Gordon Gribble

<youtube size="medium" align="right" caption="The corporate funded American Council on Science and Health promotes Gordon Gribble's journal article on 'Chemophobia'">l8Jje0-xEdM#t=64</youtube>

Gordon Gribble is a US academic based in the Department of Chemistry at Dartmouth College in Hanover New Hampshire. Gribble has had some affiliations with corporate funded think tanks or policy groups such as being an academic member of the tobacco industry funded European Science and Environment Forum in 1998, writing for the Heartland Institute in 1996 and being an adviser to the American Council on Science and Health for 'many years'.

Career

Gribble received his B.S. degree in Chemistry in 1963 from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry in 1967 from the University of Oregon. After spending a year at UCLA as a National Cancer Institute Postdoctoral Fellow, he joined the faculty of Dartmouth College in 1968. Dr. Gribble has been a National Institutes of Health Research Career Development Awardee (1971-76), a National Science Foundation Professional Development Awardee (1977-78), and an American Cyanamid Academic Achievement Awardee (1988). In 2005 he was named to the endowed Chair “The Dartmouth Professor of Chemistry.” He is the co-editor of “Progress in Heterocyclic Chemistry” and the co-author of “Palladium in Heterocyclic Chemistry.”

Chemophobia

Gribble has written about 'Chemophobia' which is said to be 'the exaggerated fear of anything "chemical"'.

Gribble has written about the issue as far back as 1991 and returned to it in an article in the journal Food Security published in April 2013. In August 2013 the article was promoted by the corporate front group the American Council on Science and Health complete with a two minute video on the contents of the paper in which the executive director of the ACSH Gilbert Ross describes Gribble as having been an advisor to the ACSH for 'many years'.

The policy of the journal Food Security is that: 'Authors must indicate whether or not they have a financial relationship with the organization that sponsored the research. This note should be added in a separate section before the reference list. If no conflict exists, authors should state: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.'

There is no conflict of interest declaration on Gribble's article.

Gribble's article was also promoted on the website 'safechemicalpolicy.org' which is run by the corporate funded conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute and its 'coalition partners' which include: 60 Plus Assocation | American council on Science and Health | Americans for Tax Reform | Frontiers of Freedom | Heartland Institute | Independent Women's Forum | National Center for Policy Analysis | National Center for Public Policy Research | Pelican Institute for Public Policy Research | Political Economy Research Institute, Raleigh, NC | Rio Grande Foundation | Washington Policy Center.

Affiliations

• 1992: Wrote for the National Council of the Paper Industry for Air and Stream Improvement.
• 1995: Wrote for the American Council on Science and Health.
• 1996: Heartland Institute - Wrote for their journal.
• 1996: The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition - cited in media relaease by this Tobacco industry front group. The news release stated that 'following are statements by ten scientists regarding the finding of the book, "Our Stolen Future."'TASSC is referred to as 'a not-for-profit watchdog group that advocates the use of sound science in public policy decision-making.' Gribble was cited as saying:

"'Our Stolen Future' is like 'Jurassic Park.' They each contain a little science and much science fiction. The extrapolations in both books are totally unjustified based on present scientific and medical knowledge."

"Organochlorines cannot be banned -- anymore than gravity or photosynthesis -- nor should the entire group of anthropogenic chlorinated chemicals be eliminated from our society because of the toxicity of a few. Such an act would be an egregious overreaction based on ignorance of our environment. Obviously, we must monitor our output of all toxic chemicals, chlorinated or not. However, we must regulate organochlorines intelligently and with proper perspective, because nature -irrespective of what we do - will inexorably continue to churn out its own complement of organochlorines. Chlorine is as natural to our world as carbon, hydrogen or oxygen."

"To conclude (as the book does) that a chemical will be toxic just because it contains chlorine is equivalent to believing that milk will be as toxic as nerve gas, since both contain phosphorus."

• 1998: European Science and Environment Forum - academic member.
• 2011 American Council on Science and Health listed as a member of the 'Board of Scientific and Policy Advisors'.

Selected publications

• Gribble, G. (1991). 'The chemophobia conundrum'. Chemistry & Industry, 591.
• Gordon Gribble Chlorine and Health, published by the American Council on Science and Health, 1995.
• Gordon Gribble, ‘The Future of Chlorine’, (Heartland Institute, 1996)
• Gordon W. Gribble Food chemistry and chemophobia Food Security April 2013, Volume 5, Issue 2, pp 177-187.

Resources

• Dartmouth College Chemophobia shouldn't be on the menu Science Codex, posted on August 14, 2013 - 4:00pm.
• Dartmouth College Chemophobia shouldn't be on the menu EurekAlert, Public release date: 14-Aug-2013.
• Sarah Griffiths Do you suffer from 'chemophobia'? Expert claims we have an 'irrational fear' of man-made chemicals - and that natural ISN'T necessarily better, Daily Mail PUBLISHED: 16:09, 15 August 2013 | UPDATED: 18:05, 15 August 2013.</ref>

Contact

Web: dartmouth.edu/~chem/faculty/gwg.html

Research group site: Welcome to the Gribble Group