On October 15, 2013 Stéphane Horel, journalist for the online news provider Environmental Health News reported on the resignation of the German scientist Wolfgang Dekant from the European Commission’s (EC) Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR). The Committee provides the EC with opinions on topics such as nanotechnologies and chemical mixtures, which are also relevant for food contact materials. Together with 17 other scientists Dekant co-authored an editorial criticizing the European Union’s plan to regulate endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) (previously reported by the FPF). An investigation by Environmental Health News in September 2013 had revealed that 17 of the 18 authors had industry ties (FPF reported). Wolfgang Dekant, who holds a chair of toxicology at the University of Würzburg, Germany, was linked to companies that would be affected by a new EDC regulation at the European level. Dekant’s resignation was confirmed by Frédéric Vincent, spokesperson for the EC, who declined to comment on the resignation. According to Dekant himself, he had considered resigning from the panel since March 2013, as the work required a lot of time and was moving away from his area of expertise. The resignation letter was dated September 6, 2013 but Dekant’s name was only removed from the EC webpage after Environmental Health News’ release of the investigation of the conflicts of interest of the editorial’s authors.
Read more
Stéphane Horel (October 15, 2013). “Scientist with extensive industry ties quits EU advisory panel.” Environmental Health News.
FPF article “Conflicts of interest of authors of controversial editorial revealed”
FPF article “Opinion: Scientists call European Commission’s proposed EDC regulation over-precautionary”
