When we send off make-up for testing, the lab finds an asbestos fibre in two of the samples. Brunel University’s Experimental Technique’s Centre says they need to find at least 3 fibres to confirm the asbestos fibre came from the make-up sample, despite having strict protocols to ensure their lab is not the source of the contamination. This isn’t the first test of this kind. Back in 2021, the UK government’s Office for Product Safety and Standards ordered tests of 60 low-cost eye shadows and...

When talc might be listed as a potential carcinogen, the industry assembles a ‘talc task force’. It’s the year 2000 and the talc industry has heard something big is coming its way. The US government agencies tasked with listing cancer causing substances are set to include talc. The initial recommendation was to list talc containing asbestiform fibres as ‘known to be a human carcinogen’. They’d list talc that did not contain asbestiform fibres as ‘reasonably anticipated to be a human...

Could companies clean up their talc? In the 1970s, talc companies worked out a plan to check their product for asbestos fibres. The problem was, mineralogist Sean Fitzgerald says the testing method they chose wasn’t sensitive enough to truly weed all asbestos fibres out. But this testing method was taken up not just in America but around the world and still informs the standards today. Companies can legally say their talc is ‘asbestos free’ if they’ve used this method, but there could still...

In the 1970s, a scientist discovers asbestos fibres in talcum powder. After Mineralogist Arthur Langer discovered asbestos fibres in the lungs of normal people in New York, he set out to investigate the source. How could people just going about their daily lives, not working directly with asbestos products, have been exposed? He started testing talcum powders and was surprised to find many products contained asbestos fibres. His findings made a splash in the news papers, but how would...

After Hannah Fletcher’s cancer diagnosis, she investigates whether her make up contained asbestos. She was just 41 when she was diagnosed with mesothelioma – a rare cancer that’s very hard to treat. The average life expectancy from diagnosis is just 18 months. She says ‘One of the worst things that I've had to do was write letters to my children in case I died’. Following a 14 hour operation to remove as much of the cancer as possible, Hannah’s doctors advised her to call a lawyer because...

Is there asbestos in make-up? If you look through your make-up bag, you might have a blusher, eye shadow or face powder that contains the ingredient talc. But there are questions about its safety. Women diagnosed with cancer have started launching court cases against cosmetics companies claiming some products are contaminated with asbestos. It turns out, the issue of asbestos contamination in talc is not new. Thanks to recent court cases, once secret company memos now reveal how the talc...

Our story ends at the very top, with a fax to the White House. The campaign to spread doubt about climate change was so successful, it infiltrated the White House. In 2007, a House of Representatives Committee investigation ruled: ‘There was a systematic White House effort to minimize the significance of climate change by editing climate change reports’. But years later, after the oil money pipeline was cut, the key groups who initiated the strategy had folded, huge swathes of the...

Following the oil money as it’s pumped to contrarian scientists and think tanks. As millions of dollars flow from oil companies to researchers looking into ‘solar variation’ or picking holes in the temperature record, we reveal that ten years previously, oil company researchers had dismissed these very arguments. An internal American Petroleum Institute document from 1995 said ‘hypothesis about the role of solar variability and Michaels’ questions about temperature record are not...

As climate change goes prime time, a super star climate change sceptic wins his last TV debate. Jerry Taylor was working at CATO, a free market think tank and was regularly on TV putting forward contrarian arguments. One day, all that changed. From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of how doubt has been manufactured. This 10 part series explores how powerful interests and sharp PR managers engineered doubt about the connection between smoking and cancer and how similar...

How do you win a battle, if you’re fighting in the wrong arena? A look at how the virtues of science were being used against the scientists. Uncertainty is an inherent part of climate change science, but the word means something different to scientists. This is the lowdown on how scientists are literally using a different language to us and why this has played into the hands of those who want to delay action on climate change. From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of...

‘Unless “climate change” becomes a non-issue…there may be no moment when we can declare victory’. We reveal the communications plans drawn up by energy groups to make us doubt climate change. From targeting ‘older, lesser educated males from larger households’ to making sure that those promoting action on climate change ‘appear to be out of touch with reality’; their ambitions were high, their tactics down and dirty. From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of how...

As the world’s scientists agree on man-made climate change, the oil companies come together to form their own coalition. They aren’t just focused on the science, though. From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of how doubt has been manufactured. This 10 part series explores how powerful interests and sharp PR managers engineered doubt about the connection between smoking and cancer and how similar tactics were later used by some to make us doubt climate change. With...

As the evidence against tobacco mounts, the court suits keep coming. Tobacco keeps winning. ‘Due to favourable scientific testimony, no plaintiff has ever collected a penny from any tobacco company in lawsuits even though 117 such cases have been brought’. An internal memo from tobacco company R J Reynolds reveals a motive behind their funding of research. In this episode the battle is taken to the court room as we hear how a land mark trial toppled tobacco. From climate change to smoking...

The tobacco industry’s white coats are ready, the battle of science vs science begins. The battle for public opinion will be played out in the media. In this episode we hear how the tobacco industry chose to fight science with science, pitting one scientist wearing a white coat against another. It worked. Tobacco industry scientists made it on to Ed Murrow’s prominent documentary series “See It Now”. From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of how doubt has been...

At a secret meeting, a plan is drawn up to fight claims that smoking causes cancer. In 1953, the tobacco industry was hit by a major storm. ‘Salesmen in the industry are frantically alarmed and the decline in tobacco stocks on the stock exchange market has caused grave concern’, claimed an internal memo. A study linking smoking to cancer was getting a lot of attention. We’ll take you to the meeting where the PR response was planned. It’s an important meeting. The strategy developed there...

From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of how doubt has been manufactured. In this episode we take you to an oil company’s boardroom as they plan their response to the ‘crisis mentality’ that was emerging after the long hot summer of 1988. 5,000 people died in the heat wave, coinciding with the moment NASA scientist Jim Hansen announced that a ‘greenhouse effect’ was ‘changing our climate now’. This looked like a battle for the survival of the oil industry. This 10...

From climate change to smoking and cancer, this is the story of how doubt has been manufactured. This 10 part series will explore how powerful interests and sharp PR managers engineered doubt about the connection between smoking and cancer and how similar tactics were later used by some to make us doubt climate change. With the help of once-secret internal memos, Peter Pomerantsev takes us behind boardroom doors where such strategies were drawn up and explores how the narrative changed on...