'Anti-Chemical' = Pro-Public Health

"Industry officials are expressing grave concern that a growing alliance between environmentalists and patient advocacy groups to link exposure to harmful pollution with chronic diseases and life-long disabilities could add credibility to activists' calls for stricter environmental requirements," Inside EPA reports. Bart Mongoven, who works for the private intelligence firm Stratfor, told petroleum industry officials, "In five years, the environmental community would like to see all debates [be about] the environment and health." He warned the audience at the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association (NPRA) annual meeting that connecting environmental issues to public health "works here." He said that one way for industry to fight these new lobbying efforts, which expand public health concerns beyond pesticides to industrial emissions and effluent, is to paint the efforts as being "anti-chemical," rather than in favor of a public health goal.