Groups Condemn HHS’s Politicization of Science

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http://www.cspinet.org/new/200212171.html

 

Bush Administration Stacking the Deck on Key Committees at CDC

 

 

The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) is playing politics with

appointments to key scientific advisory committees at the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention (CDC), citizens’ watchdog groups charged today. The

groups accuse Secretary Tommy Thompson of replacing respected scientists with

industry insiders on influential committees advising on lead poisoning,

environmental health, and other issues.

In recent months, the Bush administration has also come under fire for applying

ideological litmus tests to nominees for key scientific advisory posts, by

quizzing nominees about partisan politics or political issues. Today, the health

and environmental groups told Secretary Thompson that the often-undisclosed

financial ties of the nominees to those posts and the lack of a written

conflict-of-interest policy at CDC runs afoul of the Federal Advisory Committee

Act (FACA).

“CDC has no policies prohibiting or even disclosing conflicts of interest on

these important committees, and the Bush administration has ignored some of the

minimal safeguards that CDC does have,” said Michael F. Jacobson, executive

director of the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest. “The danger

is that corporate interests will exert undue—and nearly unseen—influence over

public-health policy.”

On CDC’s Advisory Committee to the Director of the National Center for

Environmental Health (NCEH), Secretary Thompson replaced a majority of committee

members with people closely tied to energy and chemical interests, apparently

ignoring the advice of NCEH’s director or that committee’s chair. Also, several

Bush administration appointees to CDC’s Advisory Committee on Childhood Lead

Poisoning Prevention are tied to the lead industry or have testified on behalf

of the lead industry.

The groups urged him to direct CDC to require advisory committee members to

disclose possible conflicts of interest and to post those disclosures on CDC’s

web site. The groups also want CDC to adopt uniform policies that prevent undue

influence from special interests. Those policies, say the groups, should

disqualify those who receive honoraria, grants, consulting fees, or other

compensation from industries affected by the committee’s deliberations.

Joining CSPI on the letter to Secretary Thompson are the Alliance to End

Childhood Lead Poisoning; Center for Health, Environment, and Justice; Consumer

Federation of America; Natural Resources Defense Council; OMB Watch; Physicians

for Social Responsibility; Public Citizen; U.S. Public Interest Research Group;

Working Group on Community Right-to-Know; and World Wildlife Fund.

 

 

 

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