NIH accused of sexual intimidation and safety violations

Apr 11 2005

National Institute of Health (NIH) medical officer Betsy Smith has testified in a recent civil case that women at the NIH have faced sexual intimidation and repeated disregard of their concerns for the welfare of patients in AIDS experiments.

According to her testimony and that of top regulatory compliance officer in the NIH's AIDS division, Mary Anne Luzar; and documents gathered by investigators, allegations made last year by an agency whistleblower, Dr. Jonathan Fishbein are well founded and that the harassment and disregard for federal safety regulations is so widespread that employees are now afraid to hold up experiments even if they see a safety problem.

In her sworn testimony and in other documents the situation Smith says "can be fairly uncomfortable, you don't hold up any projects even if you feel there are safety issues for certain projects". The case has been handed over to federal and Senate investigators.

The testimony by Smith and the chief compliance officer for AIDS research, Luzar, as well as e-mails involving more staffers and several bosses, paint a picture of a sometimes raunchy, profane-language atmosphere inside an agency regarded for its pristine science. Documents tell of a supervisor sending a red bra to a former female subordinate and of women being hugged or kissed by bosses.

The two senior female officers stepped forward in interviews with investigators and in sworn depositions in recent weeks and expanded upon allegations made last year by an agency whistleblower, Dr. Jonathan Fishbein.

Fishbein says he was fired as the AIDS division's chief of human research protection because he raised concerns about patient safety and shoddy science. The NIH says he was fired because of poor performance.