Federal environmental health agency's actions to be reviewed

Austin American Statesman, Jeff Nesmith
Published August 23, 2007

WASHINGTON — Buffeted by charges of mismanagement and conflicts of interest, the agency responsible for federal research on environmental causes of disease will be subjected to a comprehensive review of financial and ethical issues, the National Institutes of Health announced Tuesday. Agency Director Elias Zerhouni said in a news release that he was ordering the review of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program to "help clarify the issues that have recently surfaced." He said Dr. David Schwartz, a former Duke University pulmonologist who was appointed to head the environmental health institute in 2005, had agreed to temporarily step aside. The announcement comes less than two weeks after a report by an environmental health institute-convened panel of 12 outside experts, who declared they had found little cause for concern about the health effects of the pervasive, hormone-mimicking chemical bisphenol A. The chemical is used to line soft drink cans and make plastic food containers. The panel reviewed scientific studies selected by Sciences International, a consulting firm with a $5 million contract with the environmental health institute. The firm was fired after an environmental advocacy organization, the Environmental Working Group, reported that it had ties to Dow Chemical Corp., one of the world's largest producers of bisphenol A. A different panel with no connection to the environmental health institute had earlier found "great cause for concern" that exposure of fetuses and newborns to the chemical might be responsible for a wide range of developmental problems. The environmental health institute has also come under criticism in the past several months over spending policies and Schwartz's management practices. In an e-mail, Schwartz told environmental health institute employees that "although this development is personally painful, I am committed to a full and comprehensive review," and he urged them to cooperate. The environmental health institute, which has a budget of about $700 million a year and is based in Research Triangle Park, N.C., is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health. In addition to biomedical research done by its own scientists on how environmental factors affect disease, the agency funds studies by independent researchers throughout the country. Although housed at the environmental health institute, the National Toxicology Program is a multi-agency office funded by the National Institutes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration. One of the chief critics of the environmental health institute has been Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who has questioned Schwartz's diversion of funds to his personal laboratory at the agency, his appearance as a defense witness in an asbestos lawsuit and what Grassley said were threats against agency employees who talked to his investigators.