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Special Interests Undermine Objectivity Of Scientific Research, Report Says

Date:
January 10, 2002
Source:
University Of California - Los Angeles
Summary:
Objective scientific research, often used as the basis for policy decisions, is increasingly under attack by vested interests attempting to control the outcome or impact of research, reports the January issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
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Objective scientific research, often used as the basis for policy decisions, is increasingly under attack by vested interests attempting to control the outcome or impact of research, reports the January issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

The peer-reviewed article, “Attacks on Science: The Risks to Evidence-Based Research,” illustrates the real threats to objective scientific pursuits and the impact on society through a variety of case studies. The paper describes how special-interest groups have influenced policies related to needle exchange programs for the prevention of HIV, ergonomics and mammograms for breast cancer screening.

“This trend of meddling with science to achieve predetermined outcomes has serious implications for researchers at academic institutions and government agencies as well as for the public at large,” said Dr. Linda Rosenstock, principal author and dean of the UCLA School of Public Health. “We would like to think that the science used to make decisions that affect all of our lives is pure — unfortunately, that is increasingly not the case.”

Although growing more sophisticated and complex, attacks on science are not new. To save his life, Galileo was forced to publicly renounce his belief that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the universe. Today, a variety of tactics including economic manipulation, delay, hidden identities and harassment are used to undermine sound science to achieve a desired end.

Examples include:

* A National Cancer Institute consensus panel concluded that the science was inadequate to support mammography for routine screening for breast cancer in women aged 40–49 years. Yet, in response to external pressure from a variety of vested interest groups with financial and emotional commitments to screening, the science was revisited and repackaged, resulting in the recommendation that women in their 40s be screened every one to two years.

* Since 1995 the heavily lobbied Congress proposed or passed ergonomics riders to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration appropriations, prohibiting or delaying work on the development of an ergonomics standard. Congress also required that the National Academy of Sciences twice validate an ergonomics study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, providing enough of a delay for the Bush administration to withdraw the just finalized ergonomics standard promulgated in the last weeks of the Clinton administration.

* Despite clear evidence that needle exchange programs reduce cases of HIV and do not increase drug use, emotional and ideological vested interests influenced a 1998 White House decision not to fund needle exchange programs.


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Materials provided by University Of California - Los Angeles. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


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University Of California - Los Angeles. "Special Interests Undermine Objectivity Of Scientific Research, Report Says." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 10 January 2002. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/01/020109073147.htm>.
University Of California - Los Angeles. (2002, January 10). Special Interests Undermine Objectivity Of Scientific Research, Report Says. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 27, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/01/020109073147.htm
University Of California - Los Angeles. "Special Interests Undermine Objectivity Of Scientific Research, Report Says." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/01/020109073147.htm (accessed March 27, 2024).

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