[IP] Administration Tries to Rein In Scientists
Administration Tries to Rein In Scientists
Health and Human Services Department orders vetting of experts on
panels convened by the U.N.'s health agency.
By Tom Hamburger
Times Staff Writer
June 26, 2004
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has ordered that government
scientists must be approved by a senior political appointee before they
can participate in meetings convened by the World Health Organization,
the leading international health and science agency.
A top official from the Health and Human Services Department in April
asked the WHO to begin routing requests for participation in its
meetings to the department's secretary for review, rather than directly
invite individual scientists, as has long been the case.
Officials at the WHO, based in Geneva, Switzerland, have refused to
implement the request thusfar, saying it could compromise the
independence of international scientific deliberations. Denis G.
Aitken, WHO assistant director-general, said Friday that he had been
negotiating with Washington in an effort to reach a compromise.
The request is the latest instance in which the Bush administration has
been accused of allowing politics to intrude into once-sacrosanct areas
of scientific deliberation. It has been criticized for replacing highly
regarded scientists with industry and political allies on advisory
panels. A biologist who was at odds with the administration's position
on stem-cell research was dismissed from a presidential advisory
commission. This year, 60 prominent scientists accused the
administration of "misrepresenting and suppressing scientific knowledge
for political purposes."
The president's science advisor, Dr. John Marburger, has called the
accusations "wrong and misleading, inaccurate."
The newest action has drawn fresh criticism, however, as the request
has circulated among scientists.
"I do not feel this is an appropriate or constructive thing to do,"
said Dr. D.A. Henderson, an epidemiologist who ran the Bush
administration's Office of Public Health Preparedness and now acts as
an official advisor to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G.
Thompson. "In the scientific world, we have a generally open process.
We deal with science as science. I am unaware of such clearance ever
having been required before."
Henderson worked for the WHO for 11 years directing its smallpox
eradication program. He said he could not recall having to go through
government bureaucrats to invite scientists to participate in expert
panels, except in the case of small Eastern European countries. In
2002, Henderson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and was
praised by Bush as "a great general in mankind's war against disease."
A few scientists have been worried about the department's vetting
demand since April, but concerns heightened this week when Rep. Henry
A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) complained in a letter to Thompson. "The new
policy … politicizes the process of providing the expert advice of U.S.
scientists to the international community," Waxman wrote.
Thompson's spokesman, Tony Jewell, called Waxman's criticism "seriously
misguided."
"No one knows better than HHS who the experts are and who can provide
the most up-to-date and expert advice," Jewell said. "The World Health
Organization does not know the best people to talk to, but HHS knows.
If anyone thinks politics will interfere with Secretary Thompson's
commitment to improve health in every corner of the world, they are
sadly mistaken."
The WHO, founded in 1947, is the United Nations agency dedicated to
health. It is governed by 192 member states and conducts forums,
recommends international health and safety standards and draws leading
scientists from around the world to expert panels that review the
latest literature on chemical, biological, industrial and environmental
threats.
The organization traditionally insists on picking experts to sit on
official scientific review panels.
"It's an important issue for us," Aitken said. "We do need independent
science. If we want government positions, we have government meetings.
We have many, many of these government assemblies, but they address a
separate set of concerns" than the scientific gatherings.
Scientists who attend the meetings are reminded that they are invited
to offer their scientific views, not to represent their government or
financial interests.
The letter to Aitken declaring the new vetting policy was signed by
William R. Steiger, special assistant to Thompson. He came to
Washington with Thompson from Wisconsin, and is the son of a
congressman and the godson of former President George H.W. Bush.
"Except under very limited circumstances, U.S. government experts do
not and cannot participate in WHO consultations in their individual
capacity," Steiger wrote. Civil service and other regulations "require
HHS experts to serve as representatives of the U.S. government at all
times and advocate U.S. government policies."
The letter asserts that "the current practice in which the WHO invites
specific HHS officials by name to serve in these capacities has not
always resulted in the most appropriate selections."
The letter provided no specifics. But WHO panels sometimes have
disagreed with positions taken by the administration. A WHO panel met
in Lyons, France, this month and declared formaldehyde a known
carcinogen — relying on studies that Bush administration political
appointees in the Environmental Protection Agency had rejected as
inconclusive.
Voting members of the panel included scientists from the National
Cancer Institute and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health who had been authors of the studies.
Several leading scientists said the new policy would undermine
scientific deliberations.
"This is really tampering with a process that has worked very well,"
said Linda Rosenstock, the dean of the UCLA School of Public Health who
directed the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
under President Clinton. "To have this micromanaged at the HHS
departmental level raises the specter that political considerations
rather than scientific considerations will determine who is allowed to
go" to the world's most important scientific meetings.
Rosenstock said that some WHO divisions — including the one reviewing
cancer threats — have become targets of industry groups. "There is real
concern that science could be trumped by politics and vested
interests."
For Waxman, a frequent critic of the administration, the dep
<http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-
science26jun26,1,3402550,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines>
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