Group calls on NIH to remove Harvard professor from fluoride-cancer study

A scientist accused of covering up research, showing a link between fluoride in tap water and osteosarcoma, must be removed from the ongoing NIH study.

BURLINGTON VT - The Fluoride Action Network (FAN) has urged that a Harvard
Professor be removed from a research group studying the association between
fluoride and osteosarcoma because his objectivity and ethics are disputed and
he has ties to a company that profits from fluoride. FAN also urges other steps
be taken to ensure this study meets the highest standards of scientific
integrity.
 
In June, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) charged Chester Douglass, a professor
at Harvard and editor of Colgate’s oral health newsletter, with suppressing
research linking fluoridation to osteosarcoma, a rare but frequently fatal form
of bone cancer. (1) Douglass remains central to the ongoing project.
 
In a letter sent to Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, the Director of the National
Institutes of Health (NIH), FAN requests that Douglass be replaced with a
scientist who is independent of the fluoridation debate, and has no other
conflict of interest. (2) FAN also requests the NIH make the data of the $1.3
million taxpayer-funded study freely available for full independent review.
 
EWG recently issued an ethics complaint against Douglass for misrepresenting
his doctoral student's successful dissertation linking fluoridation to osteosarcoma.
(3)
 
Elise Bassin, Douglass' doctoral student, analyzed data collected from U.S. hospitals in the early 1990s by a team of scientists led by
Douglass and funded by NIH. In her case-control study, Bassin found that males
exposed to fluoridated water during their "mid-childhood growth
spurt" (ages 6 to 8) had a significantly increased risk of later
developing osteosarcoma. Bassin described the findings as "remarkably
robust." (4)
 
Bassin's dissertation, completed in May 2001 but unpublished and unknown prior
to FAN obtaining a copy earlier this year, was recently sent to several expert
reviewers by a Wall Street Journal science writer. The reviewers found
it to be of "publishable quality."  The head of oral health at
the CDC, and fluoridation supporter, William Maas said, "She did great
shoe-leather epidemiology." (5)  According to EWG, Bassin's work
"is the most rigorous study of the link between bone cancer and fluoride
in tap water ever conducted in the United States." (6)
 
Prior to the discovery of Bassin's results, the only information available on
Douglass' research was a very brief summary published in 1995 in the Journal
of Dental Research where Douglass reported no link between fluoridation and
bone cancer. (7)  Despite assurances by Douglass that a more comprehensive
analysis of his data would be forthcoming, Douglass never published the study.
 
"It's been 10 years now, and Douglass has yet to publish the findings of
his first study," says Paul Connett, PhD, Executive Director of  FAN.
"Now that we know what his data showed, Douglass' failure to disclose
these findings is deeply troubling. It will simply not be possible for us or
the general public to have confidence in any further work he produces on this
matter."
 
Summarizing Connett says, “With lives at risk and the public's trust at stake,
the NIH cannot afford anything less than to secure scrupulous scientific
integrity on this study.  We are asking that NIH do three things: 1)
remove Douglass from the study; 2) demonstrate that none of the other study
members has any other conflict of interest or ties to the government's
fluoridation program, and, 3) make the data of the study, not just the
conclusions, available for independent analysis and review.”

Contact:

Paul Connett, PhD
Executive Director, Fluoride Action Network
Tel: 315-379-9200
Email: paul@fluoridealert.org



References:
 
(1) Washington Post, "Professor
at Harvard is Being Investigated," July 13, 2005.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/12/AR2005071201277.html

(2) http://www.fluoridealert.org/letter-to-NIH.htm

(3) Environmental Working Group, "Harvard Fluoride
Findings Misrepresented?" July 13, 2005. http://www.ewg.org/issues/fluoride/20050627/index.php

(4) Bassin EB. (2001). Association Between Fluoride in
Drinking Water During Growth and Development and the Incidence of Ostosarcoma
for Children and Adolescents. Doctoral Thesis, Harvard School of Dental
Medicine. http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/cancer/bassin-2001.pdf

(5) Wall Street
Journal, "Fluoridation, Cancer: Did Researchers Ask the Right
Questions?" July 22, 2005.
http://www.fluoridealert.org/news/2323.html

(6) http://ewg.org/issues_content/fluoride/20050627/pdf/ltr_strother_20050627.pdf

(7) Journal of Dental
Research 1995; Volume 74, Page 98.
http://www.fluoridealert.org/images/douglass-1995.gif

 
 
 SOURCE: Fluoride Action Network www.FluorideAction.Net