Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology

This article is part of the Pharma_Portal project of Spinwatch.

Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology (RTP) is published by the International Society of Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology (ISRTP), which says its aim is “to identify and promote improvements in the scientific basis for regulatory decisions”. ISRTP counts among its sponsors past and present:

• The American Chemistry Council, a chemical industry lobby group
• The chemical companies Monsanto and Dow AgroSciences
• The Weinberg Group, a consulting firm that, according to a Vanity Fair article, “works for chemical companies to manufacture uncertainty about the health and environmental effects of chemicals, with the aim of fighting off regulatory and legal challenges”.

In 2008, US Congressman John D. Dingell, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, launched an investigation into the role of the American Chemistry Council, the Weinberg Group, ISRTP, and its journal, RTP, in the regulatory failure that led to the continuing use of the chemical bisphenol A. Dingell said, “The tactics apparently employed by the Weinberg Group raise serious questions about whether science is for sale at these consulting groups, and the effect this faulty science might have on the public health.”

In his book, Doubt Is Their Product: How Industry's Assault on Science Threatens Your Health, former US Assistant Secretary of Energy David Michaels describes RTP as the best known of the “vanity journals that present themselves to the unwary as independent sources on information and science, but the peer reviewers are carefully chosen, like-minded corporate consultants sitting in friendly judgement on studies that are exquisitely structured to influence a regulatory proceeding or court case.”

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