the Olin Foundation, Koch Family Foundations and Scaife Foundations.

  • 20 page Draft document sent to the Tobacco Institute [4]
  • The release about the final report (August 11 1994) It is now an attack on "environmental regulation" -- ETS, radon, pesticides and agricultural regulation, and the Superfund toxic waste cleanup program ... and based, supposedly, on the quality of the science used by the EPA. [5]
  • The final report was called Science, Economics, and Environmental Policy: A Critical Examination.' It had the approval of the Cash for Comments Economists Network. [6]


'Current Positions:

Related Links

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