Thompson mum on criticisms

An aide to Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson blamed election-time politics for a barrage of recent charges that conservative ideology and industry connections are driving appointments to science advisory bodies. Thompson's plan for weathering the storm of criticism is to wait it out, Claude Allen, DHHS deputy secretary, told The Scientist."Election cycles come only so often, so we can most of the time avoid these things and stay under the radar screen," Allen said. "When you have an election that is this close, people get partisan." Thompson's appointees had "the highest" professional credentials, he said, adding, "In addition to credentials, we also look for balance in terms of the views that are expressed."DHHS has authority over some 258 outside advisory boards and panels, and Thompson has been under fire for months, accused along with the Bush administration of stacking the scientific deck by engaging in ideological and industry-friendly weighting of scientific advisory bodies.Most recently, ten academic scientists led by epidemiologist David Michaels of the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, wrote a criticism of Thompson's appointments published in the October 25 issue of Science. Past administrations have named balanced panels including industry-connected scientists to advisory panels, the group's letter noted, but what Thompson has done under the cover of 'balance' is something else, the group believes."Disbanding and stacking these public committees out of fear that they may offer advice that conflicts with administration policies devalues the entire federal advisory committee structure and the work of dedicated scientists who are willing to participate in these efforts," the scientists wrote.In August, complaints about DHHS's ideological revamping of the scientific advisory system began, centered on the agency's replacement of 15 of 18 members of a panel that advises the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on environmental health with industry-friendly scientists. Representative Edward Markey of Massachusetts released a report in early October slamming Thompson's selections for a panel that advises the CDC on environmental lead. Michael Weitzman, a University of Rochester pediatrician who says that children may be harmed by low blood levels of lead was not asked to stay on the panel when his term expired. Instead, Thompson chose Oklahoma pediatrician William Banner, who takes the opposite position on the importance of lead in the blood of children.Senators Hillary Clinton of New York and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts added their voices to the rising chorus of protest over Thompson's appointments at the same time, followed by a letter sent to Thompson last week by a dozen Democrats on the House side of Capitol Hill.Led by Representative Henry Waxman of California, the Democrats took Thompson to task for what they called a pattern of events "suggesting that scientific decision-making is being subverted by ideology and that scientific information that does not fit the Administration's agenda is being suppressed."In addition to industry-weighted appointments, the lawmakers took issue with Administration-ordered ideological cleansing of federal Web sites dating back at least to July of this year. Curricula designed to reduce risky behavior in the young were removed from the Web offerings of the CDC, the lawmakers pointed out. Fact sheets on condoms, products of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) working group, likewise disappeared from the CDC Web site. The FDA Web site dropped a National Cancer Institute (NCI) report on the lack of connection between abortion and breast cancer. Waxman's group asked Thompson to give a scientific basis for the removals, including an explanation of scientific or methodological flaws in the banished material.

Thompson mum on criticisms

US health secretary sees advisory-panel critiques as pre-election partisan politics.

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