EDITORIAL

Ethics

Erosion of the integrity of public health science in the USA

R Clapp, P Hoppin, D Kriebel

Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, School of Health & Environment, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA, USA

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr D Kriebel
Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, School of Health & Environment, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA 01854, USA; David_Kriebel@uml.edu

Accepted 22 February 2006

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Protecting the evidentiary base of occupational and environmental health

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Keywords: ethics; conflict of interest; scientific misconduct; scientific integrity

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

There is increasing evidence that political and economic interests are eroding the independence and integrity of public health science in the USA.^1,2 A recent supplement of the American Journal of Public Health has several insightful articles on the topic.^3,4 Readers will by now be familiar with the manipulation of scientific information by executives and scientists in the tobacco industry.⁵ Sadly, it now appears that the tobacco story was not an isolated case of a few unethical businessmen and scientists, but merely the best documented example of economic interests undermining public health science. In recent years, the threats to the integrity of science in the US have come not only from economically interested parties, but also from government.

A report of the US Congress found numerous examples of how the current Administration has manipulated scientific research and traditional scientific review procedures.⁶ These include inappropriate questioning of prospective members of scientific . . . [Full text of this article]

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This article has been cited by other articles:

• Pearce, N. (2008). Response: The distribution and determinants of epidemiologic research. Int J Epidemiol 37: 65-68 [Full Text]  
• Pearce, N. (2008). Corporate influences on epidemiology. Int J Epidemiol 37: 46-53 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Claxton, L. (2007). A review of conflict of interest, competing interest, and bias for toxicologists. Toxicol Ind Health 23: 557-571 [Abstract]  
• Kriebel, D. (2007). The reactionary principle: inaction for public health. Occup. Environ. Med. 64: 573-574 [Full Text]  

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