Looking for Leads on an Environmental Story

Here's your chance to help with an important journalistic investigation. Former New York Times reporter Philip Shabecoff and his wife Alice are doing research about the links between environmental toxicants and the epidemic of children’s chronic illnesses in the United States today, and they're looking for some leads. The research will lead to a book for the general public. Beyond documenting the evidence arising from the new sciences, the Shabecoffs intend to tell stories about families and communities affected by corporate behavior. The Shabecoffs will try to ‘follow the money’ to explain government laxity.

The following are questions for which the Shabecoffs would appreciate responses or leads to sources of information:

• The revolving door question: What government officials have joined the chemical, energy, waste management, automotive, agribusiness, and food industries?
• Which companies and industry associations in those sectors provide substantial contributions to elected officials, at the county, state and federal levels?
• What nonprofit think tanks and research organizations represent corporate interests in these sectors? And who are the pseudo-scientific and pseudo-public service organizations that front for polluters in the chemical, energy, waste management, automotive, agribusiness and food industries?
• How do the following specific companies exert influence on policymaking and public opinion: Dow, Dupont, IBM, Exxon Mobil, Shell (and other petrochemical companies), Monsanto, GE, and energy companies?
• Who are the scientists with corporate connections?
• Who are the scientists with corporate connections who have been placed on government advisory boards?
• What links are there between the political and religious right and industrial polluters?

If you have information that can help answer these questions, please contact the Shabecoffs at shabecof AT erols.com. (Replace AT with the @ symbol.)