US Researcher Faked Data In Cancer Study - Report-

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Monday July 26 12:24 AM ET

US Researcher Faked Data In Cancer Study - Report

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Scientific studies released in 1992
that appeared to provide tantalizing evidence of possible links
between electromagnetic radiation and cancer were based on faked
data, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday.

Robert Liburdy, a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory in Berkeley, California, claimed that his studies had
located the first plausible biological mechanism linking
electromagnetic fields generated by power lines, home wiring and
household appliances to cancer and other diseases, including
childhood leukemia.

But in a recent report, the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Service's Office of Research Integrity concluded that Liburdy
committed ``scientific misconduct'' by intentionally falsifying and
fabricating data to support his assertions that electromagnetic
fields could cause effects in human cells.

Liburdy, 51, resigned his 15-year position in March after the lab
withdrew his funding and in May agreed with the Office of Research
Integrity to retract three data graphs he had used to back up his
conclusions in two 1992 scientific articles.

Liburdy, who agreed to a three-year ban on receiving any federal
funding, has denied any wrongdoing and said he agreed to the
conditions imposed by the Office of Research Integrity because he
could not afford a lengthy legal battle to clear his name, the
Chronicle reported.

Liburdy's articles purporting to link electric and magnetic radiation
and calcium signaling, a process governing certain cellular
functions including cell division, appeared in the Annals of the New
York Academy of Sciences and FEBS Letters, a publication of the
Federation of European Biochemical Societies.

He also used the articles to advance a research proposal and
obtain more federal funding, the Chronicle said.

The Lawrence Berkeley Lab began investigating Liburdy's research
in 1994 after an anonymous whistle-blower challenged his findings.
In 1995, the lab concluded that he had deliberately falsified data.
The lab then alerted the Office of Research Integrity, which
conducted its own investigation and reached the same conclusion.

Liburdy has said his critics have focused on his graphing technique
and that his results remained valid.

``The scientific findings are not wrong. They criticized me for how I
graphed the data,'' Liburdy told the Chronicle. ``It is a matter of
scientific opinion.''

The possibility of links between electromagnetic fields and cancer
has long been hotly debated, but remains unproven.

Sandy Perle
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205

"The object of opening the mind, as of opening 
the mouth, is to close it again on something solid"
              - G. K. Chesterton -
************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html