The director of a government health institute in Research Triangle Park hired himself out to testify in asbestos lawsuits and may have made other questionable financial and ethical decisions, a U.S. senator says.

Dr. David Schwartz, a former Duke University professor, is also accused of retaining inappropriately close ties to Duke while overseeing the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, which funnels research money to the Durham campus, says U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican. And finally, according to Grassley, Schwartz used taxpayer dollars to decorate an office and pay $936 to a limousine service for a car ride to a Washington meeting.

Schwartz countered that the missteps were innocent mistakes that, once recognized, were swiftly corrected.

"I believe I have worked in a very reputable way consistent with the highest ethical standards in the decisions I've made and the actions I've taken," Schwartz said.

Grassley wrote a letter to Schwartz's boss, Dr. Elias Zerhouni, who heads the National Institutes of Health that oversees and funds government research. In the letter, Grassley questions whether Schwartz's conduct is proof that the NIH doesn't adequately enforce ethics rules or other policies that could reflect badly on the government and waste taxpayer dollars.

"Leaders of government agencies hold a public trust," the senator wrote. "They need to conduct themselves in a way that honors that trust."

The letter represents the second congressional questioning of Schwartz's leadership and, for the first time, publicly spells out criticisms. In April, two Democratic congressmen -- Reps. Henry Waxman of California and Dennis Kucinich of Ohio -- hinted at problems and demanded personal and professional financial records from the NIEHS director.

Work questioned

In his letter, Grassley notes that an NIH ethics official in 2005 wrote an e-mail message voicing concern about Schwartz's expert witness work. "I can't imagine that testifying under oath on the subject is not a conflict of interest for him ..." it read.

NIEHS, an operation with a $700 million plus budget that employs more than 600 people, is widely known and respected in scientific circles -- especially among environmental health-risk exposure researchers. Zerhouni announced Schwartz as head of the agency in 2004, but Schwartz did not take over the post until 2005 after he raised concerns about strict new financial conflict of interest rules. He was hired at an annual salary of $250,000, with possible bonuses totaling more than $60,000 a year.

During an interview Thursday, Schwartz, a pulmonologist, acknowledged he was paid more than $150,000 from 2005 to 2007 for work related to asbestos legal claims. He said he took the moonlighting work primarily for contact with patients, which he said he deeply enjoys, but also to make extra money. He stopped this year after realizing "it provided an appearance of a conflict that I didn't want to have to address in any way," Schwartz said.

He said a small share of the fees he earned came from testifying on behalf of plaintiffs in three lawsuits -- work approved by NIH. He performed the work on weekends and while on vacation, he said.

In another charge, Grassley noted that Schwartz's office hired the car from the limousine service when "none of the available flights allegedly 'fit' into Dr. Schwartz's itinerary." Schwartz said after he learned that his office tipped the driver 20 percent rather than 15 percent, he repaid NIH the money out of his pocket.

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