Environ Corporation
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Environ Corp. (aka ENVIRON Corp. and Environmental Air Controls) was a toxicology consultancy and Indoor Air Quality testing company (IAQ testing) in Washington DC. It had strong ties to the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI). The principals were a couple of toxicologists who had worked with the Food & Drug Administration, and then seen an opportunity for working with the other side -- for the food and related companies that had a potential poisoning or polluting problem. It appears to have operated as an extended partnership, much like a legal form.
The most obvious of the senior executives working for the tobacco industry were Joseph V Rodricks and Thomas B Starr. They also introduced an indoor air testing side to their business when it became obvious that Gray Robertson with his ACVA and [[Health Buildings International[[ (HBI) operations were making a fortune by NOT finding cigarette smoke problems in indoor air quality testing of offices, on jobs subsidised by Philip Morris.
Environ Corp. seem to have struck a deal with RJ Reynolds Tobacco at the time this cigarette company agreed to share the cost of fake IAQ testing with Philip Morris and the Tobacco Indstitute. Jolanda Janczewski was hired as Service Manager to run this side of the business (quite successfully) for them for a while, until she realised that she could make more money running her own show.
It is not quite clear whether the originally company split up, or just created subsidiaries: Jolanda Janczewski also ran the IAQ testing side of ENV Services Inc. (supposedly a subsidiary of Environmental Air Controls aka ENV Consulting) under James Flannery. She then resigned to establish her own Consolidated Safety Services, and the tobacco industry subsidies followed Jolanda to her new venture. (See ENV Services entry
Catherine St Hilaire came to manage ENVIRON Corp from a position as director of the International Life Sciences Institute Risk Science Institute (ILSI-RSI).
Environ Associates
- Robert G Tardiff
- Joseph V Rodricks
- Thomas B Starr
- Jolanda Janczewski - IAQ testing only.
- Catherine St Hilaire
- Denise Robinson
- Lauissa Rudenko
Documents & Timeline
1987-89 An RJ Reynolds account of expenditure on (perhaps) legitimate research list a large number of outside nicotine research consultants who don't figure in the CTR Special Project #4 accounts. These are consultation projects for RJ Reynolds Tobacco. The most notable ones are:
| 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| * Dr JE Trosko, Michigan State University | $85,397 | nil | nil |
| * Dr Francis JC Roe (Note the rounded 'retainer payment) | nil | $7,194 | $10,000 |
| * Environ Corp. Jolanda Janczewski who did fake IAQ testing The Environ Corporation also did Toxic reviews. Also the services of Dr Joseph V Rodricks [2] | nil $25,000 $2,659 | $14,600 $ 467 $17,648 | $50,000 $50,000 $ 736 |
1988 May 17 The International Life Sciences Institute - Nutrition/Food (ILSI-NF) division held a meeting on the Californian Proposition 65 (on pollutions including Indoor Air). However, since the food processors weren't too happy being caught in bed with tobacco, Tom Borelli from Philip Morris USA, registered his corporate affiliations as Kraft General Foods.
The opponents of Prop 65 appear to have had the Californian governor on side, judging from this report:
At a March 16, 1988 meeting on lead it was recommended that ILSI-NF undertake a project to determine the appropriate acceptable daily exposure level for use under Proposition 65. It was also suggested that ENVIRON Corporation submit a bid to develop a document that provides an analysis of the animal developmental and male and female reproductive toxicity data, and human data.
Subsequent to the March 16 meeting, it was decided that ILSI-NF would contract with ENVIRON to conduct only a review of the human epidemiologic data. ILSI-NF scientists would prepare comments to the state, drawing from the ENVIRON review, from a document developed by The Procter & Gamble Company scientists and from their own expertise.
Task Force members will review the document by Procter & Gamble entitled, "A Quantitative Assessment of the Reproductive and Developmental Toxicity of Inorganic Lead"
[Ms Connick was to collate the information and forward them to Dr McDermott, who did the ILSI's presentations at hearings.] [3]
1989 July 26 Conference at the Irvine Center of the Institute for Evaluating Health Risks (IEHR) created by John A Moore (ex FDA) in answer to Prop 65 in California. "Making Risk Assessment Work: The role of the IEHR" The participants list includes: Dr. Catherine St Hilaire
Principal, Environ [4]
- She had been the director of the Risk Sciences Institute of the International Life Sciences Institute under Alex Malaspina in 1986,
1993 Apr 6 A meeting of the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) on countering the Californian Proposition 65 Clean Air and Clean Water initiative shows that the same scientific lobbyist were running both the ILSI and the Society of Toxicology (SOT). Denise Robinson of the consultancy ENVIRON Corporation has delivered the first draft of th acetaldehyde document, and the report says '
- '"A meeting was arranged between Dr Tom Starr, Dr Robinson and committee members interested in acetaldehyde to discuss the draft at the Society of Toxicology (SOT) meeting in New Orleans on March 18" [5]
- [ENVIRON charged $7,500 for this work]
1998 Dec 2-3 The Board of Scientific Counselors at the NTP voted unanimously to recommend that ETS (second-hand smoke) should be listed under "known to be a human carcinogen". This recommendation was to be passed to the Executive Committee, chaired by Linda Rosenstock, the Director of NIOSH (early 1999) Tozzi has sent Philip Morris a detailed report.
They also looked again at the chemical TCDD (dioxin) and decided that this also was a probable human carcinogen. Kim Hooper of the Californian Department of Health said TCDD is "almost certainly" a human carcinogen. (And) Given the powerful animal data — that TCDD is an "incredibly potent" and "really an amazing" carcinogen in rats and mice — Hooper wondered why there was even a debate. Those commenting on behalf of the manufacturers were:
- Jim Tozzi (MBS) (unspecified who he represented)
- Nathan J Karch representing the Vinyl Institute (Karch & Associates)
- Raymond S Greenberg representing the Chlorine Chemistry Council
- Thomas Starr (Environ) on behalf of the American Forest & Paper Association
- [All of the above worked also for the tobacco industry.]</font.
