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View Full Version : Scientist Said Agent Orange Was Safe While Being Paid By It's Manufacturer



beltman713
12-11-2006, 08:36 PM
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20896959-31477,00.html

Scientist was on Agent Orange payroll
Clara Pirani, Medical reporter
December 09, 2006

THE world-famous scientist who first proved that smoking causes cancer was being paid by a company that manufactured Agent Orange when he told an Australian royal commission that the herbicide was not dangerous.

It has been revealed that Richard Doll, the British cancer expert who established the link between smoking, lung cancer and heart disease in 1950, failed to disclose that for 20 years he was a paid consultant for the US-based chemical company Monsanto.

In 1985, Sir Richard was receiving $1500 a day from the company when he wrote to the royal commission investigating claims that Vietnam veterans had developed cancer and had suffered ill health after being exposed to Agent Orange. He said there was no evidence that the chemical caused cancer, claiming the toxin in Agent Orange "is at most, only weakly and inconsistently carcinogenic in animal experiments".

The commission found there was no evidence Vietnam veterans had developed cancer or other health problems as a result of exposure to chemical agents.

Sir Richard's defence of Agent Orange was publicised by Monsanto in full-page advertisements in newspapers.

Ron Coxon, national president of the Vietnam Veterans Association in Australia, said Sir Richard's connection to Monsanto should have been revealed.

"At the time, we suspected that some of the experts giving evidence might have had links to companies, but we didn't know," Mr Cozon said. "I think it's disgusting but I'm not surprised.

"At the time, there was medical evidence of the damage that herbicides caused, but the problem was there were experts like Richard Doll who had come out and said there was no link."

But Ann Jones, CEO of Action on Smoking and Health Australia, said that in the 1980s, it was not standard practice for researchers to disclose their links to the pharmaceutical industry.

"Disclosure has become much more of an ethical issue now than it was 20 years ago," she said.

Sir Richard died last year. Among his papers was a contract he signed with Monsanto dated April 1986.