University of Wisconsin linked to ghostwritten articles

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters John Fauber and Meg Kissinger reviewed unsealed court records and found that at a time when fears were growing about the link between hormone therapy and breast cancer a drug company paid the University of Wisconsin Medical School to sponsor ghostwritten medical education articles that downplayed the risk. The article is part of the paper’s Side Effects series which looks at conflicts between drug companies, universities and doctors.

Internal Food and Drug Administration documents indicate that an FDA official overruled agency scientists and approved the sale of an imaging device for breast cancer after receiving a phone call from a Connecticut congressman. The legislator’s call and its effect on what is supposed to be a science-based approval process is only one of many of accusations in documents obtained by The New York Times regarding disputes within the Food and Drug Administration's office of device evaluation.

 In the latest installment of their ongoing 18-month investigation, Susanne Rust and Meg Kissinger of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency routinely allows companies to keep new information about their chemicals secret, including compounds that have been shown to cause cancer and respiratory problems. The newspaper examined more than 2,000 filings in the EPA's registry of dangerous chemicals for the past three years. In more than half the cases, the EPA agreed to keep the chemical name hidden from public view. In hundreds of other cases, it allowed the company filing the report to keep its name and address confidential. This is despite a federal law calling for public notice of any new information through the EPA's program monitoring chemicals that pose substantial risk. The whole idea of the program is to warn the public of newfound dangers.

Here's the link to the whole series. 

Joaquin Sapien of ProPublica reports that the CDC's original report on the safety of FEMA trailers dispensed to Hurricane Katrina victims was fundamentally flawed. While an agency standard states that formaldehyde exposure for two-weeks or more at levels measuring 30 parts per billion (ppb) can lead to health problems — the FEMA trailers all measured above this level — the study used a measure of 300 ppb.  At this level, the CDC proclaimed the trailers fit for residents as long as they kept the windows open. An investigation by ProPublica shows flawed science and failed communication between government agencies allowed conflicting information about the trailers' safety to continue to circulate. "The story that emerged is of a government bureaucracy that remained silent as the formaldehyde crisis mounted, straying from its mission to serve the public by 'providing trusted health information to prevent harmful exposures and disease related to toxic substances.'"

In a second installment of "Chemical Fallout," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters Susanne Rust, Meg Kissinger and Cary Spivak found that the chemical industry has funded much of the science claiming that the popular chemical bisphenol A is safe. The reporters built a database of 258 scientific studies spanning 20 years of research into the chemical and found that 80 percent of the research showed the chemical poses health risks to laboratory animals. Bisphenol A can be found in hard plastics — including baby bottles, dental sealants, PVC pipes and reusable water bottles.

Alison Young of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution analyzed awards recieved by the employees of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to show that the most
frequent large cash awards and performance bonuses are recieved not by scientists, but
mostly budget analysts, accountants, computer experts and other
administrative managers. "The 72 CDC employees who received five or more awards of at least $2,500
from 2000 through July 21, primarily work in non-science jobs. Some got
$30,000, $50,000 and in one case more than $140,000 in cumulative bonus cash
beyond their salaries." As the CDC faces morale problems and the loss of key scientific leaders, the
distribution awards provides evidence, critics say, that the Atlanta-based
agency is becoming more focused on management and bureaucracy and less on
its public health mission.

Patricia Callahan, Jeremy Manier and Delroy Alexander of the Chicago Tribune examined tobacco-lawsuit documents to show that America's largest foodmaker and its biggest cigarette company have pooled expertise in search of more alluring foods and cigarettes since the dawn of their corporate pairing two decades ago. "Documents show Northfield-based Kraft collaborated on flavor issues with some of the same Philip Morris brain researchers who probed what gives cigarettes their kick. None of those scientists was more controversial than Frank Gullotta, a former top Philip Morris researcher whose brain experiments suggested the company knew more than it claimed about cigarettes' addictive nature." The documents reveal Kraft and Philip Morris discussed investing jointly in brain scans to study how the brain processes tastes and smells. Food scientists even helped their tobacco counterparts make experimental cigarettes — working after-hours in a German coffee plant.

Sam Roe and Michael Hawthorne of the Chicago Tribune published a three-part series on the presence of mercury in fish sold in supermarkets. “In one of the nation’s most comprehensive studies of mercury in commercial fish, testing by the newspaper showed that a variety of popular seafood was so tainted that federal regulators could confiscate the fish for violating food safety rules. The testing also showed that mercury is more pervasive in fish than what the government has told the public, making it difficult for consumers to avoid the problem, no matter where they shop.” In addition to conducting its own tests, the paper relied on documents and interviews for the series.

Randy Lee Loftis of The Dallas Morning News reviewed government test results to show that the Army Corps of Engineers is planning one of the biggest environmental clean ups ever attempted in New Orleans. According to the report, part of an extensive look at the rebuilding of New Orleans, the clean up would involve scraping miles of sediment laced with cancer-causing chemicals from New Orleans' hurricane-flooded neighborhoods. "The clean-up plans would also include crews using front-end loaders to scoop up contaminated sediment that Hurricane Katrina floods left in yards, playgrounds and other spots throughout the greater New Orleans area." Despite one widely publicized study that said the Katrina floodwater was no more polluted than typical urban floods, the examination of the EPA's tests of flood-deposited sediments reveals long-term health concerns if the contamination were to remain.

"Toxic Legacy" is a five-part series by reporters at The Record
exploring the environmental and health impacts of paint sludge and other
industrial waste dumped a generation ago in watersheds and other
environmentally sensitive areas by the Ford Motor Co. For 25 years, ending
in 1980, the automaker operated a massive assembly plant in Bergen County
that produced nearly 6 million vehicles and an ocean of industrial waste. Much of that waste remains where it was dumped, including a woodland
watershed that's home to a low-income community whose members claim Native
American ancestry. "The Record found that Ford repeatedly dumped in poor communities and failed to clean up its mess. "The tract was subjected to a Superfund cleanup, but the
EPA repeatedly declared the site clean even though slabs of paint sludge and
other waste was still readily apparent.