Renowned cancer scientist was paid by chemical firm for 20 years

[Sapphire Blue]

Renowned cancer scientist was paid by chemical firm for 20 years
Sarah Boseley, health editor
Friday December 8, 2006
The Guardian

A world-famous British scientist failed to disclose that he held a paid consultancy with a chemical company for more than 20 years while investigating cancer risks in the industry, the Guardian can reveal.

Sir Richard Doll, the celebrated epidemiologist who established that smoking causes lung cancer, was receiving a consultancy fee of $1,500 a day in the mid-1980s from Monsanto, then a major chemical company and now better known for its GM crops business.

While he was being paid by Monsanto, Sir Richard wrote to a royal Australian commission investigating the potential cancer-causing properties of Agent Orange, made by Monsanto and used by the US in the Vietnam war. Sir Richard said there was no evidence that the chemical caused cancer.

Documents seen by the Guardian reveal that Sir Richard was also paid a £15,000 fee by the Chemical Manufacturers Association and two other major companies, Dow Chemicals and ICI, for a review that largely cleared vinyl chloride, used in plastics, of any link with cancers apart from liver cancer - a conclusion with which the World Health Organisation disagrees. Sir Richard's review was used by the manufacturers' trade association to defend the chemical for more than a decade.

(snip)

Sir Richard died last year. Among his papers in the Wellcome Foundation library archive is a contract he signed with Monsanto. Dated April 29 1986, it extends for a year the consulting agreement that began on May 10 1979 and offers improved terms. "During the one-year period of this extension your consulting fee shall be $1,500 per day," it says.

Continued @ http://www.guardian.co.uk/smoking/Story/0,,1967383,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=11

[Frustratedlady]

1. He was probably met at the Golden Gates by all those guys

who suffered from Agent Orange, not to mention other chemicals. Had some `splainen to do, I'd imagine.

[Wonk]

2. LBN thread here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2644354

[Octafish]

3. What a turd. Probably a whole septic tank more of 'em.

Bill Moyers reported he had something like 230 chemicals coursing through his arteries that his grandparents' generation never ingested.

Info like that is repressed by Bis Science, Big Business, Big Media and those who own and control them.

Filthy scum, perhaps lower than the crazy monkey George W Bush.

[thingfisher]

9. Remember Ewen Cameron, the world famous psychiatrist?

He was paid to conduct human experiments in mind control by the CIA along with many other scientists.
Nothing new about this stuff. Scientists are not necessarily ethical. Many would do anything to fund their research projects.
Americans hold science in to high a regard sometimes.

[Webster Green]

4. Monsanto is evil..

Their GMO crap will destroy the bio-diversity of the planet, if we don't stop them.

[Scriptor Ignotus]

8. I second that

this issue really pisses me off too...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto#Related_legal_actions

Related legal actions

In 1997, Fox News reportedly bowed to pressure from Monsanto to suppress an investigative report on the health risks associated with Monsanto's bovine growth hormone product, Posilac. Posilac, a synthetic drug used to increase milk production in cows, is banned in most first-world countries, with the exception of the United States, where it can be found in much of the milk supply. Fox pressured its reporters, Steve Wilson and Jane Akre, to alter their report, despite evidence that Monsanto had lied about the risks of contaminated milk and infected cattle. The reporters refused to comply, and were eventually fired. Wilson and Akre then sued Fox News in Florida state court, claiming they could not be fired for refusing to do something that they believed to be illegal. In 2000, a Florida jury found in favor of the reporters, however this decision was overturned in 2003 by an appeals court, on a technicality in the interpretation of the whistleblower's statute under which the original case had been filed, as fabricating the news is not actually illegal. The reporters' struggle with Fox News is ongoing. The findings in their original report were never directly challenged. <5> This story can be seen in the feature length documentary film The Corporation. Segments of the documentary have also been leaked onto the popular website, YouTube:<6>

[newburgh]

5. Ever been in a hospital? Ever seen all those well-dressed salespeople in the

lobby? What do you think they're doing there? It happens on a much more micro scale than just big business chemical companies every day in every hospital.

[pecwae]

6. This BS must happen more than we'll ever know.

I wish Sir Richard could have explained why my buddy, who was exposed to AO in Vietnam, has had to have cancerous growths removed from his back twice a year for the past 15 or so years.

[Nikki Stone1]

7. This is an incredibly serious ethical breach

Sadly, one expects this kind of conflict of interest from a major corporation, but one expects more in the way of ethics from a celebrated scientist. The money must have been too much to turn down. (It adds up to a little over half a million dollars per year.)