EPRI To Pay for NIEHS EMF Booklet In an unprecedented move, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the research arm of the utility industry, will sponsor a public information booklet on EMFs for a unit of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is working out an arrangement whereby EPRI would pay for the writing and printing of a new edition of the NIEHS booklet, "EMFs: Questions & Answers". Read the whole story at: http://www.microwavenews.com While you are there, take a look at our September 4 post: We take issue with some reporting by "Science" magazine on the contentious issue of cell phone radiation and DNA breaks. Louis Slesin, PhD Editor, Microwave News A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation Phone: +1 (212) 517-2800; Fax: +1 (212) 734-0316 E-mail: <mwn@pobox.com> Internet: <http://www.microwavenews.com> Mail: 155 East 77th Street, Suite 3D New York, NY 10075, U.S.A.
September
5… In an unprecedented move, the Electric Power Research
Institute (EPRI),
the research arm of the utility industry, will sponsor a public
information booklet on EMFs for a unit of the National Institutes of
Health (NIH). The
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
is working out an arrangement whereby EPRI would pay for the writing
and printing of a new edition of the NIEHS booklet, EMFs:
Questions & Answers.
"This would be absolutely hands off," Christine
Flowers, the director of communications at NIEHS in Research Triangle
Park, NC, told Microwave
News.
"They cannot influence the document."
News of the
deal landed with a thud. "This is an outrageous proposal that
should not be allowed to happen," said David
Carpenter the director for the Institute for Health and the
Environment at the State University of New York in Albany. "The
public health issues are too serious to allow them to be perverted by
EPRI and the industry. NIEHS has no business taking funds from a
group with such a clear conflict of interest." Carpenter led the
New York Power Line Project in the 1980s.
"It does sounds
strange," said Michael
Gallo of the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
Institute in Piscataway, NJ, who has had a long association with
NIEHS. "If totally funded by EPRI, it would then raise the
question of objectivity," he added.
Another observer
commented that this would be like having Exxon pay for an EPA
pamphlet on global warming. No one interviewed, including those at
NIEHS, could offer an example of an industry group paying for a
government public health document in which it has a direct stake.
"You need a sharp line between government and industry,"
commented Seth
Shulman, the author of Undermining
Science: Suppression and Distortion in the Bush Administration.
"This makes me very uncomfortable, it seems highly
inappropriate."
Merrill Goozner, the director of the
Integrity
in Science project at the Center for Science in the Public
Interest in Washington, offered a similar view: "This is a new
one on me and it sounds a little dangerous."
Chris
Portier, the associate director of NIEHS, is brokering the deal
between the institute and EPRI. "If they are truly going to do
this with no strings attached, it would be remiss of me not to accept
it," he said in an interview. Portier explained that EPRI would
contribute to the NIEHS' "Gift Fund" and then "we
could spend it any way we want." He estimated that the job would
cost $100,00- $130,000 for 30,000 copies and take 12 to 15 months to
complete. "We will not do it in-house, a contractor would do
it," Portier said.
In a flyer
that seeks contributions from member electric utilities, EPRI
explains the need for a new Q&A booklet, which was last revised
in 2002:
"It is critically important that the public relies on EMF health-related information that is timely and relevant. Since 2002, the research conducted on EMF health effects… has expanded… An update to the 2002 edition of the report will ensure that the public has access to the best information when deliberating over new transmission line projects."
EPRI
is asking participating utilities to contribute $30,000 apiece.
One
of the ironies of this project is that, in recent years, EPRI has
taken a stand against public information, denying the public access
to its research findings. Reports that EPRI used to make available to
the press and interested parties are now kept under wraps. The only
way to obtain an EPRI report today is to buy it at a cost of $5,000
or more. Rob Kavet, the director of EPRI's EMF program, and his
predecessor, Leeka Kheifets, have made it difficult to get even the
most basic information about EPRI's activities. Kavet routinely
declines to respond to e-mails for clarification on EMF issues, as
does the EPRI office of media relations. Since returning from serving
as Mike Repacholi's assistant at the WHO EMF
project in Geneva, Kheifets has gone back to work as an EPRI
consultant.
The first
edition of the Q&A booklet was released in 1995 and revised
in 2002. NIEHS' Mary Wolfe, who coordinated the last revision, will
also work on the new round, Portier said.
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This first article is somewhat similar to 'the fox guarding the hen-house'. There is little doubt that real dangers will be ignored and the truth will be withheld by EPRI. Protection of the industry will likely be first on the agenda.
Martin Weatherall