All Things Whistleblower: A GAP Blog

Study Shows Unacceptable Pesticide Levels in Children who Eat Conventional Produce

A Seattle PI article details that a yearlong study has shown “brain damaging” pesticides are present in children who had a diet including conventional produce. When children switch to eating organic produce and juices, the potentially unsafe chemical levels could no longer be detected within eight to 36 hours.

The types of pesticides shown as being present, organophosphates, have attempted to be phased out over time by the EPA. But activists say the agency should take a much more aggressive approach, and that current acceptable limits are much too high – levels that could lead to neurological disorders.

The study, which took place in Washington state, measured unsafe levels of chemicals in the urine and saliva of children ages three to eleven.

-- Dylan Blaylock

Who is the FAA Looking Out For?

A Business Week article details the retaliation faced by FAA safety inspectors who blow the whistle on potentially unsafe airliners.

One inspector, for example, sent a letter to the agency warning that airline mechanics for Northwest Airlines were grossly inexperienced and that significant safety problems were discovered on flights during stopovers, such as a “broken lavatory duct that allowed human waste to spill onto vital navigation equipment,” according to the article.

Instead of heeding the warning, the FAA punished the investigator, limiting his access and relegating him to a desk job. Many safety inspectors claim to have “experienced or witnessed retaliation.”

-- Dylan Blaylock

Downer Cows Being Made to Stand

A Washington Post article from today details how video taken by an undercover animal welfare investigator at a slaughterhouse documents several major violations of food safety and animal cruelty laws. Techniques on the video included the use of electric shock, forklifts, and

“a veterinary version of waterboarding in which high-intensity water sprays are shot up animals’ noses”

All of this is being done with the intention of making cows stand during USDA inspection. Cows that cannot stand, known as “downers,” are supposed to be kept out of the food supply to lessen humans’ risk of exposure to mad cow disease, E.Coli, and salmonella. The California slaughterhouse that the video was allegedly shot at houses companies that are national meat suppliers for school lunch programs.

Obviously, the USDA needs a better method of checking that companies do not engage in this kind of practice. The inspectors only went to the site for a short bit each day – at scheduled times. So all the company (allegedly) had to do was make the cows stand up for a crucial few minutes, and they are certified.

If the allegations prove true, this system is really, really broken.

-- Dylan Blaylock

Subpoenas Forthcoming

Later today, a congressional subcommittee will vote on whether to issue subpoenas to several investigators regarding fraudulent trials of the antibiotic Ketek, and its subsequent marketplace approval by the FDA. The subcommittee’s leaders have alleged the drug’s approval moved forward despite the agency’s knowledge of the fraud.

One of the investigators that may be subpoenaed is GAP client Ann-Marie Cisneros, who testified in Congress last year that Ketek maker Sanofi-Aventis knew of the fraudulent trials.

-- Dylan Blaylock

Worse Than Nord?

The Bush administration is looking into replacing Nancy Nord, Chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) who was found in November to have received numerous free trips paid by industry officials she was in charge of regulating (these include the appliance, furniture and toy industries, among others). You may recall that Nord also, days before the news about her free trips broke, surprisingly came out against a bill that would have provided whistleblower protections to consumer product workers who are positions to alert the public about violations of safety standards. Additionally, that bill would have extended the CPSC’s authority, budget and staff.

While you would think that a replacement would automatically be good news, the leading candidate (as chosen by the White House) is a scientist who, according to the Washington Post,

“…has frequently testified and written on behalf of the energy, pesticide and tobacco industries.”

This possible selection is already raising criticisms and alarm. According to the same article, a former Clinton EPA official has stated

“She’s not thought of as a consumer advocate per se but as someone hired by industry to represent their point of view.”

We’ll keep watching.

-- Dylan Blaylock

Contradicting Statements

So an FDA official made a statement yesterday implying that Americans shouldn’t worry about food product from cloned animal offspring already being on the marketplace, because they don’t think it’s there. From Reuters:

“At this point in time we don't believe there are offspring out there in the nation's food supply system…We are not really concerned with tracking progeny because they are in every respect a normal animal.”

