1. Corporate Control of Public Health: Case Study and Call to Action Martin Donohoe

2. Am I Stoned? A 1999 Utah anti-drug pamphlet warns: “Danger signs that your child may be smoking marijuana include excessive preoccupation with social causes, race relations, and environmental issues”

3. Corporations Dominate the Global Economy Almost 6 million corporations 500 companies control 70% of world trade

4. Corporations Dominate the Global Economy 53 of the world’s 100 largest economies are private corporations; 47 are countries – Wal-Mart is larger than Israel and Greece

5. The Stock Market The top 1% of Americans owns 51% of all stocks, bonds, and mutual fund assets Consequences of Differential Stock Ownership – Corporations are answerable to their shareholders – Governments are answerable (at least in theory) to their citizens (either through elections or revolutions)

6. Corporations Internalize profits Externalize health and environmental costs

7. Corporate Taxation Corporations shouldered over 30% of the nation’s tax burden in 1950 vs. 8% today Nearly 1/3 of all large U.S. corporations pay no annual tax

8. Corporate Taxation Big business claims that U.S. corporations pay the highest corporate taxes in the world (35%) FALSE: The rate actually paid, after foreign governments get their cuts, money sent to foreign subsidiaries, loopholes, etc. = 2.3% (U.S. Treasury Department)

9. Corporate Taxation 2004: Bush administration offered temporary tax holiday on foreign earnings – $300 billion in profit repatriated 92% went to dividend payouts, stock buybacks, and corporate coffers Only 8% went to R and D, new factories, and hiring

10. Reasons for Inadequate Corporate Taxation Corporate tax breaks/loopholes Corporate welfare Cheating and under-payment common Offshore tax havens shelter capital

11. Ugland House, Cayman Islands 18,000 Corporations Registered Here

12. Exorbitant CEO Pay CEO salaries up 500% since 1980 The average CEO makes 350-400X the salary of the average U.S. worker (1960 - 41X) – Mexico 45:1 – Britain 25:1 – Japan 10:1

13. Consequences of Corporatization Rise of the “permatemp” Expatriation of jobs – Overseas factories often lack adequate occupational health and safety and environmental standards – Increasing U.S. unemployment Decline in labor union membership

14. Corporate PR Tactics Advertising Astroturf - artificially-created grassroots coalitions Greenwash Corporate front groups Public relations/ad campaigns

15. Corporate PR tactics Invoke poor people as beneficiaries Characterize opposition as “technophobic,” anti-science,” and “against progress” Portray their products as environmentally beneficial despite evidence to the contrary

16. Sponsored Environmental Education Materials (Examples) International Paper -“Clearcutting promotes growth of trees that require full sunlight and allows efficient site preparation for the next crop” Exxon’s “Energy Cube” -“Gasoline is simply solar power hidden in decayed matter” -“Offshore drilling creates reefs for fish”

17. The Media 5 corporations control majority of US media (down from 50 in 1983) Extensive corporate-media links

18. Global Warming: Controversial? Of 928 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, none were in doubt as to the existence or cause of global warming Of 636 articles in the popular press (NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times, WSJ), 53% expressed doubt as to the existence (and primary cause) of global warming Science 2004;306:1686-7 (Study covers 1993-2003)

19. Lobbying Over 15,000 full-time lobbyists Estimates of return on lobbying range from $28 to $100 for every $1 spent

20. Lobbying Lobbying groups spent 3.5 billion in 2010 (federal lobbying, a record) All single issue ideological groups combined (e.g., pro-choice, anti- abortion, feminist and consumer organizations, senior citizens, etc.) = $76 million

21. U.S. International Non- Cooperation/Isolationism Failure to sign or approve: – Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change – Convention on the Rights of the Child – Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women

22. U.S. International Non- Cooperation/Isolationism Failure to sign or approve – The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants – WHO International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes

23. Case Study The alliance between GE Medical Systems and NY-Presbyterian Hospital

24. General Electric Ranked by Forbes as world’s largest company (based on equal weighting of sales, profits, assets, and market value) 2010 net after-tax profits of $14 billion

25. General Electric Makes household appliances, lighting, and medical equipment Has built 91 nuclear power plants in 11 countries (including Japan’s troubled Fukushima Daishii reactors) Produces jet engines and military hardware

26. General Electric Operates coal-burning power plants – Major releasers of toxic mercury Operates a large, highly profitable financial services group Owns a multi-billion dollar media empire – Including NBC (49%, Comcast – 51%), Telemundo, and Universal Studios

