stages of denial

["Charlie Cray" <ccray@dialb.greenpeace.org>]

  In light of the CPSC and the toy and PVC industries' response to our 
  new report on lead and cadmium in vinyl children's products ask 
  yourself what stage of denial they are in.   Here's a description of 
  the series of defenses used by the asbestos industry, as described by 
  David Ozonoff  of Boston University's school of public health.  
  Substitute your favorite product (mine, of course is PVC) for ***:
  
  *** Doesn't hurt your health.
  OK, it does hurt your health,  but it doesn't cause cancer.
  OK, *** can cause cancer, but not our kind of asbestos.
  OK, our kind of *** can cause cancer, but not the kind this 
  person got.
  OK, our kind of *** can cause cancer, but not at the doses to 
  which this person was exposed.
  OK, ***  does cause cancer, and at this dosage, but this person 
  got his disease from something else--like smoking.
  OK, he was exposed to our *** and it did cause his cancer, but 
  we did not kow about the danger when we exposed him
  OK, we knew about the danger when we exposed him, but the statute of 
  limitations has run out.
  OK, the statute of limitations hasn't run out, but if we're guilty 
  we'll go out of business and everyone will be worse off.
  OK, we'll agree to go out of business, but only if you let us keep 
  part of our company intact, and only if you limit our liability for 
  the harms we have caused.
  
  (This is from Toxic Deception by Dan Fagin and Marianne Lavelle, 
  page 69)
  
  the report and related information is on our website at
  http://www.greenpeaceusa.org in the campaigns section.
  
  have a nice weekend.