Re: Center For School Mold Help Questions Racketeering Over M...

May 26, 2009

I sent the below message to the White House via

_http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/_ (http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/)

Dear President Obama,

Please do something to stop racketeering and deception in US health policy

by those whom you have invited to the table to help set the future of

health policy, namely the US Chamber of Commerce Center for Legal Policy. How

can we even hope for change if those who perpetrate the wrongs are who you

are listening to when setting our future?

Center For School Mold Help

_https://www.schoolmoldhelp.org/content/view/1639/46/_'>https://www.schoolmoldhelp.org/content/view/1639/46/_

(https://www.schoolmoldhelp.org/content/view/1639/46/)

Companies guilty of deceiving public about health dangers

There are many parallels in the following news article that may be

instructive in the case of the health dangers of mold and the vehement attempts

by

defense interests to deny this. If this conduct is called racketeering for

the tobacco industry, then it may also be so for the industries that

benefit from lying to the public and physicians about mold problems!

Reportedly,

there are some formerly employed by Big Tobacco who now labor for mold

defense interests. The cause of the blockade to accessing medical help and

preventing and addressing mold, vigorously, in our nation, may well involve a

similar scenario, according to the observations of many mold activists. How

many are dead, dying, sick, without work, disabled, bankrupt, homeless, and

without medical care, due to moldy homes and workplaces, without any help,

with some actually harassed if they file Worker's Comp cases or litigation

to recoup their very real losses? We submit that the number of those ill

from mold is in the many millions and may equal or surpass those impacted by

tobacco. Is there a group effort to deny mold's harm to health? Might this

also be, therefore, racketeering, under the RICO laws? If you think so,

contact your legislators and the White House. (SMH)

Court upholds most of landmark ruling that cigarette makers lied about

health hazards

NEDRA PICKLER

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) â€” A federal appeals court on Friday agreed with the major

elements of a 2006 landmark ruling that found the top U.S. tobacco companies

guilty of racketeering and fraud for deceiving the public about the

dangers of smoking...

The government also argued the manufacturers lied about the dangers of

secondhand smoke, manipulated cigarettes to maintain addiction, intentionally

marketed to youth and destroyed documents to hide the dangers and protect

themselves in litigation.....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Of course it is racketeering over the mold issue for the US Chamber of

Commerce, Center for Legal Policy and the American College of Occupational and

Environmental Medicine (ACOEM), to set public health policy based on

conclusions formed from a never duplicated single set of math calculations.

These calculations purport to scientifically prove that humans could never

plausibly be exposed to enough inhaled mycotoxins in an indoor environment

to cause adverse human health. Or as the Chamber puts it, these

calculations prove that all claims of symptoms of toxicity after exposure in

water

damaged buildings are simple caused by trial lawyers, the media and junk

science. The purpose of the Chamber promoting this was to mislead the courts

in

order to limit financial liability for stakeholders of moldy buildings

when the occupants and workers become ill.

The authors of the two public policy papers are expert defense witnesses

with long standing ties to Big Tobacco. According to the July 22, 2008

deposition of Bruce Kelman, a co-author of both the ACOEM and the Chamber's

position statements on mold, the US Chamber paper was written for judges.

Of course it is racketeering involving the world's most powerful lobbying

group - the Chamber of Commerce Center for Legal Policy, the world's oldest

think tank - the Manhattan Institute, and the world's most dubious

occupational medical association widely known for their too close of industry

ties

when setting health policy - the American College of Occupational and

Environmental Medicine.

See Wall Street Journal, Court of Opinion, Amid Suits Over Mold Experts

Wear Two Hats, Jan 2007

_http://www.moldwarriors.com/SK/WSJOnlineJan92007.pdf_

(http://www.moldwarriors.com/SK/WSJOnlineJan92007.pdf)

See IJOEH, Sept 2008, A Critique of the ACOEM Statement on Mold:

Undisclosed Conflicts of Interest in the Creation of an â€œEvidence-basedâ€

Statement,

by Dr. Craner

_http://drcraner.com/images/A%20Critique%20of%20the%20ACOEM%20Statement%20on

%20Mold.pdf_

(http://drcraner.com/images/A%20Critique%20of%20the%20ACOEM%20Statement%20on%20M\

old.pdf)

See IJOEH, ACOEM A Professional Association In Service To Industry, by

LaDou, Teitelbaum, Egilman, , Kramer, Huff

_http://www.moldwarriors.com/SK/IJOEH_Oct07_LaDou.pdf_

(http://www.moldwarriors.com/SK/IJOEH_Oct07_LaDou.pdf)

Until our government does something to address this racketeering, there is

no hope for true transparency and thus true change in US health policy.

Will the White House act to stop the mass marketing of the deception in

health policy over the mold issue? People are dying for the sake of the same

monied interests that are pledging to you they have changed their ways.

Sincerely,

Sharon Kramer

In a message dated 5/26/2009 4:13:14 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,

snk1955@... writes:

_https://www.https://www.<WBhttps://www.https://wwhtt_

(https://www.schoolmoldhelp.org/content/view/1639/46/)

Companies guilty of deceiving public about health dangers

(_https://www.https://www.<WBhttps://wwwhttps://wwwhttps://www & do_ & <WBR

>id_

(https://www.schoolmoldhelp.org/index2.php?option=com_content & do_pdf=1 & id=1639)

)

(_https://www.https://www.<WBhttps://wwwhttps://wwwhttps://www & tasw & <WB

R>id & pop=p & page=0 & Item_

(https://www.schoolmoldhelp.org/index2.php?option=com_content & task=view & id=1639 & \

pop=1 & page=0 & Itemid=46) )

(_https://www.https://www.<WBhttps://wwwhttps://wwwhttps://www & task=ema

i & id & itemid=it_

(https://www.schoolmoldhelp.org/index2.php?option=com_content & task=emailform & id=\

1639 & itemid=46) ) There are many

parallels in the following news article that may be instructive in the

case of

the health dangers of mold and the vehement attempts by defense interests

to

deny this. If this conduct is called racketeering for the tobacco

industry, then it may also be so for the industries that benefit from

lying to the

public and physicians about mold problems! Reportedly, there are some

formerly employed by Big Tobacco who now labor for mold defense interests.

