Fluoride-Cancer Study Cover Up

Group calls on NIH to remove Harvard professor from fluoride-cancer study.

The Fluoride Action Network (FAN), today urged that a Harvard Professor
be removed from a research group studying the association between
fluoride and osteosarcoma because his objectivity and ethics are
disputed and he has ties to a company that profits from fluoride. FAN
also urges other steps be taken to ensure this study meets the highest
standards of scientific integrity.

In June, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) charged Chester Douglass,
a professor at Harvard and editor of Colgate 's oral health newsletter,
with suppressing research linking fluoridation to osteosarcoma, a rare
but frequently fatal form of bone cancer. (1) Douglass remains central
to the ongoing project.

In a letter sent today to Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, the Director of the
National Institutes of Health (NIH), FAN requests that Douglass be
replaced with a scientist who is independent of the fluoridation debate,
and has no other conflict of interest. (2) FAN also requests the NIH
make the data of the $1.3 million taxpayer-funded study freely available
for full independent review.

EWG recently issued an ethics complaint against Douglass for
misrepresenting his doctoral student's successful dissertation linking
fluoridation to osteosarcoma. (3)

Elise Bassin, Douglass' doctoral student, analyzed data collected from
U.S. hospitals in the early 1990s by a team of scientists led by
Douglass and funded by NIH. In her case-control study, Bassin found that
males exposed to fluoridate d water during their "mid-childhood growth
spurt" (ages six to eight) had a significantly increased risk of later
developing osteosarcoma. Bassin described the findings as "remarkably
robust." (4)

Bassin's dissertation, completed in May 2001 but unpublished and unknown
prior to FAN obtaining a copy earlier this year, was recently sent to
several expert reviewers by a Wall Street Journal science writer. The
reviewers found it to be of "publishable quality." The head of oral
health at the CDC, and fluoridation supporter, William Maas said, "She
did great shoe-leather epidemiology." (5) According to EWG, Bassin's
work "is the most rigorous study of the link between bone cancer and
fluoride in tap water ever conducted in the United States." (6)

Prior to the discovery of Bassin's results, the only information
available on Douglass' research was a very brief summary published in
1995 in the Journal of Dental Research where Douglass reported no link
between fluoridation and b one cancer. (7) Despite assurances by
Douglass that a more comprehensive analysis of his data would be
forthcoming, Douglass never published the study.

"It's been 10 years now, and Douglass has yet to publish the findings of
his first study," says Paul Connett, PhD, Executive Director of FAN.
"Now that we know what his data showed, Douglass' failure to disclose
these findings is deeply troubling. It will simply not be possible for
us or the general public to have confidence in any further work he
produces on this matter."

Summarizing Connett says, "With lives at risk and the public's trust at
stake, the NIH cannot afford anything less than to secure scrupulous
scientific integrity on this study. We are asking that NIH do three
things: 1) remove Douglass from the study; 2) demonstrate that none of
the other study members has any other conflict of interest or ties to
the government's fluoridation program, and, 3) make the data of the
study, not just the conclusions, available for independent analysis and
review."

Contact:

Paul Connett, PhD
Executive Director, Fluoride Action Network <http://www.fluoridealert.org/>
Tel: 315-379-9200
Email: paul@fluoridealert.org <mailto:%20paul@fluoridealert.org>

Carol Kopf
Media Relations Director, Fluoride Action Network
Email: carol@fluoridealert.org <mailto:%20carol@fluoridealert.org>

References:

(1) Washington Post, "Professor at Harvard is Being Investigated," July
13, 2005.
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/12/AR2005071201277.html>

(2) www.fluoridealert.org/letter-to-NIH.htm

<http://www.fluoridealert.org/letter-to-NIH.htm>(3) Environmental
Working Group, "Harvard Fluoride Findings Misrepresented?" July 13,
2005. <http://www.ewg.org/issues/fluoride/20050627/index.php>

(4) Bassin EB. (2001). Association Between Fluoride in Drinking Water
During Growth and Development and the Incidence of Ostosarcoma for
Children and Adolescents. Doctoral Thesis, Harvard School of Dental
Medicine <http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/cancer/bassin-2001.pdf>.

(5) Wall Street Journal, "Fluoridation, Cancer: Did Researchers Ask the
Right Questions?", July 22, 2005
<http://www.fluoridealert.org/news/2323.html>.

(6) http://tinyurl.com/bg7ez

(7) Journal of Dental Research 1995; Volume 74, Page 98.
<http://www.fluoridealert.org/images/douglass-1995.gif>

23.8.05