Who writes toxicology education for judges?

[Guest guest]

Who writes toxicology education for judges?

FYI, who is writing the scientific education material that

is being used to educate judges?

One example:

BERNARD GOLDSTEIN, M.D.

Dr. Goldstein is Director of the Environmental and

Occupational Health Sciences Institute and Professor and

Chair of the Department of Environmental and Community

Medicine at UMDNJ - Wood Medical School. His

research has primarily been in laboratory toxicology but he

also has had a long interest in risk policy. Dr. Goldstein

is a member of the Institute of Medicine and Chair of the

IOM Section on Public Health, Biostatistics, and

Epidemiology. Among the NAS /IOM/NRC committees he has

chaired have been the Committee on Naturally Occurring

Radioactive Materials for the National Academy of Sciences.

He was also the NAS -appointed member of the

Presidential/Congressional Commission on Risk Assessment

and Risk Management. Dr. Goldstein is the former head of

the EPA \rquote s Office of Research and Development. He is

a past recipient of the Ambassador of Toxicology Award of

the Mid -Atlantic Chapter of the Society of Toxicology and

the A. Kehoe Award of Merit of the American College

of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

American Academy of Judicial Education - AAJE

FJC Resource Catalog

http://www.fjc.gov/library/fjc_catalog.nsf

Science in the Courtroom Program 4: Basic Principles of

Toxicology

J. Breyer; Bernard D. Goldstein

Federal Judicial Television Network (FJTN)

Federal Judicial Center

February 7, 2001

4049-V/01 (one videotape) (59 minutes) (print material)

This is the fourth of six programs in the FJC's Science in

the Courtroom series. After an introduction by Justice

Breyer, Dr. Bernard D. Goldstein, Chairman of the

Department of Environmental & Community Medicine at the

Wood Medical School, discusses basic

principles of toxicology. Judges and juries are often

presented with toxicological evidence as the basis of an

expert's opinion on causation in toxic tort cases.

Dr. Goldstein explains basic toxicological research

methods, the extrapolation of study results from animal and

cell research to humans, how toxicologists identify factors

demonstrating an association between exposure to a compound

and the risk of disease, and factors that may indicate a

causal association between an individual's exposure to an

agent and the onset of a disease. Dr. Goldstein is a

coauthor of the " Reference Guide on Toxicology " in the

Center's Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence (2d ed.).

Inconsistency in Evidentiary Standards for Medical

Testimony: Disorder in the Courts (by Jerome P.

Kassirer, MD and Joe S. Cecil, PhD, JD; JAMA, Sept.

18, 2002 - vol 288, No.11, copyright American Medical

Association; www.JAMA.com

Abstract:

" The courts appear to be asserting standards that they

attribute to the medical profession, but that are

inconsistent and sometimes more demanding than actual

medical practice. As a result, plaintiffs seeking

compensation for an illness attributed to a toxic

exposure lose the opportunity to present their

evidence to a jury. In addition, because courts have

disallowed medical experts from providing information

consistent with these requirements, some physicians

now decline in frustration to participate in legal

proceedings. In this article, we review cases that

illustrate inconsistencies in the courts' approach to

medical expert testimony. We argue that while there

may be good reason to require evidence of a higher

quality and quantity than a physician would require

ordinary clinical decision making, as some courts have

done, this practice is not faithful to the mandate of

the Supreme Court. "

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