Obituary - Dr. Marc Lappé, 1943-2005

[Guest guest]

Dr. Marc Lappé, 1943-2005

.... Between 1984 and 1998, he worked extensively as a

consultant on the high stakes litigation that had

erupted over silicone-gel breast implants. ...

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en & ned=us & q=%22Breast+implants%22 & ie=U...

Dr. Marc Lappé, 1943-2005

Tue, 17 May 2005 18:33:07 -0500

A man of deep integrity

By Lappé

GNN's editor remembers his father - a scientist who

stood up for the planet's most vulnerable

" Three interrelated issues mark our times: We have

altered the planet with our chemicals; we are

transforming agriculture with bioengineering; and we

are contemplating the recreation of humankind through

genetic technologies. All three compel us to reexamine

how we use scientific knowledge: will our new

technologies be greeted with 'hurrahs' or a whisper of

despair from the species that we have decimated, crops

that are gene-contaminated and people who, though yet

to be created, may yet curse us for our technological

prowess? " - Marc Lappé

My father, Dr. Marc Lappé, an author, educator and

prominent toxicologist and medical ethicist, died

Saturday. He was 62. Marc was a lifelong teacher,

known for instilling in his students a love of

learning and an appreciation for ethics. Everyone who

met him was struck by his warm spirit, unforgettable

stories, and limitless generosity.

Marc was a leading figure in the movement to integrate

ethics and public policy, especially as it related to

toxics and genetics. He authored or edited fourteen

books, many of which predicted public health and

environmental problems long before their appearance.

Germs That Won't Die (Anchor/Doubleday, 1982) warned

of public health threat of antibiotic resistance.

Against the Grain (Common Courage, 1998) accurately

predicted that many claims by manufacturers of

genetically modified foods would prove false. He held

a PhD in experimental pathology from the University of

Pennsylvania and was a frequent source for the news

media, appearing on 60 Minutes, The Today Show, and

Dateline NBC. He was a key expert witness in numerous

high-profile lawsuits, including et al v. W.

R. Grace & Co., popularized in the best-selling book

and Hollywood film A Civil Action. Between 1984 and

1998, he worked extensively as a consultant on the

high stakes litigation that had erupted over

silicone-gel breast implants. Most recently, he was

the director of the Gualala, California-based

non-profit Center for Ethics and Toxics (CETOS), a

national leader in environmental public policy, which

works directly with California municipalities with

concerns about contaminants in their water supplies.

His career was marked by a commitment to standing up

to powerful corporate interests and a concern for

populations most vulnerable to toxic contamination of

their ground, water and air. He was a natural teacher,

gifted in explaining complicated ethical and

scientific concepts to lay audiences. In late 1960s,

he began teaching as a volunteer professor in the

politically-charged " free university " movement in

Philadelphia and Berkeley while in his early 20s. He

later held posts at UC Berkeley, Lawrence

College, University of Illinois at Chicago School of

Medicine (where he was a tenured professor), and the

College of Marin. In 1999, he co-founded an

experimental charter grammar, middle and high school

on the redwood coast of California's Mendocino County.

Early years

Marc Alan Lappé was born in Newark, New Jersey in

1943. His father , the son of a Jewish Russian

émigré, entered the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology at age sixteen. His mother Jeanette taught

in the Newark public schools. As an undergraduate at

Wesleyan University, Marc did cancer research at the

Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. At age 25, he

was granted the first PhD in experimental pathology

awarded to a candidate without a medical degree from

the University of Pennsylvania.

While working on his PhD, Marc met my mother Frances

. She was a social worker in West Philadelphia,

and he was teaching a class called " Biology for Poets "

at the free university. They married in 1967. In 1971,

I was born, and my mother published the classic Diet

for a Small Planet.

My sister , a bestselling author and co-founder of

the Small Planet Institute, was born in 1973.

In 1971, Marc was named as of the original fellows of

the Hastings Center, the nation's top bioethics think

tank, where he began examining the ethical

implications of the looming genetic revolution long

before they reached the popular consciousness.

My father's ethics were shaped by his longtime

interest in Eastern philosophy, particularly Zen

Buddhism. He was a proponent of the precautionary

principle, the ethical theory that if consequences of

an action, especially concerning technology, are

uncertain but are known to have a high risk, it is

best to not carry out the action.

In 1976, he published Of All Things Most Yielding

(Friends of the Earth/McGraw Hill) with his friend,

Sierra Club founder Brower, which combined

photographs of Glen Canyon, now flooded by the

Colorado River, and classic Chinese poetry selected by

my father.

Taking a stand

In 1978, he was named by California Governor Jerry

Brown as chief of the state's Office of Health, Law,

and Values, and then as head of the state's Hazard

Evaluation System. When California's citrus crops were

plagued by an outbreak of the Medfly, Marc refused to

sign onto the spraying of Malathion, an insecticide

with known toxicity to humans. The state sprayed; my

father stepped down.

