Beware of backroom deals in the name of 'science'

The term 'sound science' has become Orwellian double-speak for various forms of pro-business spin, says Colin Macilwain.

16 April 2014

Scientific and environmental groups enjoyed a small victory in Washington DC earlier this year, when an insidious little item called the sound-science bill was removed from farm legislation signed into law by US President Barack Obama on 7 February.

The defeat of the bill was but a minor skirmish, however, in a broader, global war that rumbles on over how science should be used in regulating everything from smoking to pollution.