All Things Whistleblower: A GAP Blog

Major Analysis Rails Factory Farming

A new thorough, 2½ year-analysis from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Pew Charitable Trusts concludes that factory farming “takes a big hidden toll on human health and the environment.”

Specifically, the report details how the amount of human illness is greatly increased by the use of antibiotics in feedlots, and that the environment is at risk due to “animal waste too intensely concentrated to be neutralized by natural processes,” according to the Washington Post.

Normally, with a report like this, corporate agricultural representatives would criticize it for a lack of thoroughness in some aspect, effectively creating doubt. But it’s difficult to do in this case. From the Post:

Several observers said the report, by experts with varying backgrounds and allegiances, is remarkable for the number of tough recommendations that survived the grueling research and review process, which participants said was politically charged and under constant pressure from powerful agricultural interests.

In the end, however, even industry representatives on the panel agreed to such controversial recommendations as a ban on the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in farm animals -- a huge hit against veterinary pharmaceutical companies -- a phaseout of all intensive confinement systems that prevent the free movement of farm animals, and more vigorous enforcement of antitrust laws in the increasingly consolidated agricultural arena.

The report concludes by urging…

stronger reporting requirements for companies and a phaseout and then ban on antibiotics in farm animals except as treatments for disease, a policy already initiated in some European countries.Let’s hope this important study and its recommendations are followed through on.

-- Dylan Blaylock

Same Old Story

This clip from the CBS Evening News details how a new report by the Government Accountability Office (Congress’s Investigatory Arm) has found that significant political influence has been exerted by Bush administration officials on EPA scientific reports, staff, and processes. Specifically, the administration has slowed and convoluted the EPA’s chemical risk-assessment program, “to the point that the health of millions of Americans could be endangered.”

Much like a GAP-Union of Concerned Scientists report that came out last year detailing wide-scale political interference by the administration with the work of climate scientists (which boils down to increasing the human risk posed by climate change), this report shows the administration is politicizing other scientific departments (in this case, increasing American risk from toxic chemical exposure).

-- Dylan Blaylock

One Whistleblower's Long Journey

This excellent Associated Press article details one whistleblower’s long legal battle with the bank he was fired from for refusing to approve financial statements. His firing, in 2002, continues its legal battle today.

The piece does an excellent job in illustrating: how long and tedious whistleblower legal battles can be; how loopholes in the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate whistleblower law were immediately sought-after by corporations and the Bush administration in 2002; and overall, why stronger protections, such as the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, are needed today.

-- Dylan Blaylock   

Lawsuit Details Security Company’s Shortcomings at U.S. Embassy in Kabul

Yesterday, GAP and Katz, Marshall & Banks filed a lawsuit on behalf of two program managers who worked for the private security company ArmorGroup.

The managers were fired in June 2007 for raising concerns about the integrity of the company’s security program and for disclosing those concerns to the State Department. They have not been informed by the State Department whether corrections to the problems they reported have been made. The case highlights the problem of foreign owned or controlled companies providing security for U.S. Government facilities.

-- Dylan Blaylock

Dingell Stands Up for Consumers

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell scolded FDA Commissioner Andrew C. von Eschenbach yesterday, and rightfully so. Dingell and others are quite upset over the palpable ineptitude of the FDA to inspect foreign drug imports and ensure American public safety, especially in light of the recent multitude of American deaths from the tainted blood-thinner heparin.

Dingell really let Eschenbach have it (from Medill News Service):

Pounding his desk and raising his voice, [Dingell] castigated the Food and Drug Administration's oversight of imported drug safety as "archaic and fraught with inaccuracies."

and

"Quite frankly, I am establishing that you don't have the resources and you can't do your job," said Dingell, calling FDA oversight of imported drugs "indefensible."

Eschenbach admitted to Dingell (agreeing with a previous GAO report) that it would take some 30 years for the FDA to properly inspect all American-importing Chinese drug plants alone. Again, from MNS:

“I've been talking to Food and Drug Administration commissioners for 40 years…I want to maintain my respect for you, but I can't maintain my respect for you if you keep toe-dancing around," said Dingell, still pounding the table.

Nice!

-- Dylan Blaylock

Viva Viagra Online Safety Information

The FDA has sent a written warning to drug giant Pfizer over that company’s online advertisements of men singing the praises of Viagra. The FDA objected to the online advertisements’ failure to list the drug’s potential risks.

