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National Institutes of Health

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This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation. Help expose the truth about the tobacco industry.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency in the U.S. government conducting and supporting medical research. The NIH consists of 27 institutes and research centers throughout the U.S. Stated goals include:

  • Fostering fundamental creative discoveries, innovative research strategies and their applications to advance, protect and improve the national health.
  • Developing and maintaining renewable scientific human resources to ensure national capability to prevent disease.
  • Expanding the medical knowledge and associated sciences to enhance the national economic well-being.
  • Ensure a continued high return on the public investment in research.
  • Exemplifying and promoting the highest level of scientific integrity, public accountability and social responsibility. [1]

Contents

Tobacco issues

The National Institutes of Health has issued numerous monographs describing the health hazards of smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke, also known as "environmental tobacco smoke" or ETS. [2]

NIH also employed Gio Batta Gori as head of its Smoking and Health program in the 1970s. D.r Gori was a tobacco industry consultant. In 1978, Gori made public statements that some cigarettes were safe to smoke. He was later removed from his post. [3]

NIH personnel consulting agreements

The Senate is calling for the National Institutes of Health to clean up corrupt business dealings involving consulting agreements. According to an agency spokesman, approximately 228 scientists employed by the NIH have outside consulting agreements (out of 6,000 scientists). Furthermore, many of the (total of 365 agreements) do not require public disclosure. Consequently, researchers may receive consulting fees totaling tens of thousands of dollars or accept stock options from outside companies. Some researchers have received stock options worth as much as $300,000. [4] In 1996, researcher Sheldon Krimsky of Tufts University; studied nearly 800 scientific papers in prominent biology and medical journals. In one third of all cases, the author had financial interests in the company sponsoring the research. This information was not disclosed to readers in most cases. Also in 1996, a Stanford University study by Mildred Cho, a senior research scholar at the Center for Biomedical Ethics; found that 98% of university studies funded by drug companies reported new therapies to be more effective than standard ones. By comparison, only 79% of non-industry financed studies found new drugs to be more effective. [5]

Government funded vivisection

The NIH is the largest single funding agency in the U.S. for animal testing. [6] The total of NIH funded projects involving species of animals was 29,441 for the fiscal year 2001. While research on dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs and hamsters has decreased, experiments on macaque monkeys, squirrel monkeys, chimpanzees, baboons, rats and mice has greatly increased. In the fiscal year ending in 2001, the NIH funded 171 separate projects on neural information processing in macaque monkeys, 123 projects on visual neural information in macaque monkeys, 286 cocaine studies on rats, 109 cocaine studies on mice and 55 cocaine studies on macaque monkeys. There were a total of 450 projects studying cocaine in three different species. Approximately $131,175,900 a year is spent on addiction research in only three species. Some of these grants have existed for decades. Several neural information processing grants for macaque monkeys have continued for 30 years (with one reaching 38 years as of 2001). If decades of study have not garnered worthwhile information, why are new grants are still being approved for this field?

Tragically, the NIH spends hundreds of millions of dollars every year funding a bottomless pit of animal research duplication, that accomplishes nothing more than funneling tax dollars into nationally known laboratories. In 2000, the average grant was $291,502 for 29,855 research projects totaling over 8.7 billion dollars in grants that year. There were also an additional 651 projects involving species other than those mentioned above. Many facilities receive well over $100 million yearly and some laboratories approach $200 million. A 2001 audit for 30 facilities revealed that approximately 56% received over 100 million per year from the NIH for animal research. The Institutional Animal Care & Use Committees (IACUC) who evaluate projects for approval, are heavily staffed by animal researchers, affiliated veterinarians and others with vested interests in animal research. [7] Sadly, the current system provides funding approval for virtually any project and has led to a steady climb in animal research. A conservative estimate for NIH funded animal testing is in excess of 8.5 billion annually.[8] See also U.S. Government's War on Animals, section 5.

Animals used in NIH funded research by species

See also a break down by species of animals used in NIH funded research. [9]

National Primate Research Center System

The National Primate Research Center System (NPRC) refers to eight regional centers that perform animal testing and breed primates for laboratories. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 69,990 non-human primates or NHPs, were used U.S. research laboratories in 2007, an increase of 11% since 2006; and the highest number since USDA began tracking in 1973. This does not include primates used for breeding or those being "held" for research. The actual figure is approximately 112,000. A number of institutions have expanded their primate facilities in the last decade and indications are an increase in primate research. China is increasing primate use and export. The eight NPRC's alone received $1.2 billion in 2007. The NPRCs were established by Congress in 1960 to provide "resources" for primate research and to narrow the gap between U.S. and Soviet space programs. The centers are supported by the NIH and have over 27,500 primates of 20 different species in captivity. [10], [11], [12] See also NPRC.

