UCLAappointsgovtpanels

UCLA appoints members of government oversight
panels

[Maura Larkins' comment: I suspect it's very hard to find ANY researcher that is
not influenced by powerful interests.]

The Firing Of Dr. James Enstrom: The Dangers of Bucking
Fashionable Science
CA air resources logo
Whistleblower targeted for exposing junk science
February 13, 2014
by Katy Grimes

see beginning of this article HERE

...Enstrom was also responsible for getting UCLA activist and scientist, John
Froines, booted from the CARB Scientific Review Panel, which is responsible
for identifying toxic contaminants.

The panel is comprised of nine scientists nominated by the University of
California president, who are then formally appointed by the governor, the
Senate Rules Committee, the Assembly Speaker, and the California Secretary
of Environmental Protection.

Enstrom discovered Froines had been on the panel without reappointment for
25 years, which exceeded the legislatively- mandated three-year term limits.
Money and politics are powerful motives

The Pacific Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit several years ago on behalf of
construction and trucking groups (Brown v. Adams) challenging the nomination
and appointment practice for the CARB Scientific Review Panel. “In a nutshell,
the appointing authorities had been letting many panelists stay over on expired
terms,” the PLF explained.

Enstrom said the PLF lawsuit resulted in very necessary overhaul of the panel
members, which included the removal of Dr. Froines.

By being allowed to remain on the panel, Froines prevented other qualified
scientists from serving. “He never should have held this position this long,”
Enstrom said. “This should have been a rotating panel. He locked out every
other toxicologist in California.”

And under Froines’ watch on the toxics panel, Enstrom said many substances
were declared “toxic” in California.

The Scientific Review Panel declared diesel exhaust toxic in the 1990’s. This
allowed the CARB to rev up regulations.

However, Enstrom said Froines’ removal from the panel created such a ruckus
in the environmental community that Assembly Speaker John Perez ordered
then-UC President Mark Yudof put Froines back on the Panel, and had him
reappointed as Chairman.

However, Enstrom said Froines resigned last year following the methyl iodide
controversy. Froines’ alleged friendliness with anti-pesticide groups, while
under contract to chair an independent panel to investigate the fumigant methyl
iodide, apparently has him in hot water.

Enstrom said Froines was also the head of the Southern California Particulate
Center, which conducts studies on the effects of particulate pollution, at
taxpayer expense, including many grants from CARB and Cal-EPA.

Enstrom’s research could have put an end to Froines‘ government-funded
research.
Life is messy

However, fate can be messy. Froines was a voting faculty member of UCLA’s
Environmental Sciences Department – the department from which Enstrom was
terminated.