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News :: Miscellaneous |
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New Web Site Discloses Scientists' Links to Industry |
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by Center for Science in the Public Interest
(No verified email address) |
17 May 2001
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WASHINGTON - May 16 - The nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) today launched an Internet site to provide information about the links between hundreds of scientists -- mostly in the fields of nutrition, environment, toxicology, and medicine -- and corporations. The site is freely available at www.integrityinscience.org |
This site also provides information about some of the corporate support received by dozens of professional, health, and nonprofit organizations, including such organizations as the International Life Sciences Institute, American Council on Science and Health, and American Dietetic Association.
CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson said: "Corporations increasingly are funding academic scientists to conduct research, speak at press conferences, and provide advice. Too frequently, neither the scientists nor the corporations disclose that funding. Today, we have begun to lift that veil of secrecy by providing journalists, activists, policy makers, and the public with information about the links between more than 1,100 scientists and industry. The list will be expanded in the coming months.
"Important health and environmental policies can be distorted by scientists who assert objectivity, but who receive funding from affected industries. The result could be more pollution, unsafe food additives, and dangerous consumer products," said Jacobson.
Concern about scientific conflicts of interest has soared in recent years, thanks in part to controversies such as the New England Journal of Medicine's failure to enforce its disclosure guidelines and the University of Pennsylvania's failure to adequately disclose its conflicts to a patient who died during a clinical drug trial.
More recently, a controversy has swirled around John Graham, who directs the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, which receives substantial funding from over 100 companies and trade associations.
This week, a Senate committee will consider Graham's nomination to an important position in the Office of Management and Budget.
Ronald Collins, director of CSPI's Integrity in Science project, said: "We hope that this Web site will encourage journalists to report on scientists' funding from industry. All too often reporters quote scientists without providing the public with needed information about their ties to industry, thus giving the impression that they have no such affiliations.
"Of course, just because a scientist receives industry funding does not necessarily mean that he or she is biased or wrong. Rather, receipt of such funding is one of many factors that need to be considered in evaluating a scientist's statements," added Collins.
"Helping reporters spot possible corporate puppets masquerading as independent scientists is an important advance for democracy," said Morton Mintz, former Washington Post reporter and former chair of the Fund for Investigative Journalism. "CSPI," he added "deserves profound thanks from the press and public."
"Since no laws make public the financial conflicts of interest that exist among academic scientists," noted Professor Sheldon Krimsky of Tufts University, "CSPI's data base provides a valuable way for citizens and the media to gain a better understanding of an important source of bias in science and policy."
The Center for Science in the Public Interest encourages the use of science for the betterment of the public health and the environment. CSPI is well-known for winning passage of legislation requiring "Nutrition Facts" food labels and for its studies of the nutritional quality of restaurant foods. It also has projects on antibiotic resistance and alcohol problems. It is supported by the more than 800,000 subscribers to its Nutrition Action Healthletter and by charitable foundations; CSPI does not accept funding from industry or government.
Website: http://www.cspinet.org/ |
See also:
http://www.integrityinscience.org
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