NEWS OF THE W EEK
CHEMICALS: Allegations of inaccurate
data and false testimony on flame retardants prompt uproar
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WENTY-ONE STATE legislators from 10 states
are urging the American Chemistry Council, a chemical industry trade association, to expel three member companies for unethical behavior. As ACC members, the companies—Albemarle, Chemtura, and ICL Industrial Products—must conform to ACC’s Responsible Care program, which, according to a June 4 letter to ACC from the legislators, the companies do not. The three firms are the world’s primary manufacturers of brominated flame retardants, and for decades they have faced efforts to limit use of retardants in furniture, electronic components, and other consumer goods. Pointing to a recent four-part series of articles in the Chicago Tribune, the legislators charge the companies with using “dirty and deceptive” practices to overcome state legislative efforts to cut use of flame retardants in consumer products. In response, ACC says Responsible Care “is primarily an industry performance measurement and reporting initiative,” requiring members to publicly report metric-based performance. In a June 5 letter to the legislators, Calvin M. Dooley, ACC president and CEO, distanced the organization from the actions of the three firms, but he acknowledged they are members. According to the Tribune, the companies conducted a nefarious campaign to promote their products, including creating a phony grassroots organization, “Citizens for Fire Safety,” to attack state legislators who were pushing bills to limit use of the retardants. The
companies, according to the articles, also scientifically supported use of the retardants by relying on a small number of obscure and ineffective tests and providing a dishonest medical doctor to testify against state bills. The doctor acknowledged to the Tribune that he had fabricated stories of several children’s deaths, claiming they died in fires when the children, in fact, did not exist. Dooley stressed that ACC does not advocate with state legislatures on flame-retardant chemicals, nor is it affiliated with Citizens for Fire Safety. Dooley said that each of the three companies recognizes the need to “dispel misinformation” in the news articles. The three will make scientific information available to support product efficacy and safety and will pursue additional testing “where warranted,” he said. Along with their letter, the 21 legislators described actions taken against them by chemical firms. Maryland Delegate James W. Hubbard (D) said chemical companies sent mailers to his constituents, targeting him as a sponsor of a bill to restrict flame retardants and suggesting that the legislation would “allow people’s homes to burn down.” The fight over brominated fire retardants in part reflects a stalled effort to reform the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act. With little national movement, some dozen states have considered limits on flame retardants, pointing to growing evidence of the compounds’ potential to bioaccumulate and their links to cancer, neurological deficits, and developmental problems.—JEFF JOHNSON
This industrycrafted flyer circulated in Washington state in 2007 during legislative hearings on a bill to ban flame retardants containing decabromodiphenyl ether.
SAFER CHEMICALS HEALTH Y FAM IL IES
LEGISLATORS URGE ACC TO EXPEL FIRMS
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Former WuXi PharmaTech employee convicted of theft A former employee of Chinese contract research firm WuXi PharmaTech has been convicted of stealing samples of several proprietary Merck & Co. compounds and offering them for sale over the Internet through a broker. WuXi says it was the first theft of intellectual property in the firm’s 11-year history. According to Chinese media reports, the unidentified WuXi assistant researcher was sentenced on May 22 by a Chinese court to pay restitution of $45,000. He also was sentenced to an 18-month prison term, although the sentence was suspend-
ed because he is a first-time offender. “We regret that one of our employees committed a crime on our premises,” says WuXi CEO Ge Li, identifying the victim of the theft only as “a customer.” Li also notes that the breach of the company’s security protocols is an isolated case and involves only samples of two patented compounds whose chemical structures are available in patent filings. A Merck spokesman tells C&EN only that Merck “believes the situation has been satisfactorily resolved.” According to Chinese reports, the pharmaceutical
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maker initially got wind of the conspiracy in March 2011 when it discovered a website that was offering to sell MK-3102, an oral dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor then under development as a treatment for type 2 diabetes. Charles E. Miller, a senior counsel in the intellectual property group of law firm Dickstein Shapiro, says that as research costs rise in China, U.S. firms should think twice about outsourcing to a country where intellectual property protection is not as stringent as in the U.S.—MARC REISCH
