Kathleen Ruff, RightOnCanada.ca<\/p>\n
In a letter<\/a> released today, France’s National Association of Asbestos Victims (ANDEVA) demands that the nomination of Paolo Boffetta as head of France\u2019s top institute of epidemiology and public health be rejected.<\/p>\n \u201cThe candidacy of Dr. Boffetta is seriously flawed by major conflicts of interest which are totally incompatible with leadership of France\u2019s most important institute of epidemiology,\u201d says ANDEVA in its letter to France’s National Institute for Health & Medical Research and the University of Paris-Sud. The letter was also sent to the France\u2019s Minister of Health and Minister of Research.<\/p>\n Presently, Dr. Boffetta is the only scientist being considered for the post, which will be filled in 2014.<\/p>\n ANDEVA points to Boffetta\u2019s role as a major share-holder and Vice President of a consulting company, nicely called the International Prevention Research Institute (IPRI). \u201cIPRI produces and sells expertise or \u2018scientific\u2019 articles to industries on health issues and health risks,” states ANDEVA.<\/p>\n ANDEVA strongly criticizes an article by Boffetta and an IPRI colleague, Carlo La Vecchia, published in the European Journal of Cancer Prevention, which denied that continued exposure to asbestos causes additional harm to workers. This conclusion is false, states ANDEVA.<\/p>\n Boffetta and La Vecchia were paid by a company, facing criminal charges<\/a> for the deaths of a number of its workers from asbestos-related diseases, to put forward this argument in court on the company\u2019s behalf. ANDEVA condemns the fact that, in their article, Boffetta and La Vecchia falsely stated that they had no conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n If Boffetta were to be appointed as head of France\u2019s leading epidemiology institute (CESP), \u201cthis would constitute a bad sign that would encourage lobbying practices and corruption by industrialists toward scientific institutes and government authorities, which would be disastrous for public health,” writes ANDEVA in its letter. “Our association represents tens of thousands of victims of the greatest health disaster that France has ever known, precisely because of such practices.”<\/p>\n An article in today’s Le Monde, extensively covers ANDEVA’s letter: “Controversy over appointment to the pinnacle of French epidemiology. The Association of Asbestos Victims denounces “major conflicts of interest” (translation). The article reports ANDEVA’s concerns and also refers to the letter sent by scientists <\/a>in France, Canada and Germany to IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer), asking IARC to take action to correct the failure of Boffetta to disclose his conflict of interest in an article\u00a0on asbestos by IARC, published by the British Cancer Journal (BJC),\u00a0 for which Boffetta was the corresponding author.<\/p>\n On receiving this complaint, IARC has been forced to take the embarrassing action of notifying the BJC<\/a>, two years after the publication of the article, of Boffetta’s failure to follow the ethical requirement of disclosing his financial connection with a company on the asbestos issue, while he was writing an article on asbestos. Worse than not disclosing, Boffetta had put forward false information in the IARC article, stating that he had no conflict of interest, when he did. This action by IARC is a public humiliation for Boffetta and a repudiation of his lack of transparency, which violates the ethical standards of IARC and of any reputable scientific journal.<\/p>\n
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