Beginning in the 1980s, he began working independently

with plaintiff lawyers on high-profile legal battles

over environmental contamination and drug and medical

device failures. Cases he consulted on included the

infamous Love Canal, New York toxic waste disaster;

Agent Orange; pesticide exposure among farm workers

and neurological problems connected to the malaria

drug Lariam. He played a pivotal role in the

contentious silicone-gel breast implant litigation,

which pitted tens of thousands of women who claimed to

have been sickened by their implants against Dow

Corning Corp. and other makers of the devices. He

discovered Dow Corning had covered up their own early

studies that found silicone was not the inert

substance they later claimed when the implants began

leaking and rupturing. Dow Corning sent a private

detective to the small northern California town of

Gualala where my father lived to investigate his

non-profit organization in an effort to discredit his

testimony. He worked on 30 silicone implant cases,

each one the defendant either settled or paid out a

jury award, one totaled $20 million. In 1998, Dow

Corning settled a class action suit for $3.2 billion.

The company was forced to file for Chapter 11

bankruptcy protection. In a bit of dark irony, last

month, a Food and Drug Administration panel voted to

allow a limited number of silicone-gel implants back

on the market.

Marc's work on breast implant litigation earned him a

spot on the Food and Drug Administration's panel on

medical devices and plastic surgery. He also was asked

to testify in front of numerous congressional panels

on genetics, ethics and biotechnology.

In 1988, he became a tenured professor of Health

Policy and Ethics at the University of Illinois at

Chicago.

He served on the board of the March of Dimes, where he

was a strong advocate for acknowledging the connection

between the environment, toxics and birth defects. He

served on the March of Dimes National Foundation's

Bioethics Committee since its inception in 1975.

Ahead of his time

Many of his theories about environmental pollution -

initially controversial - later became accepted by the

wider scientific community. As early as the 1970s, he

promoted the importance of an eco-system level

approach to setting limits for toxins in the

environment. He argued that minimum allowed

concentrations of toxic substances needed to account

for their reactions with other substances in the real

world. He was an early proponent of the importance of

the immune system in fighting cancer and other

diseases. He also aruged that long-term exposure to

low levels of carcinogenic compounds may be more

dangerous than a single high dosage - today an

increasingly accepted tenet of environmental science.

In 1977, he married Nichol Lovera. They had three

children, , who holds a MS from Stanford

University; e, a PhD candidate in sociology at

the University of California, San Francisco; and ,

a junior in high school who is a champion horseback

rider.

Nichol died in 1996.

In 1992, Marc founded the Center for Ethics and Toxics

(CETOS) in the small redwood coast town of Gualala,

California. CETOS is dedicated helping communities

fight toxic contamination of their environment. Since

its inception the center has developed guidelines and

strategies to reduce toxic exposures in numerous

areas, including a 1996-7 campaign to prevent roadside

spraying with herbicides in Mendocino County, Ca. and

a testing regiment to monitor pesticides in the

drinking water of the small town of Fort Bragg,

California. The organization also played in an active

role in the ongoing battles over logging on the

Pacific coast. CETOS worked as a consultant to the

Forest Stewardship Council which regulates the

conditions for ecologically sound and sustainable

logging practices. In 2004, CETOS played a leading

role in the passage of Measure H, which banned raising

genetically altered crops and animals in Mendocino

County, the first such ban in the nation. The

organization continues to educate the public toxic

chemicals and environmental health and to research

environmental contamination.

In 1998, Marc and his partner Britt authored

Against the Grain, which examined the implications of

the rapid transformation of the food supply to include

genetically modified organisms. In particular, they

questioned the toxicological concerns around

Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, used with Roundup Ready

GM seeds. Monsanto, the largest supplier of

genetically modified seeds, threatened to sue if the

book was published. Their first publisher pulled out

of their contract. My father persisted, finding a

publisher, Common Courage, with the guts to go

forward. Against the Grain was released in 1998.

Monsanto has since failed to take any legal action. A

documentary by the same name is available from the

Video Project.

Building a community

In 1997, Marc married lifelong friend

Durbin, an intensive care nurse and yoga instructor.

In 1998, Marc and founded the Pacific

Community Charter School with other parents in Point

Arena, California to provide an alternative

educational environment for local students. Despite

his heavy workload, Marc devoted time to teach science

at the charter high school. He was known as a

life-transforming teacher who instilled in his

students a love of learning and an appreciation for

the importance of ethical thinking.

Marc was also an award-winning poet who wrote

emotionally intense poems that explored family,

science, philosophy and nature.

More recently, my father helped my co-author

Marshall and me with our book, True Lies. He provided

invaluable insight on our investigations into depleted

uranium, the anthrax vaccine and the military's use of

Lariam.

He died at his home in his sleep. The cause was

cancer.

The planet will miss him deeply.

He is survived by his father , brother

cardiologist Don of Salt Lake City and wife

, and children , 33; , 31; Matt,

25; e, 22; , 17; and step-children, le

Spoor, 16; and Sasha Spoor, 29.