Calif lab asked to repay grants over faked data

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

Wednesday August 11, 6:33 pm Eastern Time

Calif lab asked to repay grants over faked data

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 11 (Reuters) - The National Cancer 
Institute wants grant money back from a California laboratory where 
a researcher allegedly faked data suggesting a link between 
electromagnetic radiation and cancer, the San Francisco Chronicle 
reported on Wednesday.  

A letter sent this month by the National Cancer Institute to officials 
at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, 
said the agency seeks the return of $804,321 in grant money that 
supported research by Robert Liburdy between Jan. 1, 1991 and 
March 31, 1994.  

But the lab opposed repayment, saying it would amount to a 
penalty for investigating and reporting the case.  

``The institution was brave enough to question the validity of some 
findings,'' lab spokesman Ron Kolb told the Chronicle. ``We took a 
stand, and we believe this is a chilling message to to other 
institutions who are expected to police themselves.''  

Laboratory officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Liburdy 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 leukemia.  

But an investigation by 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 also agreed to a three-year ban on receiving any 
federal funding, has denied any wrongdoing in the case 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.  

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

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