IJOEH March 2008, Industry Partisanship of ACOEM

[Guest guest]

Setting the Record Straight: A Response to IJOEH An Open Letter to ACOEM

Members _http://www.acoem.org/ResponseToIJOEH.aspx_

(http://www.acoem.org/ResponseToIJOEH.aspx)

K. McLellan, MD, MPH, FACOEM

President

Industry Partisanship of ACOEM

_http://www.ijoeh.com/index.php/ijoeh/article/view/94/82_

(http://www.ijoeh.com/index.php/ijoeh/article/view/94/82)

LADOU,MD; TEITELBAUM, MD; EGILMAN, MD, MPH; FRANK, MD, PHD;

KRAMER;HUFF, PHD.

To the Editor:—Two articles published in IJOEH1,2 provoked a response from

McLellan,

President of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

(ACOEM). Although

Dr. McLellan’s letter published here does not address any specific points of

disagreement with our article, he

has posted an “Open Letter to ACOEM Members†on his organization’s web

site

<_www.acoem.org/_ (http://www.acoem.org/)

ResponseToIJOEH.aspx> that does raise several points that, in our view,

require a response.

McLellan’s criticisms of our papers are unjustified. The “Open Letterâ€

takes issue with our assertion

that ACOEM board members prioritize the interests of corporate employers and

insurers over

improving occupational and environmental health. McLellan states that only

24% of ACOEM’s members

work in a corporate setting, and that the board reflects that makeup. Our

research shows that seven (43%) of the board’s members work for corporations

or

for consultants that provide services to employers, or the insurance and

healthcare industries. Three work for for-profit health providers. The

remaining

six work in academic settings; we are not sure whether these six receive

corporate funding. The board contains no representation from government,

worker,

or environmental advocacy groups.3 Board member affiliations

notwithstanding, ACOEM priorities are evident from the actions the organization

has taken

over the

years....

....Finally, in his “Open Letter,†McLellan mentions the ACOEM’s “

Cornerstone Project†as an example of the organization’s positive public

health

efforts. In response to our request for information on this project, ACOEM’s

Executive Director sent us the “Special Report†from a March 2007

“Cornerstone

Summit†convened by ACOEM.11 The theme of the summit was “Shaping the Future

of

Occupational Medicine: Finding Opportunities for Collaboration.â€

Participants were “representatives from 7 large employers, 8 payer

organizations

(insurers and third party administrators), and 12 ACOEM members.†The summit

deliberations focused around five central questions.12 The last of these

questions, “

How can ACOEM support employers and insurers in other ways?†says more about

the ACOEM’s priorities than we ever could. Given this effort to

“shape the future of occupational medicine†in line with the interests of

employers and insurers, ACOEM

leadership can hardly take issue with our characterization of their

organization as “a professional association

in service to industry.â€

JOSEPH LADOU, MD

Division of Occupational and

Environmental Medicine

University of California School of

Medicine

San Francisco, CA 94143

DANIEL THAU TEITELBAUM, MD

Adjunct Professor of Environmental

Sciences

Colorado School of Mines

Golden, CO 80401

Associate Clinical Professor of

Preventive Medicine

University of Colorado Health Sciences

at Denver

Denver, CO 80202

DAVID S. EGILMAN, MD, MPH

Clinical Associate Professor

Department of Community Health

Brown University

Providence, RI 02912

ARTHUR L. FRANK, MD, PHD

Professor and Chair

Department of Environmental and

Occupational Health

Drexel University School of Public

Health

Philadelphia, PA 19102

SHARON N. KRAMER

Environmental Health Writer

Escondido, CA 92029

JAMES HUFF, PHD

Associate Director for Chemical

Carcinogenesis

National Institute of Environmental

Health Sciences

Research Triangle Park, NC 27709

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