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Biomedical subjects

Richard Clapp

Publications and source records attributed to Richard Clapp.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Environmental surveillance at Los Alamos: an independent reassessment of historical data.

Since 1971, a series of annual Environmental Surveillance ... reports have served as the official public record of Los Alamos National Laboratory's (LANL) environmental performance. In northern New Mexico, where past LANL emissions are a public health concern, there is public skepticism over the accuracy of information contained in these reports. To test the hypothesis that LANL Environmental Surveillance ... reports systematically understate past emissions, we compared the data on releases in LANL's own internal Occurrence Reports Collection (ORC) to the data reported to the public in the Environmental Surveillance ... reports. A data set of 89 environmental occurrences recorded in the ORC in the time period from 1971 through 1980 was assembled. We did not find a systematic pattern of quantitative underreporting of source terms. However, 17 of the 89 (19%) environmental occurrences recorded in the ORC were not reported to the public in the Environmental Surveillance ... reports. The observed discrepancies are discussed in terms of their relevance to public health concerns. Methodological caveats dictate restraint in applying these findings beyond the scope of the relative comparison performed here. Possible social origins for the rejected hypothesis are discussed. Areas for further consideration by the Centers for Disease Control's dose reconstruction study of LANL are identified.

Environmental Monitoring↗
PubMed2005

Science and regulation: current impasse and future solutions.

We reflect on four articles that examine the Supreme Court's Daubert v Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc decision and efforts by private interests to derail public health and environmental regulations. The articles' authors make the case that the impact of Daubert and related decisions in court settings pale by comparison to the threat that Daubert-like thinking poses in the regulatory arena. A growing number of companies, however, have made substantial changes in practice and in culture by embracing a philosophy where health and environment are priorities. Mechanisms could be established to encourage firms to pledge to use science to meet public health and environmental goals, as well as channel the ingenuity of the private sector towards ecological, economical, and equitable systems of production.

Expert Testimony↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Carcinogenicity of saccharin in laboratory animals and humans: letter to Dr. Harry Conacher of Health Canada.

We appreciate this opportunity to provide input to the Health Protection Branch's (HPB's) review of the artificial sweetener saccharin. Concerns with regard to the safety of saccharin are of great public health significance and of great interest to the public because saccharin is consumed by tens of millions of people, including children and fetuses. Any evidence of carcinogenesis--and there is ample such evidence--of such a widely used chemical should spur health officials to minimize human exposure to it. It is worth noting that on October 31, 1997, the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Toxicology Program, a unit of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), voted not to delist saccharin from its Report on Carcinogens.

Animals↗