Journal Retracts 'Ghost Written' Monsanto Study Claiming Glyphosate Is Safe
Over the past year massive scandals involving academic research have come under the microscope, after dedicated researchers uncovered rigged studies that made it through peer-review with flying colors, and are now being retracted.
On Friday, the Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology journal announced that it has retracted a review, safety evaluation, and risk assessment of the herbicide Roundup and its active ingredient, glyphosate, after it emerged that Monsanto was heavily involved in its production.
"This decision has been made after careful consideration of the COPE guidelines and thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the authorship and content of this article and in light of no response having been provided to address the findings," the journal said in a statement.
"Litigation in the United States revealed correspondence from Monsanto suggesting that the authors of the article were not solely responsible for writing its content," and contributions by Monsanto employees were not disclosed, including in the acknowledgements section of the review.
The journal also said that the authors may have been paid by Monsanto - which was also not disclosed.
The Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology had been frequently cited in defending glyphosate, an ingredient in Roundup, including citations on Wikipedia, researchers said in a paper published in September. Since 2017, multiple juries have concluded that Roundup exposure has resulted in non-Hodgkin lymphoma in people. Bayer took over legal cases involving the matter after it purchased Monsanto in 2018, including a case that may be adjudicated by the Supreme Court. -Epoch Times
Meanwhile the study's lead author, Gary Williams - a former pathologist at New York Medical College, is MIA, according to an Epoch Times inquiry.
An internal email from February 2015 presented as evidence in a 2017 court case revealed that Monsanto employees worked with the authors of the review, with one employee writing that it would be expensive to involve experts from all major areas in a review - and would be cheaper to simply involve certain experts and "we ghost-write" other sections.
"We would be keeping the cost down by us doing the writing and they would just edit & sign their names so to speak. Recall that is how we handled Williams Kroes & Munro, 2000," the employee wrote.
So of course, the journal retracts the dodgy study almost 10 years later - even as other journals - including Critical Reviews in Toxicology, attached expressions of concern co-authored by Williams because they said they authors didn't disclose the involvement of Monsanto employees and contractors in authoring their research.