The dismissal (or is it nonrenewal of funding?) of a researcher at UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has periodically made the news, particularly on the right, over the past year or so. His website at UCLA no longer operates but the Google-cache function produces the past page with the following description: Since 1974 Dr. James Enstrom has conducted research on the epidemiology of cancer, particularly examining the health practices and cancer risk in several well-defined populations within California and the United States. His significant findings relevant to cancer include: identification of unusually low-risk populations, like health-conscious Mormons; measurement of an inverse relationship between dietary intake of vitamin C and mortality; assessment of the population impact of smoking cessation based on long-term natural experiments; determination of the long-term relationship of active and passive smoking to mortality; and interpretation of cancer survival rates and lung cancer mortality trends. He is currently investigating lifestyle and environmental factors in several large cohorts, including California Mormons, California Cancer Prevention Study, Alameda County Study and national samples available from the National Center for Health Statistics.
A column by conservative columnist Debra Saunders in the San Francisco Chronicle reports that UCLA held hearings last week on the case. Dr. Enstrom charges that his dismissal threatens academic freedom because his work involved contradicting a prior study by the California Air Resources Board on the harm caused by diesel exhaust. See http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/11/ED541IUA8N.DTL
A Daily Bruin story last August on the case reported:
Enstrom suspects his nonreappointment is in part a response to his investigation into the backgrounds of Hien Tran and John Froines, both of whom disputed his research findings. Enstrom discovered that Hien Tran, one of the lead CARB staffers who compiled a review on diesel mortality studies, had faked his doctorate degree from UC Davis.
Enstrom was also involved in removing Froines from the Scientific Review Panel, which advises CARB. Froines, another environmental health sciences professor, served on the panel for 26 years, Enstrom said. However, appointments were supposed to be limited to three years so a lawsuit was filed to enforce this rule. Froines thus had to leave the panel this year, Enstrom said.
This blog picked up the story of Dr. Froines removal from the panel and the Enstrom connection last summer. See http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2010/09/previous-posts-on-whistleblower-case.html and http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2010/08/faculty-from-ucla-and-other.html
Undoubtedly, we will hear more about this matter.
No comments:
Post a Comment