Dr. Goodman, who holds a doctorate in toxicology from Johns Hopkins College, is without doubt one of the firm’s most outstanding scientists, serving to to defend industries as assorted as tobacco, plastics and fossil fuels towards well being issues — a mirrored image of the widespread apply through which numerous industries rent consultants who publicly assist their place.
She helped develop professional testimony for Philip Morris in a class-action lawsuit that went to trial in 2015, portraying the tobacco big’s best-selling Marlboro Lights cigarettes as being safer for people who smoke. In a choice for the plaintiffs, Decide Edward Leibensperger of Massachusetts Superior Court docket stated Gradient’s evaluation “was proven to be inconsistent and opposite to the consensus of the scientific group.”
At Gradient, Dr. Goodman additionally co-authored an article, sponsored by the now-defunct American Plastics Council, criticizing dozens of educational articles that had raised issues over Bisphonal-A, or BPA, a chemical used to make exhausting plastics resembling water and juice bottles. A physique of analysis means that BPA and different bisphenols can act as endocrine disruptors that intervene with hormones within the physique. The chemical compounds have been linked to lowered fertility, earlier puberty in boys and behavioral issues in youngsters.
In congressional testimony, Dr. Goodman has argued towards regulatory requirements for mercury and air toxics, and has criticized research linking air air pollution and mortality, continuously figuring out herself as an impartial scientist, regardless of Gradient’s work for company shoppers. In articles funded by the American Petroleum Institute, she has additionally attacked analysis linking publicity to smog-causing ozone to deaths from respiratory ailments.
Frederick vom Saal, a professor emeritus of biology on the College of Missouri, is among the many scientists whose work Dr. Goodman has criticized. “There are over 1,000 publications on BPA, however she claimed none of them stand as much as their requirements,” he stated. He stated her argument is actually, “‘You don’t want to fret about something as a result of there’s so little publicity,’” he stated, including that many years of analysis has proven that to not be true.
Gradient declined to remark.
Dr. Goodman’s presence in Multnomah shocked individuals on the county listening to. The county, which incorporates most of Portland, lately handed a decision geared toward decreasing the well being results of air air pollution.
“We had been all one another going, ‘Who’s that? Why is she right here?’” stated Melanie Plaut, a retired doctor in Oregon who was attending to induce for better scrutiny of gasoline stoves. “There have been simply so many factors that wanted to be refuted.”