Harvard Doc Falsifies Fluoride/Cancer Data?

Guest

http://www.ewg.org/issues/fluoride/20050627/index.php

Harvard Fluoride Findings Misrepresented?

Environmental Working Group (EWG) has obtained documents suggesting
that the Chairman of the Department of Oral Health Policy and
Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine falsified
reporting to the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Chester Douglass
has received several years of large federal grants to study the
possible relationship between bone cancer in boys and drinking
fluoridated water. Reporting on the findings of this funding, he told
federal officials unequivocally that there was no relationship, but the
grant-funded publication he cited found exactly the opposite. In fact,
the research was done by a former doctoral student of Douglass's and
was the most rigorous study of its kind to date.

Douglass has made the same assertion to the National Academy of
Sciences panel now reviewing the safety of fluoridated drinking water.
He is the publisher of a Colgate-funded fluoride journal.

EWG has filed an ethics complaint against Douglass with the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=91857

Claim: Doctor fudged fluoride findings
By Jessica Heslam
Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - Updated: 05:00 AM EST

An environmental watchdog group plans to file a complaint today with
federal medical authorities claiming a Harvard doctor is fudging
research findings.

The Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group said Dr.
Chester Douglass reported no link between fluoride and bone cancer in
boys, contradicting extensive research done by one of his doctoral
students.

Douglass, a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of
Dental Medicine, has been given grant money, possibly more than $1
million, by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to
research whether there is a link between fluoride and bone cancer in
boys, the non-profit group alleges.

One of his dental doctoral students, Dr. Elise Bassin, did an
extensive study that found a link between fluoridated tap water and
bone cancer in adolescent boys, the group said. Douglass was the lead
adviser on her doctoral thesis and signed off on her research, the
group claims.

Despite his student's findings, Douglass told federal health
officials in his grant report that there is no correlation, according
to the group. Douglass did not send the NIEHS the student's research
but summarized it himself.

Douglass is the editor-in-chief of the Colgate Oral Care Report, a
newsletter that goes to dentists and is supported by toothpaste
manufacturer Colgate Palmolive.

Douglass could not be reached for comment last night. Bassin's
research has never been published and access to it is restricted by
Harvard, the group said.

``It sure seems pretty outrageous,'' said EWG spokesman Mike
Casey. ``We're absolutely perplexed.''

It appears Douglass violated federal research rules, according to
the group's complaint, which they plan to file with the NIEHS.

Google