China 'names and shames' scientists for misconduct

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GMW: China 'names and shames' scientists for misconduct

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Wed, 28 Sep 2005 13:25:34 +0100

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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1.China 'names and shames' scientists for misconduct

2.Executed prisoners skinned for biotech companies

 

EXCERPT: The agent told the researcher: " A lot of the research is still

carried out in the traditional manner using skin from the executed

prisoner and aborted foetus. " This material, he said, was being bought

from

" biotech " companies based in the northern province of Heilongjiang, and

was being developed elsewhere in China. (item 2)

 

COMMENT

 

If China really wants to tackle its scientists' ethics, as the first

article below suggests, it should start with its biotech sector.

 

Leaving aside the appalling activity of the biotech companies details

in item 2, top of the list for disgusting ethics and gross misconduct

has to be " China's leading biotechnology scientist " - Zhang Qifa.

 

If the South China Morning Post is to be believed, Zhang Qifa has

systematically colluded in contaminating China and the world's mosty

important staple crop with an illegal GM rice variety that he and his

institute have developed.

 

If so, Zhang Qifa is guilty not just of serious illegality but

something which could have seriously unpredictable consequences -

truly an act

of bio-terrorism.

 

Unfortunately, the South China Morning Post article suggests that China

is not the only country in which biotech scientists are behaving in

this fashion.

 

For the article: http://www.gmwatch.org/print-archive2.asp?arcid=5499

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1.China 'names and shames' scientists for misconduct

SciDev.Net, 19 September 2005

Source: Science

 

The National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) has published

on its website the names of three scientists punished for misconduct.

The disclosure, made last month, is part of a campaign to improve the

research ethics among China's scientific community, and is a first for

the

country.

 

Neurologist Su Bingyin, accounting student Cui Jianwei and Li Guibao,

former director of theWater Environment Security Lab at China's

Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, have been

ordered to

reimburse funding they received from the foundation and were barred

for up

to four years from submitting new grant proposals.

 

Since 1998, the NSFC has recorded 542 cases of alleged misconduct. More

than one in ten of these allegations - ranging from plagiarism to

falsifying data - led to a finding of actual misconduct. Most were

resolved

without being made public.

 

An official at the Chinese Academy of Sciences says that the main

purpose of exposing the three researchers was to help them to correct

their

mistakes. For this reason, the foundation continues to protect the

privacy of scientists whose misconduct is less serious.

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2.The beauty products from the skin of executed Chinese prisoners

Cosmetics firm targets UK market

Lack of regulation puts users at risk

Ian Cobain and Adam Luck

The Guardian, September 13, 2005

 

A Chinese cosmetics company is using skin harvested from the corpses of

executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe, an

investigation by the Guardian has discovered.

 

Agents for the firm have told would-be customers it is developing

collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners

after

they have been shot. The agents say some of the company's products have

been exported to the UK, and that the use of skin from condemned

convicts is " traditional " and nothing to " make such a big fuss about " .

 

With European regulations to control cosmetic treatments such as

collagen not expected for several years, doctors and politicians say the

discovery highlights the dangers faced by the increasing number of

Britons

seeking to improve their looks. Apart from the ethical concerns, there

is also the potential risk of infection.

 

MPs on the Commons select health committee are to examine the

regulatory system and may launch an investigation and question

ministers about

the need for immediate new controls. " I am sure that the committee will

want to look at this, " said Kevin Barron, its Labour chairman. " This is

something everyone in society will be very concerned about. "

 

Plastic surgeons are also concerned about the delay in introducing

regulations to control the cosmetic treatments industry. Norman

Waterhouse,

a former president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic

Surgeons, said: " I am surprised that we are taking the lead from the

European commission, because this is bound to delay action on this

important

area which is increasingly a matter for concern. It seems like a bit of

a cop out to me. "

 

It is unclear whether any of the " aesthetic fillers " such as collagen

available in the UK or on the internet are supplied by the company,

which cannot be identified for legal reasons. It is also unclear whether

collagen made from prisoners' skin is in the research stage or is in

production. However, the Guardian has learned that the company has

exported

collagen products to the UK in the past. An agent told customers it had

also exported to the US and European countries, and that it was trying

to develop fillers using tissue from aborted foetuses.

