Consumer Alert is one of many industry funded, front groups designed to mislead consumers by offering beneficial sounding advice, while promoting the policies of the corporations. These groups have mushroomed in number over the decades as a result of successfully influencing consumers with misplaced trust. The terms Green Revoloution and sound science are among the popular buzz words these groups attach to their PR campaigns.

Consumer Alert, founded in 1977, is a national, non-profit organization concerned with "excessive growth of government regulation at the national and state levels." According to its website, Consumer Alert's mission is to "enhance understanding and appreciation of the consumer benefits of a market economy so that individuals and policymakers rely more on private rather than government approaches to consumer concerns."[1] (http://www.consumeralert.org/info/mission.htm)

Consumer Alert, "formerly headed by John Sununu and funded by such companies as Chevron, Eli Lilly and Phillip Morris, has fought mandatory air bags on the grounds that their expense is a burden to the consumers they claim to represent" (Washington Babylon, 13).

Its website includes articles by the Hoover Institution's Henry Miller, the Hudson Institute's Michael Fumento and Consumer Alert executive director Frances B. Smith. Elizabeth Whelan executive director of American Council on Science and Health is a member of Consumer Alert's advisory council.

Consumer Alert operates the National Consumer Coalition, a collection of front groups and industry friendly organizations that seek to advance "solutions to real consumer problems and seeks the most cost-effective manner in which to achieve desired results." In April 2004, NCC revived the Cooler Heads Coalition.

Consumer Alert published a "declaration of support" for agricultural biotechnology signed by over 600 scientists including signatories from Monsanto (67 individuals), Pioneer Hibred (22 individuals), Dow (21 individuals) and Amercian Council on Science and Health (2 individuals)

In 1998 Philip Morris was canvassing possible organisations that might be an ally in its Youth Smoking Prevention programs. A memo from Roy Marden described Consumer Alert as a "DC free market consumer group, antithesis of the Nader effort. Perhaps we could involve them in an effort re responsible corporate activity w/consumers in mind, etc. Long-term recipient of (modest) PM funding". [2] (http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/aqg37c00)
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Personnel

Board of Directors

William C. MacLeod, Chairman Consumer Alert, senior partner at the law firm 'Collier Shannon Scott', Washington, D.C.
Carol G. Dawson, Morattico, VA
Roger Meiners, University of Texas at Arlington, Office of the President, Arlington, TX
Barbara Keating-Edh, Founder & President Ex-Officio Consumer Alert, Modesto, CA
Terry Neese, Women Impacting Public Policy, Oklahoma City, OK
Frances B. Smith, Executive Director, Consumer Alert, Washington, D.C. (wife of Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) founder Fred Smith)

Advisory Council

Thomas J. DiLorenzo, Ph.D., Chairman of Consumer Alert's Advisory Council, Department of Economics Loyola College, Baltimore
Jonathan H. Adler, J.D., Assist. Professor of Law, Case Western Reserve University School of Law
Jerry J. Cohen, B.S., M.P.H., C.I.H, Senior Scientist, Science Applications International Corporation
Philip Dziuk, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
J. Gordon Edwards, Ph.D., Professor of Entomology San Jose State University
Hugh W. Ellsaesser, Ph.D., Guest Scientist, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory
A.C. Lowell Harriss, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Economics Columbia University
Thomas W. Hazlett, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Agri. Economics, University of California, Davis
Ernest B. Hueter, President National Legal Center for the Public Interest, Washington, D.C.
David Janda, M.D., Director of the Institute for Preventative Sports Medicine, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Arthur Kantrowitz, Ph.D., Physicist/Professor, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
David Kleinbaum, Ph.D., Professor of Epidemiology, Emory University School of Pubic Health, Atlanta, Georgia
Lawrence A. Kudlow, National Review, New York, New York
Margaret N. Maxey, Ph.D., Clint W. Murchison Senior Chair of Free Enterprise, University of Texas, Austin
Tex McCrary, President, Texcomm
John J. McKetta, Ph.D., P.E., Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas, Austin
Patrick J. Michaels, Ph.D., Department of Environmental Science University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Henry I. Miller, M.D., Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institute
James C. Miller III, Ph.D., Counselor Citizens for a Sound Economy
Tom Miller, Director of Health Policy Studies, Cato Institute
J.A. Parker, President Lincoln Institute For Research and Education
Robert W. Poole, Jr., President, The Reason Foundation, Los Angeles, CA
Charles T. Rombough, Ph.D., President, CTR Technical Services Inc., Arlington, Texas
Malcolm Ross, Ph.D., Research Scientist (Retired), United States Geological Survey
Harold Russell, Vice President, FMC Corp. (Retired), Washington, DC
Terrence Scanlon, President, Capital Research Center, Washington, D.C.
John A. Sparks, J.D., President, Public Policy Education Fund, Grove City, Pennsylvania
Glenn Schleede, President Energy Market & Policy Analysis Inc., Vienna, VA
Lewis K. Uhler, J.D., President National Tax Limitation Committee, Roseville, California
Elizabeth Whelan, Ph.D., M.P.H., Dr. Sc., Executive Director American Council on Science and Health, New York, New York
Walter E. Williams, Ph.D., John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia
Bruce Yandle, Ph.D., Alumni Distinguished Professor of Economics Clemson University
Benjamin Zycher, Ph.D., M.P.P., A.B., Economist

Staff

James Plummer, Policy Analyst
Barbara Rippel, Policy Analyst

SourceWatch is a project of the Center for Media & Democracy, an extensive listing of front groupsincluding this one is linked here. [888]

Consumer Alert is a term used in TV news broadcasts, to designate a report which involves dangerous products or scams.