Group calls on NIH to remove Harvard professor from fluoride-cancer study

Burlington, VT – July 27, 2005 - The Fluoride Action Network (FAN), today urged that a Harvard Professor be removed from a research group studying the association between fluoride and osteosarcoma because his objectivity and ethics are disputed and he has ties to a company that profits from fluoride. FAN also urges other steps be taken to ensure this study meets the highest standards of scientific integrity.

In June, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) charged Chester Douglass, a professor at Harvard and editor of Colgate¹s oral health newsletter, with suppressing research linking fluoridation to osteosarcoma, a rare but frequently fatal form of bone cancer. (1) Douglass remains central to the ongoing project.