Re: NAS Statement on FOIA Initiative on Release of Research -NRI Link?

[RADPROJECT@aol.com]

In a message dated 2/5/99 1:23:32 PM Eastern Standard Time,
mikeg@SLAC.Stanford.EDU writes:

<< Radsafe'rs,
 
 *This is a long post, but may be of particular interest
 for those following the NRI related thread.*
 
 The following letter (extract) may be of topical
 interest, especially for those engaged in
 radioepidemiological activities and other forms of
 health effects research (and in fact all kinds of US
 federally funded research). The issue of when and how
 data needs to be released, possibly including BEFORE
 publication or final approval/peer review, is the
 point of concern.
 
 S.,
 
 MikeG.
  >>

Dear Radsafe readers:
While the issue of FOIA access to general research results is an interesting
and potentially contentious issue being debated,  it has nothing to do with
the issues raised about the Ph.D. thesis results involved with Nasal Radium
Irradiation [ NRI ] health effects study reported as Yeh, 1997.  It must be
kept clear, that the Yeh thesis was completed and submitted to the Hopkins
School of Public Health in June, 1997. The thesis had gone through extensive
peer review internal to the School of Public Health, and the Ph.D. awarded in
early 1998.

At some point between June, 1997 when it was submitted and the award of the
Ph.D shortly thereafter, the research results must be considered a "public"
document since it was submitted to the UMI Dissertation Service and publicly
available to anyone wishing to  pay for a copy. FOIA related considerations do
not seem to apply to the basic issue of the Yeh thesis research findings and
what should have been their unhindered availability to the public and to any
"outsiders" as the Hopkins School of Public Health Epidemiology office put it
when I requested a copy of the Yeh, 1997 thesis in Oct. 1998. 

The key point stressed in my earlier posts about Hopkins' actions on this
matter was in Johns Hopkins University denying  to "outsiders" that the thesis
research was complete, when indeed it was, and in official spokespersons for
Hopkins maintaining right up to the present, contrary to Hopkins' own in-house
Ph.D. research in Yeh, 1997, and in Sandler, 1978,  that there was no
"consistently demonstrated health risk" from NRI. 

This current, and poorly justified, position by Hopkins Hospital and
University leaves them maintaining there is no need to notify any NRI  treated
patients of any need for medical monitoring and follow-up - a position
contradicted by a long standing true NIH/NCI Consensus Standard on prudent
actions to be taken for  "unusual head and neck irradiation" in children.
[See: National Cancer Institute, Division of Cancer Control and
Rehabilitation, "Information for Physicians -- Irradiation Related Thyroid
Cancer", US Dept. of HEW, Public Health Service, National Institutes of
Health, DHEW Publication No. (NIH) 77-1120, 1977]


Regards,

Stewart Farber, MS Public Health
Director - Radium Experiment Assessment Project [REAP]
Consulting Scientist
Public Health Sciences
19 Stuart St.
Pawtucket, RI 02860

Phone/FAX: (401) 727-4947  E-mail: radproject@usa.net
            Web address: http://www.delphi.com/carsreap

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