Some chemicals can cause cancer. But the chemical industry, unable to get the results it wants from toxicologists at the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, is now trying to get them by using lawyers, lobbyists, and legislators.
"RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. -- In the 1980s, toxicologist James Huff was a bane of industry’s existence.
A blunt Philadelphian, Huff helped supervise animal tests here at the National Institute of Environment Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health. Mice and rats were dosed with chemicals, and Huff and his colleagues publicized the results when tumors sprouted. People needed to know about “blowout” carcinogens, Huff said. He didn’t care who was upset.
Now, three decades later, Huff cites industry’s growing and “perverse” influence on science. “They’re more clever, more sophisticated,” said Huff, 75, who retired this year but remains a guest researcher at NIEHS. “They spend a lot of time in Congress.”"
Jim Morris reports for the Center for Public Integrity July 30, 2013.
