Millions of people in the Great Lakes region may face health problems from toxic pollution, but a study on the risk is under wraps seven months after its conclusion, and the scientist who led the project has been demoted.
The Center for Public Integrity reports that Dr. Christopher De Rosa, a federal toxicology researcher, told his superior that delaying the report has the “appearance of censorship of science … regarding the health status of vulnerable communities.”
In a letter to De Rosa, Dr. Howard Frumkin of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote that the study’s quality is “well below expectations.”
De Rosa has since been demoted, according to the CPI, in what he claims is illegal retaliation by Frumkin.
A Canadian researcher who peer-reviewed the study told the CPI that the findings have been suppressed due to government links to industries that may be liable for industrial pollution in the Great Lakes ecosystem.
Among the report’s major findings is that more than nine million people in metropolitan areas such as Detroit, Chicago and Milwaukee may face elevated cancer, infant mortality and other health risks due to pollutants such as dioxin, PCBs, lead and more.
Source:
“Great Lakes Danger Zones?”
Center for Public integrity, February 2008
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