The Discourse of Medical Science in the Construction of Consensus Between Corporation and Community

Concern surfaced in the late seventies about the effects of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) on the health of employees and residents in the area of the General Electric plant in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. A review of corporate steps taken during the preceding decade to suppress criticism as well as of attempts to halt production and use of PCBs indicates an awareness on the part of corporate leaders of the hazards involved in their use. An epidemiological study begun in 1979 was delayed in reaching the public, and the conclusions were presented in such a way that they denied a scientific basis for making a correlation between exposure and cancer rates. The intervention of employees in the ensuing discourse among corporate spokespeople, community officials, and the epidemiologist provides an insight into the power relations that structure and channel information in our society.