Trying to cover up the emerging science on mercury toxicity and mercury fillings, NIDCR and Tabak approved the notorious experiment on the hapless children at a Portuguese orphanage, Casa Pia. The chief experimenters were Timothy DeRouen and Michael Martin, two biased professors at the University of Washington dental school, who actually testified in 2002 at a public hearing, alongside the ADA, in favor of mercury fillings -- long before the final data were in. These men chose Casa Pia as the site for their egregious conduct because responsible adult oversight of the children is abysmal. During the experiment, the orphanage was rocked by a sensational pedophile scandal whose participants included many of the adult supervisors; for the children, said the replacement superintendent, it was like living in a horror movie.

Consumers for Dental Choice, concerned about the abysmal ethics and likely future harm to these children and their children by the secret implanting of mercury, filed a complaint with the Office of Human Research Protections, the U.S. agency whose mission is to stop unethical experiments on people, especially children. The U.S. agency found in our favor:

“the informed consent document for the research conducted by UW [the University of Washington] failed to adequately describe the reasonable foreseeable risks of the amalgams”.

This despite the fact that Rouen and Martin were fully aware of the risks, advising NIDCR that mercury fillings can cause “chronic debilitating neuromuscular diseases [MS? ALS?] and even acute, life-threatening health outcomes.” Tabak of NIDCR was so intimately involved in the experiment that his assistant Braveman not only doled out the millions of dollars, but was a co-author of articles (no arms-length relationship existed between grantor and grantee).

Last month, we wrote the president of the University of Washington, www.toxicteeth.org/Pres%20U%20of%20WA%20F.pdf, and to DeRouen and Martin individually, asking that they return the millions in ill-gotten gains to the children for their future medical bills. We then wrote the Prime Minister Portugal, the Honorable Sr. Socrates, suggesting the Portuguese government sue the U. of Wash., DeRouen, and Martin in the courts of the United States on behalf of the children who received no notice of the risks. www.toxicteeth.org/Prime%20Minister--F.pdf Since experimenter Martin parleyed his new prominence into a seat on the ADA’s Council of Scientific Affairs (CSA), we also wrote the ADA to insist they remove Martin from that Council, telling the ADA it’s time to choose between protecting mercury fillings and moral integrity; www.toxicteeth.org/Remove%20Martin%20from%20CSA.pdf (I think we already know the answer to that one).

The Portuguese experiment marks the third strike for Lawrence Tabak’s corrupt tenure at the NIDCR.

Strike One: Tabak and his assistant Braveman launched the notorious literature review contract with Big Tobacco consultant LSRO Inc., who flipped the research question in order to provide Tabak the green light for mercury fillings. To hire LSRO, Tabak circumvented the federal competitive bidding rules by contracting with a totally unqualified contractor, meetings planner BETAH Associates, who was directed to appoint LSRO. A federal investigation of this contract by an independent CPA firm is completed, but NIH refuses to release the report to us.

Strike Two: Apprised of this chicanery, Congressman Dan Burton and Congresswoman Diane Watson wrote Tabak seeking an explanation. In his written reply to the Members of Congress, Tabak lied, claiming that BETAH “identify[ied]” LSRO, when he knew his assistant Norman Braveman had negotiated the deal with tobacco consultant LSRO long before NIDCR handpicked strawperson BETAH as cover.

Strike Three: This outrageous experiment on Portuguese orphans where a federal agency found – a finding not contested by the University of Washington – that the guardians and children received no informed consent about the health effects of implanting mercury.

Tabak’s war on science is far from over. As we speak, he is launching another fraud on the taxpayers, awarding $3 million to an associate professor at a pro-mercury dental school, the U. of Rochester, to research the neurological harm of mercury fillings on children. Once again, a dentist with a conflict of interest is in charge of deciding questions of neurology and toxicology. We must stop Tabak from using taxpayers’ money to advance his pet cause of keeping mercury fillings going into children worldwide.

Will you help us, now? We wrote Elias Zerhouni, Director of NIH, asking that he sack Tabak, www.toxicteeth.org/Three%20strikes%20&%20Tabak%20out.pdf If you agree, would you write Director Zerhouni and ask that he fire Tabak, for cause. Here is the e-address of him and his top staff -- send your e-mail to all these folks in the same e-mail (not just Zerhouni) to ensure someone reads it:

ZerhounE@od.nih.gov; norka.ruiz-bravo@nih.hhs.gov, kingtonr@od.nih.gov; Rk25n@nih.gov; m77f@nih.gov; BurklowJ@od.nih.gov; allenMa@od.nih.gov; ServisS@od.nih.gov, CornellS@od.nih.gov

Charlie

21 Sept. 2007

PS --- please send me a blind carbon copy, at charlie@toxicteeth.org

Charles G. Brown, National Counsel

Consumers for Dental Choice

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