Scranton also is outraged, claiming that our research was inadequate because we did not take oral histories of those people still alive who participated in the meetings that we cite (see Scranton, p.6) We disagree with Scranton’s notion that oral histories would be a dependable source of information in this case. Oral histories must be used with extreme care, since they are often selective, self-serving and mistaken as to specific events particularly when taken many years later. Further, the written record of events is available and it is a very rich documentary trail. Given that the companies that employed many of these representatives are accused of lying to the government, such oral histories would be unreliable.
Scranton also argues falsely (Scranton p.7) that we “offered no citation to the sources of” our discussion of the odor threshold for vinyl chloride monomer “either in the report or in Chapter 6 of D&D.” In fact, we cite the report that states that the odor threshold for vinyl chloride monomer was 4000 ppm -- far above the industry-accepted threshold limit of 500. [18] Scranton is criticizing the placement of the footnote, not any substantive issue. Our reference is to a quote in the report that is two pages after the discussion of the odor threshold. The point is that this portion of the report clearly indicated that while workers were told that VCM was a threat only when they could smell it, the reality was that it was a threat well before they could smell it. Scranton distracts the reader from the critical point the report and our paragraph is making: that in 1969 the University of Michigan researchers privately told the MCA that workers who smelled vinyl chloride were exposed to levels far above the threshold limit that was set to protect workers’ health without informing workers of this fact. We see no refutation of this in his entire digression. Finally, he either knowingly lies or is very mistaken when he says that Dr. Markowitz says he hadn’t read the report. His reference to this in Dr. Markowitz’ deposition (p.505) says nothing of the sort and doesn’t even mention this report. [19]
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