The

cause of the blockade to accessing medical help and preventing and

addressing mold, vigorously, in our nation, may well involve a similar

scenario,

according to the observations of many mold activists. How many are dead,

dying, sick, without work, disabled, bankrupt, homeless, and without

medical

care, due to moldy homes and workplaces, without any help, with some

actually

harassed if they file Worker's Comp cases or litigation to recoup their

very real losses? We submit that the number of those ill from mold is in

the

many millions and may equal or surpass those impacted by tobacco. Is there

a group effort to deny mold's harm to health? Might this also be,

therefore, racketeering, under the RICO laws? If you think so, contact

your

legislators and the White House. (SMH)

_Court upholds most of landmark ruling that cigarette makers lied about

health hazards_

(_http://www.q13fox.http://www.q1http://wwwhttp://www.q13fohttp://wwwhttp:_

(http://www.q13fox.com/business/sns-ap-us-tobacco-lawsuit,0,4308374.story)

)

NEDRA PICKLER Associated Press Writer

Q13Fox.com

Seattle/Tacoma, WA

5:42 PM PDT, May 22, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) â€” A federal appeals court on Friday agreed with the major

elements of a 2006 landmark ruling that found the top U.S. tobacco

companies guilty of racketeering and fraud for deceiving the public about

the

dangers of smoking.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington unanimously

upheld requirements that manufacturers change the way they market

cigarettes. The requirements, which have been on hold pending appeal,

would ban

labels such as " low tar, " ''light, " ''ultra light " or " mild, " since such

cigarettes have been found no safer than others.

Throughout the 10 years the case has been litigated, tobacco companies

have denied committing fraud. The companies argued the ban on labels like

" light " would cost them hundreds of millions of dollars.

Philip USA and its parent company, Altria Group Inc., said they

will appeal to the Supreme Court.

" The court's conclusions are not supported by the law or the evidence

presented at trial, and we believe the exceptional importance of these

issues

justifies further review, " Altria attorney Murray Garnick said in a

statement.

L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, one of

six health advocacy groups that participated in the lawsuit, said the

appeals decision " represents a dramatic victory for public health and an

emphatic condemnation of the tobacco industry and its behavior. "

The government filed the civil case under a 1970 racketeering law commonly

known as RICO, used primarily to prosecute mobsters in cases in which

there has been a group effort to commit fraud.

The suit was first filed in 1999 during the Clinton administration and

pursued by the Bush administration after unsuccessful attempts to settle.

The nine-month trial heard by U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler without a

jury included live and written testimony from 246 witnesses and almost

14,000 exhibits in evidence. Prosecutors said the companies secretly

agreed

not to compete over whose products were the least hazardous to smokers to

ensure they didn't have to publicly address the harm caused by smoking.

" The government presented evidence from the 1950s and continuing through

the following decades demonstrating that the defendant manufacturers were

aware â€” increasingly so as they conducted more research â€” that smoking

causes disease, including lung cancer, " the appeals court wrote in a

92-page

opinion.

The government also argued the manufacturers lied about the dangers of

secondhand smoke, manipulated cigarettes to maintain addiction,

intentionally

marketed to youth and destroyed documents to hide the dangers and protect

themselves in litigation.

Internal documents introduced at trial showed industry researchers found

smokers compensate for reduced nicotine in " low-tar " cigarettes by taking

more frequent puffs and inhaling more deeply to satisfy their addiction.

Yet

they continued to market those cigarettes as less harmful.

The government had asked Kessler to make the companies pay $10 billion for

a national smoking cessation program, but Kessler said that wasn't within

her legal authority. The government appealed that decision but the appeals

court upheld it.

Besides Philip and Altria, other manufacturers who were defendants

in the lawsuit were: R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.; Brown & on Tobacco

Corp.; British American Tobacco Ltd.; Lorillard Tobacco Co. and Liggett

Group Inc.

Liggett was excluded from the ruling because the judge said the company

came forward in the 1990s to admit smoking causes disease and is addictive

and cooperated with government investigators.

The appeals court ruled that two other defendants who were included in the

District Court ruling â€” Counsel for Tobacco Research-U.S.District Co

now-defunct Tobacco Institute â€” be dismissed from the suit. Both are trade

organizations for the cigarette manufacturers, but they did not

manufacture or

sell tobacco products.

R.J. Reynolds said it was also considering appeal. " R.J. Reynolds strongly

believes that neither the evidence presented at trial nor the legal

standards justify a finding of liability, " said company attorney L.

Holton

III.

In a statement, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Ogden said the ruling

affirmed " the government's position that for more than 50 years the

tobacco

companies deceived the American people. " He said it allows the Justice

Department to now go after companies which continue their deceptive

practices.

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May 26, 2009

Good job, Sharon. I sent the earlier message to government officials and

numerous media outlets.

________________________________

From: " snk1955@... " <snk1955@...>

Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 4:54:25 AM

Subject: Re: [] Center For School Mold Help Questions Racketeering

Over M...