Which is in contrast to what a cattleman/veterinarian/cattle semen business owner stated last week in the Washington Post:

“This is a fairy tale that this technology is not being used and is not already in the food chain…Anyone who tells you otherwise either doesn't know what they're talking about, or they're not being honest”.
When you look at the quote from the FDA official, notice that it’s not definitive. He’s not stating there aren’t any cloned animal offspring products out there, just that they don’t believe there are.

This official also seems to imply that the FDA hasn’t been doing everything it can to track offspring in the first place, because it views the products as the same as any other. But if they’re not tracking these progeny at full force, how do they know whether or not they’ve entered the marketplace? How could they know?

Just a thought.

-- Dylan Blaylock 

Plan would Limit Drug Label Warnings, Risk Information

Some lawmakers are pleading with the FDA to scrap a plan that changes labeling rules on drugs and medical devices. The lawmakers say the plan, which would greatly limit the language about product instructions and side effects, would shield drug makers in future lawsuits because they could claim that regulations did not allow them to adequately address warnings or risk information properly.   

Specifically, the Reuters article reads:

The Democratic lawmakers said the agency's plan would sharply limit what manufacturers could add quickly to their prescribing instructions about potential side effects. Companies could not unilaterally add a new warning unless there was "evidence of causal association," the lawmakers said.

The proposal "is apparently designed to bolster the argument by companies defending against lawsuits that the regulations precluded them from adding" warnings or information about risks, the lawmakers said in a letter to FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach.

"The agency's proposed rule protects the profits of the pharmaceutical and medical device companies rather than the health and safety of American consumers," the letter said.

The lawmakers are right. This is a bad plan which seems to purposefully allow drug makers to wriggle out of future court decisions against them. It is also palpable how instituting guidelines which limit drug warnings and risk language is not in the best interest of consumers and can have terrible results.

-- Dylan Blaylock

United States Senate Committee Issues an Investigative Report on the United Nations Development Program

The United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has just released a report entitled “United Nations Development Program: A Case Study of North Korea.’

The report will be discussed at a hearing today, starting at 10 a.m., that will focus on allegations of corruption in the UNDP North Korea office, including those raised by GAP whistleblower Artjon Shkurtaj, who was terminated after he reported serious allegations of wrongdoing related to the UNDP North Korea office.

The report found that “by preventing access to its audits and not submitting to the jurisdiction of the UN Ethics Office, UNDP impeded reasonable oversight and undermined its whistleblower protections.” (p.1) The subcommittee also found that “UNDP refused to submit Mr. Shkurtaj’s retaliation claim to the UN Ethics Office, thereby weakening its status and authority, causing the fracture of what was intended to be a UN-wide ethics program, and undermining confidence that UNDP employees can report suspected mismanagement without fear of reprisal.” (pp. 27-28) The investigative committee recommends that “Both Congress and the US State Department should continue to press for the implementation of strong whistleblower protections at the UNDP and throughout the United Nations,” (p.5) a proposal that GAP fully agrees with.

GAP is quoted on page 27 of this report.

-- Shelley Walden

A Solid Bill

Yesterday, Rep. Albert Wynn (D-MD) introduced a solid whistleblower protection bill. The Congressional Disclosures Act of 2007 would give federal workers and contractors access to court when they are prosecuted or otherwise harassed for blowing the whistle to Congress.

-- Dylan Blaylock

UN Ethics Office Fails to Help Whistleblower

A whistleblower that exposed the UN Development Program’s diversion of funds from African to European companies is not being given anti-retaliation protection from the UN Ethics Office.

This is another case of the UN stating that since the UNDP is a program of the UN, it is allowed to develop its own ethics rules, and therefore not subject to the jurisdiction of the UN Ethics Office or the whistleblower protections outlined in the UN's “Protection from retaliation for reporting misconduct and for cooperating with duly authorized audits and investigations” (ST/SGB/2005/21)” policy, which would offer protection. This change was heavily criticized by GAP last month.

-- Dylan Blaylock