{"id":6758,"date":"2017-08-11T09:54:09","date_gmt":"2017-08-11T14:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/?p=6758"},"modified":"2024-02-12T11:01:59","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T16:01:59","slug":"toxicologists-endorsing-doursons-nomination-are-birds-of-a-feather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/2017\/08\/11\/toxicologists-endorsing-doursons-nomination-are-birds-of-a-feather\/","title":{"rendered":"Toxicologists endorsing Dourson\u2019s nomination are birds of a feather"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Richard Denison, Ph.D.,\u00a0<\/em>is a Lead Senior Scientist.<\/p>\n<p><em>[My colleagues Dr. Jennifer McPartland, Lindsay McCormick, Ryan O\u2019Connell, and Dr. Maricel Maffini assisted in the research described in this post.]<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>[Use <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/tag\/dourson\/\">this link <\/a>to see all of our posts on Dourson.]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>When the Trump Administration announced its intention to nominate Michael Dourson to head the office at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) charged with implementing the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), EPA issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.epa.gov\/newsreleases\/widespread-praise-dr-michael-dourson\">news release <\/a>titled \u201cWidespread Praise for Dr. Michael Dourson.\u201d\u00a0 The release cited four toxicologists:\u00a0 Samuel M. Cohen, Jay I. Goodman, Gio Batta Gori and Kendall B. Wallace.<\/p>\n<p>Far from representing a \u201cwidespread\u201d set of endorsers, it turns out these four and Dourson constitute an exceedingly close-knit group. \u00a0<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>My <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/2017\/08\/09\/doursons-go-to-journal-for-publishing-his-industry-funded-papers-is-well-also-industry-funded\/\">last post<\/a> focused on Dourson\u2019s incredibly high rate of publishing his papers in the journal <em>Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology<\/em> that is known for its close ties to the tobacco and chemical industries.\u00a0 It so happens that this journal is also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.journals.elsevier.com\/regulatory-toxicology-and-pharmacology\/editorial-board\">a key thread connecting Dourson to at least three of his endorsers<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dourson and Cohen both serve on the journal\u2019s editorial board;<\/li>\n<li>Goodman is an associate editor of the journal; and<\/li>\n<li>Gori is its editor-in-chief.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What else can be said about these toxicologists who are endorsing Dourson?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dr. Gori<\/strong> has a decades-long history of paid work for the tobacco industry.\u00a0 For details, see these sources:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sourcewatch.org\/index.php\/Gio_Batta_Gori\">SourceWatch<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Landman and Glantz (2009), \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC2600597\/\">Tobacco Industry Efforts to Undermine Policy-Relevant Research<\/a>,\u201d <em>American Journal of Public Health<\/em>, January, Volume 99(1): 45\u201358.<\/li>\n<li>David Michaels (2008), <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Doubt_Is_Their_Product\"><em>Doubt is Their Product:<\/em> <em>How the Industry\u2019s Assault on Science Threatens Your Health<\/em><\/a>, Oxford University Press, pp. 53-54.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Drs. Cohen, Goodman and Wallace, like Dourson, have for many years been paid consultants to a large range of companies and trade associations.\u00a0 For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Based on a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/?term=Samuel+Cohen+nebraska\">PubMed search<\/a>, <strong>Cohen<\/strong> has co-authored papers published over just the past six years that were funded by the Arsenic Science Task Force and the Organic Arsenic Products Task Force, the American Chemistry Council, Sumitomo Chemical Company, a Permethrin Data Group operating under the auspices of the Consumer Specialty Products Association, the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association, the International Organization of Flavor Industries, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johnson &amp; Johnson, and Boehringer Ingelheim.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Goodman<\/strong> has <a href=\"https:\/\/scholars.opb.msu.edu\/en\/persons\/jay-i-goodman-2\/projects\/?status=FINISHED\">received grant money <\/a>over many years from RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, and has also done paid work for the American Chemistry Council and Pharmacia. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/?term=Jay+Goodman+Michigan\">PubMed search <\/a>found recent papers he co-authored funded by Syngenta Crop Protection, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, The Dow Chemical Company, and the American Chemistry Council.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Wallace<\/strong> has done extensive work on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.osha.gov\/SLTC\/flavoringlung\/diacetyl.html\">diacetyl <\/a>(the artificial popcorn butter flavoring linked to severe lung damage in workers) paid for by ConAgra. This included a paper, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/24804334\">Safe exposure level for diacetyl<\/a>\u201d (later retracted).\u00a0 Based on a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/?term=Kendall+Wallace+Minnesota\">PubMed search<\/a>, he has done work on perfluorinated substances over a number of years for 3M Company.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All four of the toxicologists endorsing Dourson have also worked together.\u00a0 They are co-authors on two highly controversial 2016 papers that attack the role of science linking chemical exposures and human health effects in risk assessment and regulation, and the identification and regulation of endocrine-disrupting chemicals.\u00a0 See <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0300483X16302037\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0273230016302562\">here<\/a>.\u00a0 The latter paper is published in &#8230; you guessed it, the industry\u2019s go-to journal<em> Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Like I said, it\u2019s a very close-knit group of heavily conflicted scientists that are providing that \u201cwidespread praise\u201d for Dourson\u2019s nomination.<\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/2017\/07\/24\/epa-toxics-nominee-has-been-paid-by-dozens-of-companies-to-work-on-dozens-of-chemicals\/#more-6675\">I noted earlier about Dourson<\/a>, these industry consultants have every right to make their living however they choose.\u00a0 And the tobacco and chemical industries have every right to hire whomever they want.\u00a0 But Dourson\u2019s nomination is for a position that is supposed to serve the public\u2019s interests, not those of the chemical industry.\u00a0 It simply must be asked:\u00a0 Who really stands to benefit if he\u2019s confirmed?\u00a0 The endorsements of Dourson by this group of wholly like-minded individuals who have the same deep conflicts as Dourson himself shouldn\u2019t count for much.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Current EPA political appointees already include a number of industry insiders.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.edfaction.org\/sites\/edactionfund.org\/files\/trumps-epa-polluters-all-star-team.pdf\"><strong><u>Click here to see brief thumbnails on individuals who have already been installed.<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Richard Denison, Ph.D.,\u00a0is a Lead Senior Scientist. [My colleagues Dr. Jennifer McPartland, Lindsay McCormick, Ryan O\u2019Connell, and Dr. Maricel Maffini assisted in the research described in this post.] [Use this link to see all of our posts on Dourson.] When the Trump Administration announced its intention to nominate Michael Dourson to head the office at &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,5009,56093,114108],"tags":[91812],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-6758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policy","category-health-science","category-industry-influence","category-tsca","tag-dourson"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6758"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12803,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6758\/revisions\/12803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6758"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}