Pfizer claims that the omission was a result of an error by CNN.com, the site running the ad. CNN spokesman say that their site did indeed experience an error.

In the Reuters article, a Pfizer spokesman indicated that the company has "pulled all 30-second Internet video ads that require safety information to appear separately on the screen rather than within the advertisement."

This would be a good trend for drug companies to follow. It just seems like online ads are more error-prone to omit important safety information than television ones are.

-- Dylan Blaylock

The Star-Tribune's New 'Whistleblower Blog'

Perhaps in name only, GAP’s blog will be getting a little competition, starting this week. The Minneapolis Star Tribune, one of the highest circulated newspapers in the country, is debuting a new blog titled “The Whistleblower.”

It’s quite different from GAP’s however. Our blog focuses on news related to our projects and general whistleblower news. The ‘Strib’ blog will highlight that newspaper’s public service work, which they deem as their ‘watchdog journalism’ stories.

Good for them. It would be wonderful if more and more large newspapers made watchdog journalism a priority.

This is also a good sign for whistleblowers in general. It wasn’t long ago that the overall connotation of the word whistleblower was negative, and stigma was attached to those who donned the label. With whistleblowers making more and more positive differences for society every year, and the public realizing the value of individuals who risk their professional livelihoods to fight societal injustice, these truth-tellers have become gradually accepted and lauded for their efforts. This new blog is simply another sign of that.

-- Dylan Blaylock

Same Old Story

President Bush’s plan to combat global warming, which he laid out yesterday at a press conference, falls well-short of what is truly needed to address the crisis. But then again, the Bush administration has almost always taken a stance against the notion of global warming itself, or doing anything of substance about it. Just ask Rick Piltz, who now runs GAP’s Climate Science Watch program.

Bush also has called for an increase in nuclear power. A few weeks ago, GAP and other groups released a report detailing the numerous shortcomings of Bush’s nuclear strategy known as GNEP.

-- Dylan Blaylock

Vioxx Study Ghostwriters

A New York Times article from yesterday details the gross practice of giant pharmaceutical companies using ghostwriters to draft research studies on their own drugs, and then finding “prestigious doctors” who are well recognized in the medical community to lend their names as authors of the piece. The NY Times article was actually reporting early on the finding of an academic journal article that is to be released today by JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association).

In this case, the big pharma culprit was Merck. Evidence of the practice was discovered through litigation procedures over Vioxx, a hugely popular arthritis drug that GAP client (and FDA Safety Officer) David Graham exposed as causing at least 40,000 fatal heart attacks to Americans by 2004, when it was removed from shelves.

Besides numerous other pieces of evidence, one ‘smoking gun’ was:

The article cited one draft of a Vioxx research study that was still in want of a big-name researcher, identifying the lead writer only as “External author?”

Nice. The lead author of the JAMA article put this latest revelation in perspective pretty well:

“It almost calls into question all legitimate research that’s been conducted by the pharmaceutical industry with the academic physician.”

This isn’t just a few select research papers, either:

For example, in 16 of 20 papers that reported on clinical trials, a Merck employee was designated as the author of the first draft of the manuscript. But an outside academic scientist was listed as the lead author when the study was published.

Finally, the article details a JAMA editorial that calls for changes to be made to correct this situation:

In an editorial on Wednesday, the journal said the analysis showed that Merck had apparently manipulated dozens of publications to promote Vioxx.

“It is clear that at least some of the authors played little direct roles in the study of review, yet still allowed themselves to be named as authors,” the editorial said.

The editorial called for immediate changes in the practice, calling upon medical journal editors to require each author to report his or her specific contributions to articles.

That’s exactly what should happen. Transparency is absolutely essential when dealing with drug studies. Deceptions of study authorship undermine American public health and consumer confidence of the FDA’s ability to protect patients. Of course, that confidence is pretty low nowadays anyway.

-- Dylan Blaylock

Getting Into Telecom Wiretapping Specifics

The television program Democracy Now! recently interviewed GAP client Babak Pasdar and GAP Legal Director Tom Devine. You can either listen or watch the interviews by clicking here. It’s a solid piece.

Pasdar’s disclosures are credited with persuading the House of Representatives to not grant immunity to telecommunications companies involved with the warrantless wiretapping and illegal domestic spying scandal.

-- Dylan Blaylock