27. GE’s History Conducted unethical human subject experiments on prisoners, involving testicular irradiation, from 1940s to 1960s Intentionally-released excessive radiation from its Hanford, WA nuclear reactor in the 1980s, to determine how far it would travel

28. GE’s Record Sued radiologist who brought to light dangers of GE’s contrast agent, Omniscan – Causes nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (FDA black box warning) Fined for making misleading statements re other contrast agent

29. GE’s Record America’s largest corporate polluter 116 Superfund sites nationwide Approximately 13 in NY

30. GE’s Record Between 1947 and 1977, two of its capacitor manufacturing plants dumped 1.3 million pounds of PCBs into the Hudson River – Probable human carcinogens with adverse effects on liver, kidney, nervous system, and reproductive organs (EPA) – 200 mi of Hudson Superfund site

31. GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt 2009 compensation = $5.5 million Named “World’s Best CEO” in 3 separate Barron’s polls 2006 - 2011 - On Board of NY Federal Reserve Bank

32. GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt 2008 – Named one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World” by TIME Magazine 2009 - Appointed by President Obama to his Economic Recovery Board – GE then became eligible, via a loophole, for ¼ of the $340 billion Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (debt support)

33. GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt 2011 - Appointed by Obama as Chair of his outside panel of Economic Advisors and of his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness On the board of directors of “The Robin Hood Foundation”!

34. GE’s Record Has eliminated 150,000 jobs in last 15 years One of nation’s top out-sourcers of jobs Cited by Human Rights Watch for “systematic workers’ rights violations” in the U.S. and abroad Extensive record of tax violations, military procurement fraud

35. GE’s Record Named “America’s Most Admired Company” by Forbes Named one of the “World’s Most Respected Companies” in polls conducted by Barron’s and The Financial Times

36. The Agreement between GE Medical Systems and NY-Presbyterian Hospital (2003) Provides GE with financial incentives to promote high technology purchases Hospital prohibited from purchasing more effective equipment from other companies

37. Concerns About the Agreement Augments trend in academic medical centers to promote the use of expensive, high- technology care at expense of preventive care and public health measures – Highly reimbursable – Services may be redundant in certain locations

38. Concerns About the Agreement Patients with developmental anomalies and cancers caused by GE’s pollution diagnosed with GE scanners and treated with GE-manufactured therapeutic devices, increasing GE’s profit

39. A macabre twist on “cradle to grave care”

40. Solutions NY-P should cancel agreement Health care providers and organizations should condemn this alliance Medical and ethical organizations should develop standards regarding future agreements

41. Primo Levi “A country is considered the more civilized the more the wisdom and efficiency of its laws hinder a weak man from becoming too weak or a powerful one too powerful.”

42. Solutions Living wage laws Restructure tax system Punish corporate scofflaws with large fines and jail time Increase enforcement budgets to combat corporate crime

43. Solutions Eliminate confidential legal settlements relevant to public health and safety Work with corporations – Healthy PR – Shareholder activism – Risks/benefits

44. Solutions: Vote US voter turnout low Wealthy vote at almost twice rate of poor Whites > Blacks > Hispanics Old > Young Property owners > Renters Physicians < general population

45. Solutions: Fair, Representative Elections Publicly financed campaigns and campaign finance reform Open debates, free air time for candidates Proportional representation Instant runoff voting/cumulative voting/range (rating) voting

46. Solutions Activism / Letter writing / Protesting / Whistleblowing Join community groups – become involved in local as well as national issues Lobby legislators Run for office

47. Solutions Increase funding of public education Independent scientific review of school curricula Prohibit use of sponsored curricula

48. Solutions Establish safeguards relevant to corporate involvement in academic research Higher standards of journalism Support alternative media

49. Solutions Augment and improve international aid package Sign, ratify, and adhere to major international treaties

50. Solutions Based on Precautionary Principle Recognize nature’s net worth Calculate economic prosperity based on Genuine Progress Index or Global Happiness Index, rather than Gross Domestic Product

51. “All men are created equal” – Declaration of Independence “Some people are more equal than others” – George Orwell

52. Hudson River, 2009

53. Günter Grass “The first job of a citizen is to keep your mouth open.”

54. Anita Roddick "If you think you are too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in your tent"

55. Contact Information and References Public Health and Social Justice Website http://www.publichealthandsocialjustice.org http://www.phsj.org martindonohoe@phsj.org