06/18/14

New Book by David Lewis, PhD

Released in June 2014: a new book by microbiologist and former EPA employee David Lewis, PhD.

Microbiologist and former EPA employee David Lewis, PhD, has just released "Science for Sale," a book that includes recounting of his two decades of arguments, lawsuits, and actions critiquing the EPA Part 503 regulations and biosolids use on soils. The book's subtitle is "How the US Government Uses Powerful Corporations and Leading Universities to Support Government Policies, Silence Top Scientists, Jeopardize Our Health, and Protect Corporate Profits."

NEBRA and its members first came to know Dr. Lewis in the late 1990s when he was the lead expert witness for the plaintiffs in a NH court case claiming harm from biosolids land application. (Because it was an important biosolids case in NEBRA's region, NEBRA created a fact sheet that is still available from the NEBRA office.)   

Dr. Lewis spent the next decade arguing against biosolids recycling, working as a whisteblower, fighting EPA over his transfer to Univ. of Georgia, and suing EPA employees involved in the biosolids program. In 2011, his last legal action related to biosolids (that we know of) was dismissed.  By November of that year, Dr. Lewis had become involved in defending Andrew Wakefield, a UK medical researcher charged with misconduct (see NEBRA article summarizing this history).

According to the online Independent Science News article that introduced Dr. Lewis's new book on June 9th, the depositions and other writings that he includes "piece together an unprecedented and coordinated multi-agency scientific scheme involving EPA, USDA, local and city municipalities, Synagro Technologies (a waste management company), various universities, and the National Academies of Science." 

Today, as he has over the past 15 years, Dr. Lewis continues to claim there is a deep and broad conspiracy behind the research and practice of using biosolids on soils.