Science

David L. Lewis, Ph.D.

Adjunct Senior Research Scientist, Institute of Ecology

University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602 USA

Email: LewisDaveL@aol.com

Updated January 7, 2006

The Blue Bullfrog

Photo by D. Lewis May 27, 2003

In May 2003, a blue bullfrog (Rana sp. above) appeared among the European water clover in our pond. Scientists are uncertain whether this rare phenomenon is the result of a recessive gene or an environmentally induced mutation.

What does the blue bullfrog have to say?

Meet the love of my life.

New Area of Research. On December 1, 2004, I began a new research effort with several other scientists looking at infection control practices and socio-economic problems in Sub-Saharan Africa devastated by HIV-AIDS. Part of the effort will involve helping to educate children orphaned by the pandemic. I am no longer involved with research concerning adverse health and environmental effects of sewage sludge, and will no longer serve as an expert witness in this area.

David L. Lewis: Photos: [UGA] [Hawaii]

Biographical information: [Brief Summary]

[Curriculum vitae]

Career at U.S. EPA Ends

After I published a commentary in Nature in 1996 on the need to improve the science supporting EPA regulations, Washington EPA officials began directly managing my research in the Office of Research & Development (ORD) and interfering with personnel actions. All of my local managers in Athens, Georgia, were supportive of my research. EPA-Washington finally offered me a 4-year assignment to the University of Georgia if I would agree to resign afterwards. I could stay at EPA, but only publish research supportive of the agency’s policies, or I could wrap up my EPA research at UGA and then give up my EPA career as Research Microbiologist. I accepted EPA’s offer on the condition that the agency would comply with the Intergovernmental Personnel Act, which requires that employees loaned to other institutions be supervised by local managers. As soon I transferred to UGA, however, EPA disregarded their part of the agreement and intensified efforts to stop my research.

EPA ended all of my research funding in 1998. I was able to publish the results of one EPA research project in Nature in 1999, however, and raise a private funds to continue the work. EPA solicited help from the regulated industry to stop our work at UGA; nevertheless, we were still able to complete several projects and publish our results in BMC-Public Health, Environmental Science & Technology, and the National Institutes of Health journal, Environmental Health Perspectives. BioMed Central currently ranks our BMC-Public Health paper as the eighth most widely read paper ever published by any of its journals.

The law firm of Kohn, Kohn, & Colapinto in Washington, DC represented me in proceedings before the Department of Labor and my case is currently being reviewed by an Administrative Review Board appointed by President Bush. Local EPA managers objected to my termination, in part, because I was needed to address the agency’s need to develop ways to deal with terrorist attacks involving combinations of biological and chemical agents. Senator James Inhofe, Chairman of the Senate Public Works and Environment Committee, and Senator Charles Grassley, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, wrote to then EPA Administrator Christie Whitman asking her to intervene in my termination on the basis of national security. Whitman passed the letter down to a low-level EPA employee in North Carolina who was involved in the retaliations.

For more information:

The Scientist: “The Plight of the Whistleblower” by Eugene Russo.

American Journal of Law & Medicine: “Suppression of Environmental Science” by Professor Robert R. Kuehn. (Abstract/Excerpts)

ENDOSCOPE RESEARCH

[4/18/02] Medical Correspondent Dr. Timothy Johnson covered our endoscope research for ABC Good Morning America. For details, see the network's web page, "Contamination Controversy," by ABC producers Tom Martin and Alexa Pozniak.

[9/16/00] PBS Healthweek advises patients to talk with their doctors about how they clean their endoscopes. In another program covering our research, PBS reported that the FDA recommends that hospitals sterilize endoscopes whenever possible. Most (approximately 80%) only use high-level disinfection by soaking scopes in 2% glutaraldehyde. When this less rigorous treatment is used, FDA labels require that scopes be exposed to the disinfectant for at least 45 minutes, yet few hospitals (only about 15%) follow this requirement.

FLEXIBLE ENDOSCOPES

TECHNICAL REFERENCES: Lewis, DL (1999). A sterilization standard for endoscopes and other difficult to clean medical devices. Practical Gastroenterology. Vol. 23 pp.28-56; Lewis, DL (1999) High-level disinfection of flexible endoscopes: A microbiologist's point of view. International Review of Modern Surgery. pp. 77-83. (Published in association with the International Federation of Surgical Colleges).

DENTAL DANGERS

Oral Cancer and Dental Work

Recently, a national dental journal ran an excellent feature article on oral cancer and urged dentists to be more pro active in educating patients on the dangers of smokeless tobacco. What struck me most about the article, though, was what it didn’t say. It didn’t tell dentists that the second leading cause of this disease, according to medical literature, is ill-fitting dental devices. Also, talk with your dentist about heat sterilization. Many dentists still do not heat-sterilize dental handpieces used for cleaning and filling teeth. Chemical cold-sterilization methods are still used, and they are ineffective.

SAXON ROAD CHURCH For a different evangelical view on world events, see: www.RoyalLaw.org

E-mail me at: LewisDaveL@aol.com

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