Examples of NIH funded animal research

  • Harvard University receives 10 mega-grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to study the effects of cocaine and heroin on monkeys. Harvard has published over 75 publications about monkeys exposed to cocaine. Harvard’s Alberto Palleroni studies "fear reactions" in monkeys by exposing primates to trained raptors and studying their distress calls. This project is funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Not surprisingly, over 90% of Harvard's primates have at least one self-destructive or abnormal behavior and 20% have seriously self-destructive behavior. [13]
  • University of N. Carolina, Chapel Hill has at least 20 active NIH grants studying alcohol abuse in rodents. Rats and mice who are fed massive amounts of alcohol to induce liver damage, brain damage and death. Other grants cover addiction studies on cocaine, heroin and other illegal drugs. According to addiction expert, Dr. Vincent P. Dole of Rockefeller University:
"Some 60 years of offering alcohol to animals has produced no fundamental insights into the causes of the self-destructive behavior or even a convincing analogue of pathological drinking."[14]
  • At Johns Hopkins University, George Ricaurte receives approximately one million a year for "illicit drug studies" on monkeys and baboons. Lloyd Minor studies "vestibular compensation". He implants metal coils into the eyes of squirrel monkeys and surgically installs steel poles into their skulls which lock into a special restraint chair. The chair is rapidly spun, exerting tremendous force on the immobilized monkey. Minor also cuts out pieces of their brains to see if "lobotomized" monkeys respond differently to chair spinning. Minor doesn't even bother to pretend that his medieval torture has human applications (which he also conducts on chinchillas); however, he receives almost $500,000 each year from the NI on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. [15]
  • Between 1990 and 2000, Dr. Micheal Berens worked with approximately 471 female dogs and their unborn puppies. Dr. Berens to injected cancer cells into beagle fetuses and replanted tumors into puppy's brains. At least 75% of the puppies were aborted or stillborn. Surviving puppies suffered from hydrocephalus, missing limbs and other birth defects. Only 2 to 5% of puppies born alive developed tumors. These puppies lived for approximately one year of illness, painful surgeries and invasive treatments as living petri dishes; until being being euthanized for necropsies at between 9 and 12 months. The few remaining healthy puppies faced permanent confinement in a laboratory or euthanasia. After 10 years and the deaths of 471 dogs, two successful fetal surgeries and tumor implants were documented and published (a 95% failure rate). Dr. Berens was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke from 1997 [18] until April of 2001, when funding ceased due to mounting criticism. [19]
  • At the University of California, Davis, Dr. Kenneth Britten receives $220,000 a year to anchor restraining devices to the heads of rhesus monkeys and graft coils into their eyes. In 2001, Emory University acquired about $118,185,010 for Garret Alexander to route electrodes into the brains of rhesus monkeys. Fluid deprived monkeys are locked into restraint chairs and execute behavioral drills for juice rewards. They are later embalmed alive. Dr. Madeleine Schlag-Rey of the University of California, Los Angeles and Dr. Richard Andersen of the CA Institute of Technology also install devices into primates' brains. Dr. William Newsome of Stanford University has replicated Dr. Brittons' tests since 1985. Charles Bruce of Yale University has collected nearly 3.4 million in grants to perform similar tests. [20]

NIH animal testing

Animals by species, numbers & locations

  • National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland [21]

Numbers of primates being used & held

  • National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland [22]

NIH & the War on Cancer

See also National Cancer Institute.

Funding

The Senate added $1.0 billion to the 2009 request for the NIH budget for a total of $30.5 billion. This amount was an increase of 3% over the current year. In contrast to a request that would have kept the agencies' funding flat, most of NIH’s institutes and centers would see an increase of 2 to 2.5 %. The Senate plan reversed the trend of a declining NIH budget for the last four years.

NIH classifies 97% of its budget as research and development (R&D), including R&D facilities; with the remainder as overhead and training. The amount of the NIH R&D would total $29.7 billion in 2009 according to the Senate plan, an increase of $838 million or 2.9% over 2008. [23]

Institutes & Centers

Executives & board

  • Francis S. Collins, MD, Ph.D. - Director [24]
  • Raynard S. Kington, M.D., Ph.D. - Principal Deputy Director, NIH
  • Victor J. Dzau - former Chair

Advisory Committee

  • Mary Beckerle, Ph.D. - Director, Huntsman Cancer Institute of Utah
  • Joan S. Brugge, Ph.D - Chair, Harvard University Medical School
  • Colleen Conway-Welch - Ph.D., Dean, School of Nursing, Vanderbilt University
  • Catherine D. DeAngelis - M.D., Editor-in-Chief, American Medical Association (JAMA)
  • Haile T. Debas, M.D. - Executive Director, Global Health Sciences, University of San Francisco
  • David L. DeMets - Ph.D. - Chair, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • Maria C. Freire, Ph.D. - President, Albert & Mary Lasker Foundation
  • Susan Hockfield, Ph.D. - President, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Karen A. Holbrook, Ph.D. - VP, Research & Innovation, University of South Florida
  • Ralph I. Horwitz, M.D. - Chair, Department of Medicine, Stanford University
  • James S. Jackson, Ph.D. - Director, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan
  • Thomas J. Kelly, M.D., Ph.D. - Director, Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
  • Mary-Claire King, Ph.D. - American Cancer Society, University of Washington-Seattle
  • Alan I. Leshner, Ph.D. - CEO & Publisher, American Association for the Advancement of Science
  • Beatriz Luna, Ph.D. - Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh
  • Jeffrey C. Murray, M.D. - Vice Chair, College of Medicine, University of Iowa
  • John C. Nelson, M.D. - Former President, American Medical Association, President & CEO, Globus Relief
  • James Thrall, M.D. - Radiologist-in-Chief, Mass. General, Harvard University Medical School
  • Barbara L. Wolfe, Ph.D. - Economics/ Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • Keith R. Yamamoto, Ph.D. - Exec Vice Dean, University of California, San Francisco

