coverage of scientific bias in regulation

The Monterey Herald has an article covering a new systematic analysis by Lenard Lesser et al. of scientific studies of beverages.[*] The researchers of this study found that beverage studies were four to eight times more likely to reach positive conclusions about the health effects of a beverage when that study was industry sponsored. This has implications not only for approvals by the Food and Drug Administration, but also for the Environmental Protection Agency, given what some have observed to be an increasing reliance on industry-sponsored studies.

Also, the Hartford Courant has an editorial: Gagging Science With Politics, decrying some of the procedural changes made in the way the EPA will set pollution standards (moving from staff scientists performing independent reviews of recent research towards scientists "teaming up with their politically appointed bosses to review . . . 'policy-relevant' science").

[*] The Public Library of Science, which publishes the peer-reviewed open-access journal that published Lesser's study, also has a "Perspective," entitled Does Industry Sponsorship Undermine the Integrity of Nutrition Research?, commenting on this study.