{"product_id":"hidden-arguments-political-ideology-and-disease-prevention-policy-9780813513157","title":"Hidden Arguments: Political Ideology and Disease Prevention Policy","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn this provocative book  Sylvia Tesh shows how \"politics masquerades as science\" in the debates over the causes and prevention of disease. Tesh argues that ideas about the causes of disease which dominate policy at any given time or place are rarely determined by scientific criteria alone. The more critical factors are beliefs about how much government can control industry  who should take risks when scientists are uncertain  and whether the individual or society has the ultimate responsibility for health. Tesh argues that instead of lamenting the presence of this extra-scientific reasoning  it should be brought out of hiding and welcomed. She illustrates her position by analyzing five different theories of disease causality that have vied for dominance during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries  and discusses in detail the political implications of each theory. Tesh also devotes specific chapters to the multicausal theory of disease  to health education policy in Cuba  to the 1981 air traffic controllers strike  to the debate over Agent Orange  and to an analysis of science as a belief system.  Along the way she makes these principal points: She criticizes as politically conservative the idea that diseases result from a multifactorial web of causes. Placing responsibility for disease prevention on \"society\" is ideological  she argues. In connection with the air traffic controllers she mistrusts whether it is in a unions best interests to claim that workers jobs are stressful. She shows why there are no entirely neutral answers to questions about the toxicity of environmental pollutants. In a final chapter  Tesh urges scientists to incorporate egalitarian values into their search for the truth  rather than pretending science can be divorced from that political ideology.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45648334454837,"sku":"ByrdShop_0813513154","price":32.54,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780813513157.jpg?v=1781716168","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/hidden-arguments-political-ideology-and-disease-prevention-policy-9780813513157","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}