Director’s Council

  • Beth Furlong, J.D., Ph.D., RN, Assoc. Professor - Creighton University
    [25]

Scientific Management Review Board

  • Norman Augustine - Chair
  • Jeremy Berg, Ph.D. - National Institute of General Medical Sciences
  • Josephine Briggs, M.D. - National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
  • William Brody, M.D., Ph.D. - Salk Institute for Biological Studies;
  • Gail Cassell, Ph.D. - Eli Lilly
  • Anthony Fauci, M.D. - National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
  • Daniel S. Goldin - Intellisis
  • Richard Hodes, M.D. - National Institute on Aging
  • Stephen Katz, M.D., Ph.D. - National Institute of Arthritis/Musculoskeletal/Skin Diseases
  • Thomas Kelly, M.D., Ph.D. - Director, Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
  • Francis S. Collins, MD, Ph.D. - Director
  • Elizabeth G. Nabel, M.D. - National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
  • John E. Niederhuber, M.D. - National Cancer Institute
  • Deborah Powell, M.D. - University of Minnesota Medical School
  • Griffin Rodgers, M.D. - National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
  • William Roper - University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
  • Arthur Rubenstein, M.D - University of Pennsylvania
  • Solomon H. Snyder, M.D. - Johns Hopkins University
  • Lawrence Tabak, D.D.S., Ph.D. - National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research
  • Eugene Washington, M.D. - University of California San Francisco
  • Huda Zoghbi, M.D. - Baylor College of Medicine [26]

Contact

National Institutes of Health
9000 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, Maryland 20892

Phone: 301-496-4000

Web address: http://www.nih.gov/

Articles & resources

SourceWatch articles

References

  1. ↑ About NIH, National Institutes of Health, August 2009
  2. ↑ David Satcher, M.D., Ph.d. National Institutes of Health; National Cancer Institute NCI U.S Exhibit 78,716, Report, "Monograph 10, Health Effects of Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke" DAVID SATCHER, M.D., Ph.D., National Institutes of Health Report. 1999. 460 pp. Bates No. USX3712391-USX3712850
  3. ↑ Scientist who called some cigarettes safe may lose job, St. Louis Globe Democrat, August 10, 1978, Bates No.777103143
  4. ↑ Senate: Corruption in Govt-Medical Dealings, NathanNewman.org, January 2004
  5. ↑ Mark Clayton Corporate Cash and Campus Labs, Christian Science Monitor, June 2001
  6. ↑ Michael A. Budkie The Animal Experimentation Scandal: An Audit of the National Institutes of Health Funding of Animal Experimentation: Introduction, Stop Animal Exploitation NOW!, 2001
  7. ↑ Micheal A. Budkie An Audit of the NIH: Funding of Animal Experimentation: Audit Findings, SAEN, 2001
  8. ↑ Micheal A. Budkie An Audit of the NIH: Funding of Animal Experimentation: Summary, SAEN, 2001
  9. ↑ Micheal A. Budkie Appendix A: Species of Animals Totals for NIH Grants Awarded 2002, SAEN, 2002
  10. ↑ An Introduction to Primate Issues, Humane Society of the United States, accessed November 2009
  11. ↑ Phillip Dawdy Monkey in the Middle, Willamette Weekly, February 2001
  12. ↑ National Center for Research Resources: Primate Resources, NIH, accessed November 2009
  13. ↑ Harvard University, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, accessed February 2009
  14. ↑ University of N. Carolina, PETA.org, accessed February 2009
  15. ↑ Johns Hopkins University, PETA.org, accessed February 2009
  16. ↑ Oregon Health & Science University, PETA.org, accessed February 2009
  17. ↑ Help End Nicotine Experiments on Monkeys at OSHU: This is Thimble, In Defense of Animals, accessed September 2009
  18. ↑ Micheal Berens Conducts Failed Brain Tumor Research on Female Dogs and their Puppies, In Defense of Animals, accessed February 2009
  19. ↑ James Hibberd Who Let the Dogs Out? The beagles are going home, Phoenix New Times, January 2001
  20. ↑ Brenda Schloss You Paid for it, Kinship Circle, accessed February 2009
  21. ↑ Research Facilities: National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, HSUS, accessed January 2009
  22. ↑ Numbers of Nonhuman Primates at U.S. Research Facilities, HSUS, accessed December 2009
  23. ↑ Senate Adds $1 Billion to 2009 NIH Budget, AAAS.org, August 2009
  24. ↑ NIH Director, NIH, September 2009
  25. ↑ Advisory Committee to the Director: ACD Roster, NIH, January 2010
  26. ↑ Scientific Management Review Board: Members, NIH, June 2009

External articles

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