Firm's ties under scrutiny

A Va. company must clarify its work for chemical makers

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK -- A U.S. center that evaluates health risks from chemicals has suspended a partnership with a Virginia research contractor that also works for chemical makers.

The Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction, based in Research Triangle Park, made its "stop work" decision after a nonprofit group alerted federal officials and members of Congress that the contractor had potential conflicts involving the chemical industry.

The center employs Sciences International Inc. to provide scientific and administrative support for its chemical risk assessments. The federal government agreed to pay $4.3 million to Sciences International from 2003 to 2007 for its work. Recently, the company was helping the center assess whether bisphenol-A (BPA) harms human reproduction or development.

Found in some food containers, infant bottles and other products, BPA can act like estrogen, prompting concerns that it may disrupt normal reproduction and development in people. Studies on animals have yielded mixed results, said Rochelle Tyl, a senior toxicology fellow at RTI International. Efforts to identify any risks to people are ongoing.

Findings by the evaluation center are important to people and to industry because they can influence how the federal government regulates specific chemicals.

As part of its recent duties, Sciences International prepared a thick summary of BPA research for the center's experts to gauge the chemical's risks.

In the report, Sciences International identifies Dow Chemical and Union Carbide as past or present BPA makers. The Environmental Working Group, which raised the conflict concerns, notes that Sciences International has also listed Dow Chemical and Union Carbide as clients. In addition, a Sciences International principal scientist co-wrote a scientific paper with a Dow Chemical employee.

In a letter to Sciences International this month, Allen Dearry, interim director of the National Toxicology Program, said the evaluation center's "integrity has been questioned because of its association with Sciences International, Inc."

Dearry notified Sciences International that it must clarify any potential conflicts it has related to BPA and 20 other substances it has been involved with assessing, including soy formula, amphetamines and acrylamide.

John Vandenbergh, an N.C. State University emeritus zoologist, is among 15 scientists on the BPA panel, which is evaluating government and industry research on the chemical dating to the 1950s. He said Thursday that independence is key to the center's review process. He does not think, however, that Sciences International has attempted to influence him or the other researchers from around the country assessing BPA.

"I don't have any serious worries," Vandenbergh said. "We have access to all the original studies."