Fwd: NIEHS leader out for now

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In a message dated 8/21/2007 2:38:35 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, Salzberg

LVer writes:

NIEHS leader out for now

Dr. Schwartz will step down pending completion of a

management review

Aug 21, 2007

Dr. Schwartz, the embattled director of the National

Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research

Triangle Park, announced Monday he would temporarily step

down while a management review evaluates allegations

against him raised by some members of Congress.

Schwartz, who took over the branch of the National

Institutes of Health in 2005, has been under fire for

maintaining close ties to Duke University, where he worked

before joining the research institute; continuing to

testify in plaintiff's lawsuits after he became director;

and filing expense reports for items some questioned as

excessive or personal expenses.

....

Schwartz broke the news to the more than 600 NIEHS staff by

e-mail Monday. He called his move " personally painful " but

said he felt the review would benefit the institute and the

National Toxicology Program, which he also heads. Schwartz

will serve in the interim as chief of the Laboratory of

Environmental Lung Disease at the National Heart, Lung and

Blood Institute. Serving as acting director of the NIEHS is

Dr. .

Schwartz became the focus of inquiry earlier this year from

Democratic Reps. Henry Waxman of California and Dennis

Kucinich of Ohio.

They raised questions about Schwartz's leadership at the

institute, which studies the relationship between

environmental hazards and diseases. They requested personal

and professional financial records from Schwartz, a

pulmonologist who was hired from Duke to lead the NIEHS at

an annual salary of $250,000, with possible bonuses of more

than $60,000 a year.

....

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