Nancy J Balter
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Nancy J. Balter is an academic scientist who spent the majority of her career on the faculty of Georgetown University School of Medicine teaching pharmacology and toxicology. Her main associate was Professor Sorell Schwartz at the Department of Pharmacology at the University. She is listed as a "tobacco industry consultant" in several places in the industry's documents, including an April 6, 1988 letter written by Susan Stuntz, Vice President of Issues Management at the Tobacco Institute and a 1986 letter from John Rupp of the industry's law firm Covington & Burling.[1][2]
Balter served on the Editorial Board of the London-based Environmental Technology Letters, a peer reviewed scientific journal, which had at the head of its Advisory Board another enthusiastic tobacco consultant, Professor Roger Perry. This journal published material favorable to the cigarette industry.
In the USA, Balter oversaw the day to day operations of the Center for Environmental Health and Human Toxicology (CEHHT) ETS literature database, and was a member of the IAPAG group (the first of the industry's Whitecoats organisations of secret supporting scientists).
| THIS IS A SPLIT ENTRY |
|---|
| Center for Environmental Health & Human Toxicology (CEHHT) |
| Indoor Air Pollution Advisory Group (IAPAG) |
| IAPAG/CEHHT (Doc Index) |
| International Center for Toxicology & Medicine |
She traveled on behalf of the industry's response to proposed environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) legislation and appears to have acted as administrator of the IAPAG operations -- which largely involved travel to various counties to provide witness services supporting the industry's claims that no harm had been proved to arise from either direct smoking or passive smoking. She was extremely active in the recruitment of Whitecoats in Europe, working with the tobacco lawyers Covington & Burling and the recruitment company the Weinberg Group
She seems to be married to a doctor, DJ Balter MD, and she retired in 1995 and joined forces with Philip Witorsch in another pseudo scientific organisation known as the International Center for Toxicology & Medicine. Her husband is also listed with this organisation.
The ICTM appears to have been established to service the tobacco (and other) industries in the early 1990s. All known members were tobacco lobbyists with links to Georgetown University and its IAPAG, the infamous Indoor Air Pollution Advisory Group so it is reasonable to assume tat ICTM was a retirement home of ex-IAPAG members who needed an affiliation with an organisation that sounded important.
Core organizations
Over the years, Balter was heavily involved in organizations and projects comprised of, or associated with, the tobacco industry. These operations were generally handled by the Tobacco Institute:
- The Center for Environmental Health and Human Toxicology, usually known by the abbreviation CEHHT,
- This group took over a database of abstracts and reports on smoking and health originally put together by Myron Weinberg at the Weinberg Group, using tobacco funding. The database had been constructed under a Weinberg contract to the tobacco industry, but it had grown too large for the Weinberg Group to handle with their early minicomputers.
- Indoor Air Pollution Advisory Group, which is best known as IAPAG.
- International Center for Toxicology & Medicine
She also helped organise the Whitecoats for Philip Morris, and aided them in the formation of ARIA, EGIL and possibly ARTIST (secret consultants groups)
Balter appeared as a scientific witness before many regulatory bodies, legislative inquiries, and conference assemblies on behalf of tobacco company interests, and she played a role, with the industry lawyers, in selecting scientists for the tobacco industry's ETS consultancy program (the Whitecoats Project). [2]
Main associates
Based at Georgetown University, Balter appears to be the central point of contact for both the IAPAG group and the CEHHT operation. In some tobacco documents she appears to act as the manager (i.e., "Balter noted that she had instructed someone in IAPAG to critique Weber's research.") [3]
Those closely associated with her were:
- Sorell L. Schwartz -- a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at Georgetown University, chair of IAPAG from 1984-88, at which time he dissolved the group. His contact with the Tobacco Institute was through its legal firm Covington & Burling [4]
- Raphael Witorsch and Philip Witorsch - both long-term scientific witnesses for the tobacco industry
- James Kilpatrick a biostatistician at the Medical College of Virginia, Commonwealth University
- Myron Weinberg of the Weinberg Group - the tobacco industry's main recruiting organization.
- John Rupp of Covington & Burling, the main Washington-based tobacco lawyers.
What is probably her husband, D.J.Balter PhD. was also associated with the ]]International Center for Toxicology and Medicine]].
Background
1970 BA from Washington University in St. Louis.
1974 Ph.D. in pharmacology from Georgetown University
- She co-wrote a number of papers on immunology with Sorrell L Schwartz from 1973 to 1978. Then a gap and began writing with Schwarts, Kilpatrick and P Witorsch on tobacco smoke from 1986 on.
1975-76 Postdoctoal Traineee in Clinical and Experimental Immuniology, Naval Medical Research Institute Maryland (Note Sorrell Schwartz also)
1976-78 Research fellow in Clinical Immunology, Georgetown Uni
1978-80 Instructor, Dept of Pediatrics, at Georgetown University
1980-84 Research Assistant Professor of Biology at Georgetown University's Department of Biology, and later in the Department of Pharmacology.
Her CV which was sent to Philip Morris in 1984 at the time they were establishing the Center for Environmental Health and Human Toxicology (CEHHT) at Georgetown Uni list her as the "Associate Scientific Director" of the CEHHT
1980/1981 She also lists two on-going consultancy arrangement conducted through:
- Toxicology and Pharmacology, Richmond, Virginia
- Omni Research Inc, Baltimore Maryland
See the CV [3]
Current career
In 1995, Balter retired from academics and relocated to Colorado.[citation needed]
On December 9, 1997, Dr. Balter testified before the Committee on Environment and Public Works at a field hearing on the presence of MTBE in the nation's water supply. The hearing was held in Sacramento, California. At the hearing she was listed as "Nancy J. Balter, principal, Center for Environmental Health and Human Toxicology, and former associate professor of pharmacology, Georgetown University Medical Center," indicating she was still representing CEHHT in 1997.[5]
References
- ↑ Susan M. Stuntz, Tobacco Institute Letter: Enclosed is a memorandum on a meeting between five scientist who are consultants for the tobacco industry April 6, 1988. Tobacco Institute Bates No. TI01962412
- ↑ John Rupp, Covington and Burling ASHRAE Environmental Health Committee Meeting February 10, 1986. Lorillard Bates No. 80405532
- ↑ Laurie L. Alkire CLIMA 2000 World Congress on Heating, Ventilating and Air- Conditioning; August 25-30, 1985 Memorandum. September 26, 1985. 11 pp. Philip Morris Bates No. 2026331631/1641
- ↑ Rupp JP, Covington & Burling Statement of John P. Rupp December 11, 1986. Philip Morris Bates No. 2023551472/1475
- ↑ Committee Reports for the 106th Congress Senate Report 106-426 - Federl Reformulated Fuels Act of 2000 Report. Accessed May 8, 2008
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