PLF (Pacific Legal Foundation) Lawsuit Updates
December 1, 2009
We wanted to provide everyone with the following PLF lawsuit update.
As you know, CDTOA (CA Dump Truck Owners Assoc.) is a plaintiff in the Brown v. Adams case, which was filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) on June 18, 2009 (community.pacificlegal.org/Document.Doc?id=305).
This case challenges the legality of the appointment and reappointment of nine members of the CARB Scientific Review Panel (SRP) on Toxic Air Contaminants (TAC). The SRP was responsible for identifying diesel exhaust as a TAC, which is the core underpinning of today’s draconian CARB Truck and Bus Rule as well as the Off-road Diesel Engine Rule.
The good news so far is that one of the defendants in the case, Linda Adams, Secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA), who is responsible for appointing five of the nine SRP members, apparently agrees with our lawsuit. On September 9th, she sent a letter notifying the UC President that the terms of three members of the SRP have expired and that he needs to make new nominations (www.cdtoa.org/CARBdocs/CalEPA_letter_to_UC_090909.pdf).
She even specifically prohibited SRP current member, Dr. Gary D. Friedman (Epidemiology), from being renominated. Friedman’s appointment is highly problematic because his term expired January 1, 1994, almost 16 years ago. This is a serious problem because the Epidemiologist is the SRP member most responsible for assessing the epidemiologic evidence relating diesel exhaust to human health effects.
Based on the transcript of the April 22, 1998 Scientific Review Panel Meeting (www.arb.ca.gov/srp/mt042298.htm), which identified diesel exhaust as a TAC, two activist SRP members dominated the entire meeting, including the discussions of the epidemiological effects of diesel exhaust. Toxicologist John R. Froines spoke 38% of the time and biostatistician Stanton A. Glantz talked 19% of the time, for a total of 57%. Epidemiologist Friedman spoke only 3% of the time. Freidman was the sole panel epidemiologist but he never discussed major limitations of occupational studies of workers exposed to diesel: assessment of diesel exposure and smoking status, relevance to general California population, and criteria for a causal relationship. So some knowledgeable skeptics have concluded that Dr. Friedman’s role was terribly insignificant, almost to the point that he could be considered professionally irresponsible.
It is also important to note that Toxicologist and SRP Chair John R. Froines of UCLA was appointed in 1984 and reappointed in 1988, 1991, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2006, and potentially 2009. Biostatistician Stanton A. Glantz of UCSF was appointed in 1986 and reappointed in 1987, 1990, 1993, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2005, and 2008. So clearly, both activists have made a career of manipulating this very important scientific panel that was supposed to be diversified. There’s not a lot of diversity here in my opinion, clearly there has been a total disregard for the process.
The remaining defendants in the case, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and the Senate Rules Committee, have not been as cooperative and are currently trying to get the case dismissed by filing a demurrer. The hearing in this matter is currently scheduled for December 18th. Obviously PLF will be fighting for CDTOA at this first hearing.
As you can see, this is another means CDTOA is using to expose CARB’s bad science and corrupt process to the world. We will continue to keep you informed on the case going forward.
