Might it not be possible to compromise? I think we are all in agreement on the importance of safety.
No one would discourage safe practices. No one would disagree that these are tight economic times and advertising income is necessary for the publication of the worthwhile journal in question. As such, C&EN needs to publish the ads that it can. (Has anyone complained about the colorful contents of the flasks or the luminous flames on the Bunsen burners?)
Would it be possible for C&EN to run a disclaimer under offending ads along the lines of “This advertisement may depict unsafe laboratory procedures” or something to that effect?
Ben Ruekberg
From:
DCHAS-L
Discussion List [mailto:DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU] On
Behalf Of Christopher Suznovich
Sent: Friday, January 08,
2010
3:52 AM
To:
DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L]
Eye
protection in chemistry labs
The editors are the ones who are responsible for content choices.
While I
agree no one is perfect, if the editors are publishing information that
is
wrong/misleading, it should be brought to their attention so it can be
corrected. I also think in this case since C&EN is a
publication
representing all of us plus the thousands of other chemists, and as
paying
subscribers to such publication, we have a right to comment on the
content and
can object to content and advertising in the publication in a proper
manner.
If we remember within the past few years similar issues have come up
where
there content of publications/media has been an issue. For
example, one
nationally known newspaper published comics that were questionable and
there
was public outcry. The loudest outcry was directed at the
newspapers and
the editors for deciding to publish the comics since the editors has the
choice
of not running the comic and choosing another one in its place- not at
the
author who wrote the comic. When Dan Rather admitted that some of
the
news on the ‘Evening News’ may have been misleading, he said
it was
his fault that the information was released because he was the final
reviewer/editor of the information he delivered on his show and he show
have
checked the background on it more carefully. Several years ago the FCC
required
all TV shows to be rated similarly to movies for their content.
This was
due to the public asking for the TV stations to inform us what the
content of
the show was- the writers, directors, and producers do not assign these
ratings.
Even in our own peer review process, there is an editor over-seeing the
process
through to publication. And in the rare event that a published journal
article
is found to have been comprised from falsified or questionable research,
the journal
in most cases will retract that article, or if it not been published, it
will
be returned to the author(s)- the article is not left to stand
published
or be pushed forward with a simple shame on you letters sent to the
article
author(s). Such practices also uphold integrity to
publications.
I would completely disagree that C&EN should not be held accountable
for
publishing ads with poor safety practices or any type of misleading
information. Just because C&EN is a ‘trade’
publication,
the editors still hold the responsibilities that every other editors of
other
publications whether they are in print or electronic and are newspapers,
journals, trade or public.
Chris Suznovich
From:
List
Moderator <ecgrants**At_Symbol_Here**UVM.EDU>
Reply-To: DCHAS-L
Discussion List
<DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**list.uvm.edu>
Date: Thu, 07 Jan 2010
14:18:42
-0500
To: <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU>
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L]
Eye
protection in chemistry labs
Date: January 7, 2010
12:07:32 PM
EST
Subject: RE: [DCHAS-L] Eye
protection in
chemistry labs
While I concur with Larry’s intent and share
the
concern for not advertising unsafe practices, I strongly oppose
directing the
energy of this group at C&EN. That publication is extremely
careful
to review its editorial content for safe practices. It has taken
effort
on the part of many of us to achieve this and C&EN is not perfect,
but they
are doing very well. Further, when they have a question, they come
to
CHAS/CCS for guidance.
The content of advertising lies in the hands of the advertiser. If
ABC
Chemical Company publishes an advertisement depicting unsafe practices,
our
efforts should be aimed at improving ABC Chemical Company. In the
case
cited by Larry, CHAS wrote directly to the CEO of the company.
It is easy to find out the name, address and email of a CEO – the
outcry
of this group should be targeted there; not at the messenger.
nl
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