CONGRESS PUSHES PROBE ON NIEHS DIRECTOR AS MAGAZINE LANGUISHES

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_http://notes.sej.org/sej/tipsheet.nsf/80c21fb7123767b586256cd0000f3f91/AE8F1D

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Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ)

TipSheet item

EXCERPT as follows

Publication date: Apr. 4, 2007

CONGRESS PUSHES PROBE ON NIEHS DIRECTOR AS MAGAZINE LANGUISHES

A House investigative subcommittee has launched a major probe into the

National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences, putting its director

under a

cloud as the agency's world-renowned environmental health magazine remained

in jeopardy.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), who chairs the House Oversight Subcommittee on

Domestic Policy, and full Oversight Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman

(D-CA), sent a letter March 30, 2007, to NIEHS Director A. Schwartz,

requesting a wide range of documents. They related not only to Schwartz's

planned

" privatization " of NIEHS' flagship magazine, Environmental Health Perspectives,

but also to Schwartz's personal conduct as director.

The letter was a blockbuster.

[http://oversight.house.gov/Documents/20070402143212-08373.pdf]

Allegations of waste, conflict of interest, political manipulation, and

impropriety have swirled around the agency, which Schwartz took over as

director

in April 2005. The subcommittee's document request seemed calculated to

resolve many of those allegations by either proving or disproving them with

documentary evidence.

One of several triggers for the probe has been Schwartz's aggressive push to

privatize, cut back, and reduce access to Environmental Health Perspectives,

widely regarded as one of the most successful of U.S. scientific journals

and a keystone in projecting NIEHS' stature as a global research leader.

....Many in the public health community fear that Schwartz's dogged efforts to

cut

the magazine are actually an effort to silence it.....

........ ....

FURTHER SOURCES

* _ " Nominee For NIEHS Has Second Thoughts; Schwartz Says Conflict

Rules Limit Recruiting, " _

(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10974-2005Mar29.html)

Washington Post, March 30, 2005, by Rick Weiss.

* _ " Official To Accept NIH Position After Zerhouni Promises Looser

Conflict-of-Interest Guidelines, " _

(http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=24730) Kaiser Daily

Health Policy Report via Medical News Today,

May 20, 2005. See also _ " Doctor Reconsiders, Will Take NIH Job, " _

(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/17/AR2005051701321\

..html)

Washington Post, May 18, 2005, by Dan Eggen and Rick Weiss with wires (scroll

down).

* _ " Health Agency Watchdog To Re-Examine 103 Ethics Cases, " _

(http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20070329-1406-researchethics.html)

Associated Press via San Diego Union-Tribune, March 29, 2007, by Rita Beamish.

* Previous Stories: WatchDogs of _March 7, 2007,_

(http://notes.sej.org/sej/tipsheet.nsf/80c21fb7123767b586256cd0000f3f91/102D5523\

84E3004F86257297007D

1C3F?OpenDocument) and _Jan. 24, 2007._

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