Book Reviews

The big overall scandal that en gages Miss Efron's attention before she gets into the meat of her book is the one perpetrated by the environ mentalists who think the earth is doomed by capitalistic industrialists who put profit ahead of human life. Her "apocalyptics" include Rachel Carson, Barry Commoner, Rene Du bos, Paul Ehrlich and George Wald, as well as a group of scientists at MIT who conducted a famous study for the Club of Rome. In her Silent Spring Miss Carson portrayed na ture as good and attacked industrial man as the great defiler of our soil and atmosphere. Barry Commoner, the biologist, made the "ecological crisis" the burden of his testimony before the Muskie Committee, claiming that our capitalistic indus trialists and pesticide-using agricul turalists were destroying the world's ecosystem. In a book titled The Pov erty of Power, Commoner said that socialism offered the only way out.

The report done by MIT scientists for the Club of Rome purported to prove that if we did not mend our profli gate consumption, the earth would be running out of fuels and minerals by the year 2,000 A.D. The universal doomsayers set the stage for Edith Efron's second scan dal, the propagation of the theory that ninety per cent of our cancer is due to industry-made chemicals that get into the food we eat, the water 189 190 THE FREEMAN March we drink, and the air we breathe. This, in Miss Efron's extremely well documented opinion, is the "big lie" she refers to in her title. Miss Efron knows as well as any body else that many artificially made chemicals are dangerous. But the idea that nature itself is pure and only man is vile can't stand up for a moment against the evidence that Miss Efron summons from her vast reading. The world is full of natural carcinogens that predate the birth of all our modern chemical manu facturing companies. Silicates and "asbestiform minerals" are wide spread in our bedrocks. Our mines are full of radon, a radioactive gas.

We get skin cancer from the sun. Our foods, whether organically grown or not, contain elements that could be cancerous. Miss Efron's list of nat ural carcinogens takes up many pages. What she demonstrates is that everything is chemistry, and much of chemistry, both natural and man-made, can be dangerous if ge netic dispositions combine with cir cumstances to cause cells to go hay wire in a still unexplained way. When Miss Efron says, "there is nothing we can breathe, eat or drink without encountering carcinogens," it made me wonder how the human race has come as far as it has. Isaac Berenbl um, who discovered there was such a thing as anticarcinoge nesis, provides a hopeful answer. There are cancer inhibitors. And to set a carcinogen in· dire motion a "promoter" may be necessary. If the "promoter" can be evaded, there will be no cancer. The whole thing is ex tremely complex. Yet our laws are based on what might be called "one on-one" theory. "Regulatory" sci ence is not like true science: it de mands black-and-white answers to questions that still baffle even the most careful of our laboratory workers.

QuestionableTests The whole business of using ani mals to test for carcinogens poses many conundrums. What will cause cancer in mice may not necessarily induce tumors in rats or hamsters. If there can be differing susceptibili ties in animals, how can we gener alize about man? Then there is the question about high and low dosage. In one experiment on the sweetener cyclamate, test animals were given the human equivalent of 552 bottles of soft drinks a day. Herman Kray bill, a dissenting member of the Na tional Cancer Institute, says the data dra wn from such tests as related to man "are almost science fiction." Despite random variations, and the opinion of many scientists that two or three species of animals should be used if a test is to be con sidered anywhere near conclusive, OSHA considers that "a substance may be classified as a Category I Po tential Carcinogen on the basis of 1985 THE APOCALYPTICS 191 scientifically evaluated positive re suIts ... in a single mammalian spe cies in an adequately conducted long term bioassay ..." So the mice have it all on their lonesome. And Con gress listens.

The scandal, as Miss Efron sees it, is that our scientists have not spo ken up to refute the simplistic no tions about cancer and cancer pre vention that have been spread by the apocalyptics. They have not told the world that a study of various socie ties shows no correlation between the rise of industrialism and the prevalence of cancer. The dinosaurs had cancer. Socialism is no cure, nor is Third World rusticity. A study of cancer in Ethiopia and Chad would Freeman binders be meaningless simply because mil lions in those countries are dying of malnutrition before they could ever contract the diseases of old age. Miss Efron, who wrote The News Twisters, has been extremely critical of the press-the "media" -in the past. Curiously she does not blame newspapers and television for misre porting on cancer. Reporters are de pendent on official sources for their cancer news. When government agencies lead reporters down the garden path, it is the duty of scien tists to protest. That they have failed to counter the "apocalyptics" is the true scandal. Edith Efron's book should do much to correct the situation.M • handsomeblue leatherlex • each binderholds twelve issues • a handy way to organize currentand past issuesof The Freeman Order from: THE FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION, INC.

IRVINGTON-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK 10533 $5.00 each 1985 Summer Seminarsat FEE June 23-29 July 14-20 August 4-10 For twenty-two years our annual summer seminars have offered a thor ough introduction to the principles of limited government and the mar keteconomy. Our sessionsattract livelyand diverse groups of people including students, teachers, business proprietors and employees. The week includes thirty-five hours of lecture and discussion, with ample time for participants to meet informally with both staff and dis tinguished guest lecturers. The Foundation, situated on a five-acre es tate in a quiet suburb near New York City, provides an ideal setting for a week of study and reflection. The charge for a seminar-tuition, supplies, room and boardis $400. Fellowships (including partial travel grants) are available. A de tailed seminar brochure will be sent on request. Pleaseaddress all requests for applications and further information to: Summer Seminars Foundation for Economic Education Irvington, New York 10533 (914) 591-7230 the Freeman VOL. 35, NO. 4 • APRIL 1985 Winners and LosersA Page on Freedom, No. 18 In free trade, both parties win.