Authors Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner, two of America’s foremost historians of public health, will discuss their book Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution on Monday, March 6, at 6 p.m., at New York University’s Tamiment Library, 10th floor of the NYU Bobst Library, 70 Washington Square South. The event is free and open to the public; for further information, call 212.998.2428.
In this book Markowitz and Rosner discuss the chemical industry’s half-century campaign to deceive their workers, consumers, and the public about dangers of lead and the toxic chemical vinyl chloride used in plastic manufacturing.
Based on documents that historians rarely use internal company memos, meeting minutes, and technical reports that were gathered in the discovery phases of lawsuits against the Lead Industry Association, Manufactures Chemical Association, and a number of their member companies this unusual book shows how the authors used internal chemical industry documents and their role as expert witnesses in several trials to reveal the larger implications of their work.
Markowitz is Distinguished Professor of History at John Jay College and The Graduate Center, CUNY. Rosner is professor of history and public health at Columbia University and director of the Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health. They will be in conversation with Professors David Rothman, Columbia University; Daniel Walkowitz, NYU; and Daniel Hulsebosch, NYU.