Bernard L Oser
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This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation. |
Bernard L Oser was a toxicology consultant who traded under the names Bernard L Oser Associates, and as the Food and Drug Research Laboratories Inc. a research firm in New York.
He was obviously wealthy enough to join Gio B Gori, Robert A Gots, and a couple of the major tobacco and drug companies as a sponsor of the International Society of Regulatory Toxicology & Pharmacology (ISRTP)
Documents & Timeline
1942 Oct Oser at the Food Research Laboratories, Inc. New York was giving evidence for the Medical Relations division of Camel cigarettes in FTC advertising trial.
- Dr Oser will present as evidence the laboratory report of the increase in blood sugar from smoking a CAMEL cigarette which will support our claim of "Get a lift with a CAMEL".
- He will testify as to the techniques and procedures employed in arriving at the conclusions ...
- Dr Oser does not qualify as an expert in the field of physiological effects, nor do his experiments cover the ultimate effect of this increase in the blood sugar, and his testimony may be limited strictly to the laboratory report itself.[1]
- Note that this was during war-time when a lift in blood-sugar levels for soldiers was probably considered important -- and the real dangers of cigarettes hadn't then been established.
1965 Dec 17 The tobacco industry's General Counsel has approved an Ad Hoc Committee CTR Special Project #4 grant proposals. They looked at some research defined as
Skin painting tests with substances in every day use such as, tomato juice, egg yolk, skin salves, coffee, etc.
- They had voted against a proposal by Dr Bernard L Oser of Food and Drug Research Labs Inc. Maspath, NY to conduct this research.
- This was considered again in June 15 1966, and approved for Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Madison Wisconsin. They specified that the research be done "with flexibility as to materials used, but tobacco is not to be used." (under auspices of Ad Hoc Committee)
1973 Feb Oser was one of the few scientist at a large two-day New York Academy of Science meeting (run by Irving Selikoff) on the Delaney Amendment (aka Delaney Claus) who continued pressing attempts to make changes to the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act, after the other industry consultants had abandoned the effort. The Delaney Clause had a absolute prohibition against the deliberate introduction of any level of carcinogen into the food supply, and this strict rule had been included in the act since 1958. Few scientists thought the prohibition should be relaxed.
Despite this resistance, under pressure from industry, Reagan's FDA was attempting to re-define ('dilute') the Delaney Amendment to allow carcinogenic food additives at low levels which they alleged to be devoid of significant risk.
The tobacco industry and other industrial groups hired the lawfirm Covington & Burling to get it modified, but far too many academics and scientists opposed any change. Eventually, even C&B's own counsellor Eugene Lambert finally gave up the attempt after hearing evidence and opinion from the other scientists. [3] [4]
1978 June 20-22 Giving evidence before US Department of Labor (OSHA) hearing on toxic substances in the workplace.
These were the witnesses for the American Industrial Health Council (AIHC) (a front for the Chemical Manufacturers' Association):
- Paul Oreffice, President. Dow Chemical
- Robert E Olson, Consultant
- Francis JC Roe, Consultant
- Richard Wilson, Consultant
- David Brusick, Litton Bionetics
- Ronald W Hart, Consultant
- RF Crampton, Consultant
- Paul Grasso, BP Occup. Health
- George Claus, Consultant
- AEM McLean, Consultant
- Leonard Goldwater, Consultant
- Johannes Clemmesen, Consultant
- Bernard L Oser, Consultant
- Frank C Lu, Consultant
- Robert Murray, Consultant
- Ronald A Lang, Executive Secretary
- Josaph Nemec
- Philip Gisser
- Robert Shriner
- Robert C. Barnard, Attorney
- James H. Jandl, Consultant
- HGS Van Raalte, Toxicologist Shell International
- T Colin Campbell, Consultant
- Elwood P Blanchard, Fred Hoerger, Alternatives
- George Dominquez, Economist
1983 Feb 21-23 He is listed at the Winter meeting of the Toxicology Forum at Stouffer's National Center Hotel in Arlington VA
- Bernard L Oser Associates Inc. at Bayside, NY
1991 Oct He is listed as a sponsor of the International Society of Regulatory Toxicology & Pharmacology at an ISRTP meeting also held at Stouffer's National Center Hotel in Arlington VA
He is one of three small one-man operations who acted as sponsors for the ISRTP alongside such giants as RJ Reynolds Nabisco, and Dow Chemicals. His associates in this venture were Gio B Gori, Robert A Gots, W Gary Flamm and a few dozen others with similar interests. [8]
