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Department of Environmental and Occupational Health
School of Public Health and Health Services
The George Washington University
Washington, DC
Abstract Environ Health Perspect 116:116 (2008) . doi:10.1289/ehp.11138 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 13 December 2007]
The author declares he has no competing financial interests.
Scientific evidence plays
a crucial role in regulation and law, particularly in the area
of
environmental health. In the courtroom, science helps judges
and juries evaluate the disputed facts, whereas in the
regulatory arena, science is a vital foundation for effective
government decision making. Scientific research is increasingly
conducted by parties who desire to influence litigation or
regulatory action, and advocates draw readily on litigation or
regulation-generated science when it supports their position.
Scholars from in the fields of science, law, ethics, and public
health met in March 2006 for a conference sponsored by the
Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy at The George
Washington University School of Public Health to explore the
nature of scientific knowledge generated for use in adversarial
or advocacy contexts. Participants at the conference "Truth and Advocacy: The Quality and Nature of Litigation
and Regulatory Science" presented papers on whether
litigation and regulation-generated studies should be judged by
the same standards as those conducted outside of the legal and
regulatory arenas, how the incentives and intentions that
operate in the courtroom and regulatory arenas shape scientific
inquiry, and what this implies about the "truth
value" of the scientific work.
Funding for the project on Scientific
Knowledge and Public Policy (SKAPP) is provided by the Common
Benefit Trust, a fund established pursuant to a court order
in
the Silicone Gel Breast Implant Products Liability litigation.
SKAPP staff or planning committee do not provide the funders
with advance notice or the opportunity to review or approve
any
documents or materials produced by the project.