F.A.N.
Harvard's failure to provide any expanation (after a 13 month investigation!) for Chester Douglass' misrepresentation of research linking fluoride to chidhood bone cancer is causing consternation among a growing number of Harvard grads.
According to an Aug 29th letter from Dr. Peter Orris, a noted environmental health specialist:
"As a Harvard Graduate ('67) who has some experience with controversial environmental issues, I am particularly concerned with this all too brief report on Professor Douglass's activities."
Orris notes that Harvard's statement
"does not give us (anyone outside of the investigation room) any idea as to what evidence was evaluated. We are therefore left with the uncomfortable situation of trusting that this committee did an adequate job. This discomfort is amplified when the group that brought the concern to Harvard's attention originally denies having been contacted or interviewed."
According to another Harvard grad, Robert Weissman (editor of the corporate watchdog Multinational Monitor), Harvard's statement was "a disappointment. It gave no explanation as to why the evidence presented was dismissed and Professor Douglass's behavior considered acceptable."
Weissman called upon Harvard's President, Derek Bok, to issue a "fuller and more open public accounting."
A list of other Harvard grads who have written to Harvard to express their displeasure with Harvard's "investigation" are included below.
To send your own letter to Harvard, click here.
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Harvard Graduates Speaking Out:
Phillip Allen, MD, Harvard Medical School, '54
Jon Bower, graduate, Harvard Business School, '86
Albert Burgstahler, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, Kansas University; Editor of the journal Fluoride; Co-author, "Fluoridation: The Great Dilemma"; MA '50, PhD '53.
David Egilman, PhD, MPH, graduate of Harvard School of Public Health, '82.
Naomi Flack, EdM, Harvard Graduate School of Education, '64
Roy Flack, LLB, Harvard Law School, '64; MBA, Harvard Business School, '66
Laura Haight, Harvard College '84
Antone G. Jacobson, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Harvard College, '51
Dr Emily A. Kane, recent mayoral commissioner to evaluate risk/benefit of fluoridation of municipal water in Juneau, AK, author Managing Menopause Naturally, Bastyr University '92 (doctorate, Naturopathic Medicine), Harvard University '78
Stephen M. Koral, Dentist, AM, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, '70; DMD, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, '80.
Kathryn Lee, EdM, Harvard Graduate School of Education, '94
Peter Orris, MD, MPH, Professor and Chief of Service Occupational and Environmental Medicine University of Illinois Medical Center, Chicago, IL, Harvard University '67.
Richard J. Perry, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, St. Lawrence University, Harvard College '64
Eleanor Prentiss, BA, Harvard's Extension, '67
Richard Shames, MD, author "Feeling Fat, Fuzzy or Frazzled?" Harvard College, '67
Caroline Snyder, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Rochester Institute of Technology, MA, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, '56, PhD, '66.
Brian Tokar, author "Gene Traders", "The Green Alternative" and "Earth for Sale", MA Biophysics, Harvard Graduate School for Arts and Sciences, '81
Robert Weissman, Editor of Multinational Monitor, Director of Essential Action, co-author, "Corporate Predators" and "On the Rampage", Harvard College '88-'89, Harvard Law School '95.
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