Whistleblower Protections for Industry Scientists

[Guest guest]

Whistleblower Protections for Industry Scientists

Wired News

By Keim

July 06, 2007 | 1:30:03 PMCategories: Government, Synthetic Biology

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/07/whistleblower-p.html

Do scientists who go public with concerns about potentially

dangerous research deserve special whistleblower protections?

The idea was suggested to me by is Vlandas, a nanotechnology

expert with the International Network of Engineers and Scientists

for Global Responsibility.

I interviewed Vlandas about how synthetic biology should be

regulated. He feels that the products of synthetic biology could

pose unexpected risks to human and environmental health. This, he

said, shouldn't stop the science, but with companies under ever-

increasing pressure to turn research into products, there's a

heightened danger that concerns will be dismissed and mistakes made.

To minimize the chance of this, said Vlandas, scientists need a way

to voice concerns without risking their jobs.

There needs to be a way for scientists to come out and

say, " Something is wrong in my lab. " We need whistleblower

protection for scientists. It's part of early response.... We need

to make sure to protect scientists who, if they come out, lose

everything.

How many fields of our lives dependent on technology? How many times

did someone know, somewhere, somehow, that something was wrong, and

was not willing or able to say? We should recognize this.

The federal Whistleblower Protection Act protects both public and

private-sector employees from punishment for dropping a dime on

lawbreaking practices. (Its coverage of NIH scientists has been the

subject of legal battles, but fortunately the researchers won.)

However, it doesn't cover scientists who might worry about something

that doesn't break the law, but could harm the public -- for

example, a microbe built from scratch and tested too hastily.

Vlandas' suggestion is sure to scare industry, but it seems like a

reasonable compromise, and one that could have benefits far beyond

synthetic biology. (The whistleblowing doesn't have to involve the

media, either; there could be a government agency established to

handle the claims.) It's easy to imagine a drug company scientist

who, worried about the risks of a product, goes to his bosses but is

rebuffed because of the economic pressures they face. If he goes

public, though, the researcher could be fired and his career

destroyed. Wouldn't it be great if people in that situation could

follow their conscience without fear?

[Guest guest]

Mold inspectors need to have some kind of law that requires them to release

results of mold tests to people who work or live in the buildings they test

and not merely to the people who hire them.

Often, the people who live in an apartment building or work in a building or

whose kids go to a school, try in vain to have the management give them the

results of mold testing and they are met with silence and stonewalling.

The mold consultants are prohibited from giving the results to anyone

without their permission, that is just wrong.

After all, they have to breathe the stuff.

[Guest guest]

WOULDN'T IT BE GREAT IF DOCTORS ALSO HAD THIS PROTECTION AND WOULDN'T

HAVE TO FEAR BEING FIRED FOR TESTING AND TREATING A ILLNESS LIKE

MOLD/MYCO EXPOSURE. OR SHOULD I SAY IDIOPATHIC ILLNESSES.

>

> Whistleblower Protections for Industry Scientists

> Wired News

> By Keim

>

> July 06, 2007 | 1:30:03 PMCategories: Government, Synthetic

Biology

>

> http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/07/whistleblower-p.html

>

> Do scientists who go public with concerns about potentially

> dangerous research deserve special whistleblower protections?

>