Industry Challenges Impede Cancer Research and Information, New Report Says
- From: Tim Campbell <timcall@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2007 04:49:44 -0000
Contact: Brian Gumm, (202) 234-8494 , bgumm@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Industry Challenges Impede Cancer Research and Information, New Report
Says
WASHINGTON, Aug. 28, 2007-Allegations of mismanagement, industry
influence, and suppression of whistleblowers at the National Institute
of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program
(NTP) are being investigated by Congress, and the director has
temporarily stepped down. Today, OMB Watch released a report that
further documents industry's attempt to restrict access to health and
safety information produced by NTP.
An Attack on Cancer Research: Industry's Obstruction of the National
Toxicology Program illustrates how, over the past five years, industry
has repeatedly misused the Data Quality Act (DQA) to suppress
important cancer-related information. Among other duties, NTP
publishes the biennial Report on Carcinogens (RoC), which is used by
local, state and federal authorities to set environmental policies,
explore regulations on dangerous substances and provide for
preventative health measures.
"We discovered that industry has tried to use DQA to challenge every
aspect of the NTP scientific review and release process," said Clayton
Northouse, Information Policy Analyst at OMB Watch. "Special interest
associations have challenged meetings, press releases, notices to
study specific chemicals and other documents that are clearly beyond
the parameters of DQA. Instead of seeking to improve the quality of
data, the intent of these challenges seems to be to keep scientific
information out of the hands of health professionals and government
decision-makers."
The report documents how the latest RoC has been delayed for more than
one year due to numerous frivolous DQA challenges. The industry
challenges, though, do more than impede the flow of critical
information to those who need it. The complaints also use up valuable
staff time in a program with a small number of employees. This is time
that should instead be used researching potential cancer-causing
agents and safeguarding public health.
OMB Watch concludes the report with recommendations for NTP and other
government programs and agencies regarding the implementation of DQA.
The goal of the recommendations, Northouse said, is to "improve the
quality of government data without diverting resources away from
protecting the health and safety of the American public."
http://ombwatch.org/article/articleview/3964/1/192?TopicID=5
An Attack on Cancer Research is available online at
http://www.ombwatch.org/info/NTPDataQuality.pdf.
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