#124
Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2006 11:12:57 -0800
From: Mark Fulop <markfulop@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Ethics Case Study
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Okay, I now that ethics and case studies in ethics come up on this board every
once in a while so I thought I would toss this one out from my home state of
Oregon. In January, the journal Science published a study titled, “Post-Wildfire
Logging Hinders Regeneration and Increases Fire Risk” by a graduate student at
the Oregon Statue University School of Forestry. The study looked at post-fire
salvage logging of an area that burned back in 2002. The study’s conclusion was
that the regeneration of the forest would be better accomplished without
logging.
The events surrounding this study’s publication are actually a great case study
of academic ethics and freedom.
First, in the process of the study being published, nine OSU scientists and
professors, plus the U.S.
Forest Service, asked Science editors not to publish the study because it was
contrary to a pro-logging report that some of the OSU professors authored.
However, the pro-logging report was not peer reviewed.
And oh, a side note: the College of Forestry gets 10% of its funding from the
timber industry and a logging tax.
Second, because the stuffy contained a single reference to a piece of
legislation that would amend the Health Forest Initiative (that increases
logging), the BLM has pulled the third year of funding from the research team
that published the study. In the words of Andy Stahl, executive director of
Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, “It sends a chilling message
to all researchers. If you don't get the right answer, you don't get the money.”
(2)
Note, I have left politics out of this post : ) and I simply ask the question,
how would you handle this situation if it arose around some of your own
research?
Background:
1. BLM freezes OSU's grant behind study
http://www.oregonlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/1139286311132730.xml?oregonian?lcfp&coll=7
2. BLM pulls funds for salvage logging study http://www.registerguard.com/news/2006/02/07/c2.or.loggingstudy.0207.p1.php?section=nation_world
3. Science Post-Wildfire Logging Hinders Regeneration and Increases Fire Risk”
(http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/311/5759/352)
Mark Fulop, MA, MPH
PO Box 13094
Portland, OR 97213
503-282-1271
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#125
Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2006 14:30:01 -0600
From: "Cissell, William" <WCissell@MAIL.TWU.EDU>
Subject: Fulop's Ethics Case Study
** Leadership Unmatched--AAHE
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Mark,
We have seen some real classic case studies that address the ethics issue you
raise. The Tobacco Research Institute finding results that show cigarette
smoking to not be harmful is a classic.
How do you handle the issue? A lot depends upon the support you can get from
fellow scientists, university administrators and the media. You start by
verifying peer support. Obviously the OSU faculty researchers were not in
support of the student, which puts the student in a tough spot. You did not
indicate that the student had difficulty getting the paper accepted by the
faculty committee guiding his/her research activity. If faculty members are
threatening prospects for the student to graduate, a law suit could develop. In
the old days, when students did not threaten to sue the faculty members and the
universities employing them, interfering with a student's progress towrd
graduation was more common. It still occurs.
It is disheartening to learn that an official of a government agency is
interfering in an editorial discision about publishing a research paper. One can
see the conflict of interest on the part of the scientists and professors who
published the favorable report and who are receiving funding from the logging
industry. That is easy to explain to the members of the media. It may be a
little harder to explain to the media why a government agency is interfering
with the publication decision by editors. Either way, shinning a spotlight on
the issue is probably the best way to gain an ethical solution. Thus, getting
members of the media interested and involved is a good approach.
Bill Cissell
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#126
Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2006 17:20:41 -0500
From: Nancy Eichner <neichner@GWU.EDU>
Subject: CHHCS News Alert, February 8, 2006 -- Study Finds Little Effect of
Low-Fat Diet on Heart Attacks, Cancer
** Leadership Unmatched--AAHE
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The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools (CHHCS) News Alert -- February
8, 2006
Study Finds Little Effect of Low-Fat Diet on Heart Attacks, Cancer:
A major eight-year study in which women either ate a low-fat diet or ate
whatever they pleased reported today that the low-fat diet did not seem to
protect the postmenopausal women from breast or colorectal cancer,
cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, or stroke. The study did not
question, however, that there may be other health benefits from a reduction in
dietary fats, particularly the saturated fats found in many meats and the
trans-fats that are common in processed foods.
http://www.healthinschools.org
The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools http://www.healthinschools.org
Nancy Eichner
Senior Program Manager
202-466-3396 fax: 202-466-3467
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