We're Here, We're Peers, Get Used to It

"More than 20 chemical companies," including Monsanto and Dow Chemical, "have taken the unusual step of issuing subpoenas to five peer reviewers of a scholarly book." The book, "Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution," presents evidence that, "in the late 1960s and early '70s, chemical-industry leaders failed to inform the government about a link that had been found in experiments with rats between exposure to a chemical called vinyl chloride monomer and cancer." The director of the University of California Press, which published the book, called the companies' actions "really pretty sleazy. ... They're trying to discredit the peer-review process."