General Electric

This article is part of the Nuclear Spin project of Spinwatch.

This article is part of the Health Portal project of Spinwatch.

Background

General Electric is the huge American products and services company (not to be confused withe the UK company known as GEC/The General Electric Company) that is involved in businesses ranging from aircraft engines, power generation, water processing and security technology to medical imaging, business and consumer financing, media content and advanced materials.

Nukes Vital for Climate and Security of Supply

General Electric has been pushing the case for nuclear in the UK. In September 2004, Andrew White, chairman and chief executive officer of General Electric's global nuclear unit, said "It's vital for the UK to support nuclear energy. I don't see a good energy policy in the UK to meet Kyoto and secure supplies".

GE designed and built the Fukushima reactors

General Electric designed the reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan that were involved in the March 2011 nuclear catastrophe. Even after one reactor exploded, GE defended the reactors it supplied to Japan 40 years ago, saying the containment system was safe and reliable.

• See also: Fox News, Former GE Scientist says Fukushima Nuclear Reactors have Suffered Partial Meltdowns, 16 Mar 2011

Pro-Nuke Lobbying

According to an article in Sunday Business in January 2006 General Electric has "begun a lobbying campaign for its Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) design to be used in the UK's next generation of nuclear reactors. GE Nuclear chief executive Andy White told The Business he had discussed using GE's technology with UK nuclear company British Energy, Eon UK and EdF Energy, the two UK companies seen as the leaders of any potential new build. He also said he had met Prime Minister Tony Blair last year and briefed officials at the Department of Trade and Industry.

PR, Lobbying and Business Intelligence Firms

In 2008, General Electric is listed as a client for Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO Ltd and The Gorlin Group

General Electric subsidiary Genworth Financial is reported to have hired lobbying firm Wheat Government Relations in 2007

Resources

See also

General Electric Medical Systems | GE Healthcare

Resources

• SourceWatch General Electric
• Donohoe MT, GE – Bringing Bad Things to Life: Cradle to Grave Health Care and the Alliance between General Electric Medical Systems and New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Synthesis/Regeneration 2006(Fall);41:31-3 (print version is abridged version, web address above is for complete version with references. An open-access powerpoint is available at GE-NY-Presbyterian Hospital Agreement.ppt.
• Martin Donohoe, MD, FACP, and Claire Robinson, 2010. Corporations and Public Health: Overview and Case Study of GE Healthcare: Most Admired Company or Foe of Public Health?. Social Medicine, Volume 5, Number 4, December 2010.

Abstract:

This article discusses the nature and power of corporations and some ways in which their activities adversely impact public health. It reviews those activities of GE Healthcare and its parent company, General Electric (GE, ranked by Forbes Magazine in 2008 as the world's largest company), which have been antithetical to public health. These activities include unethical human subject experiments; environmental pollution; workers' rights and workplace health and safety violations; fraud; false and misleading advertising; sponsorship of corporate front groups; lobbying; a personal attack on a radiologist for exposing the risks of nephrogenic systemic sclerosis from its contrast agent Omniscan; and an ethically troubling technology transfer agreement with New York Presbyterian Hospital. Despite such activities, General Electric has been highly praised in the business community, including being named "America's Most Admired Company" in a Forbes Magazine poll and one of the "World's Most Respected Companies" in polls conducted by Barron's and Financial Times. The article concludes with suggestions for individuals, governments, and academic institutions on how to fight the corporate corruption of public health.