 

Traditional

 

When formally approached by the Guardian, the agent denied the company

was using skin harvested from executed prisoners. However, he had

already admitted it was doing precisely this during a number of

conversations with a researcher posing as a Hong Kong businessman. The

Press

Complaints Commission's code of practice permits subterfuge if there

is no

other means of investigating a matter of public interest.

 

The agent told the researcher: " A lot of the research is still carried

out in the traditional manner using skin from the executed prisoner and

aborted foetus. " This material, he said, was being bought from

" biotech " companies based in the northern province of Heilongjiang,

and was

being developed elsewhere in China.

 

He suggested that the use of skin and other tissues harvested from

executed prisoners was not uncommon. " In China it is considered very

normal

and I was very shocked that western countries can make such a big fuss

about this, " he said. Speaking from his office in northern China, he

added: " The government has put some pressure on all the medical

facilities to keep this type of work in low profile. "

 

The agent said his company exported to the west via Hong Kong. " We are

still in the early days of selling these products, and clients from

abroad are quite surprised that China can manufacture the same human

collagen for less than 5% of what it costs in the west. " Skin from

prisoners

used to be even less expensive, he said. " Nowadays there is a certain

fee that has to be paid to the court. "

 

The agent's admission comes after an inquiry into the cosmetic surgery

industry in Britain, commissioned by the Department of Health, pointed

to the need for new regulations controlling collagen treatments. Sir

Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer, has highlighted the inquiry's

concerns about the use of cadavers for cosmetic treatments. " Cosmetic

procedures are a rapidly growing area of private health care, " he said.

" We must ensure we properly protect patients' safety by improving the

training and regulation. "

 

The DoH has agreed to the inquiry's recommendations, but is waiting for

the European commission to draw up proposals for laws governing

cosmetic products. It could be several years before this legislation

takes

force.

 

Meanwhile, cosmetic treatments, including those with with aesthetic

fillers, are growing rapidly in popularity, with around 150,000

injections

or implants administered each year in the UK. Lip enhancement

treatments are one of the most popular, costing an average of GBP170.

 

Some fillers are made from cattle or pig tissue, and others from

humans. The DoH believes that there may be a risk of transmission of

blood-borne viruses and even vCJD from collagen containing human tissue.

Although there is as yet no evidence that this has happened, the inquiry

found that some collagen injections had triggered inflammatory reactions

causing permanent discomfort, scarring and disfigurement. In their

report, the inquiry team said that if there was a risk, " action should be

taken to protect patient safety through regulation " .

 

While new regulations are to be drawn up, the department is currently

powerless to regulate most human-tissue fillers intended for injection

or implant, as they occupy a legal grey area. Most products are not

governed by regulations controlling medical products, as they are not

classified as medicines. They also escape cosmetics regulations, which

only

apply to substances used on the surface of the skin and not those

injected beneath it. The Healthcare Commission is planning new

regulations

for cosmetic surgery clinics next year, but these will not control the

substances used by plastic surgeons.

 

Hand transplants

 

A number of plastic surgeons have told the Guardian that they have been

hearing rumours about the use of tissue harvested from executed

prisoners for several years.

 

Peter Butler, a consultant plastic surgeon and government adviser, said

there had been rumours that Chinese surgeons had performed hand

transplants using hands from executed prisoners. One transplant centre

was

believed to be adjacent to an execution ground. " I can see the utility of

it, as they have access and no ethical objection, " he said. " The main

concern would be infective risk. "

 

Andrew Lee of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, who has

visited China to examine transplant techniques, said he had heard

similar rumours.

 

Manufacturers of aesthetic fillers said they had seen Chinese collagen

products on sale at trade fairs, but had not seen any labelled

Chinese-made in the UK. Dan Cohen, whose US-based company, Inamed,

produces

collagen products, said: " We have come across Chinese products in the

market place. But most products from China are being sold 'off-label' or

are being imported illegally. "

 

In China, authorities deny that prisoners' body parts are harvested

without their consent. However, there is some evidence to suggest it may

be happening.

 

In June 2001, Wang Guoqi, a Chinese former military physician, told US

congressmen he had worked at execution grounds helping surgeons to

harvest the organs of more than 100 executed prisoners, without prior

consent. The surgeons used converted vans parked near the execution

grounds

to begin dissecting the bodies, he told the house international

relations committee's human rights panel.

 

Skin was said to be highly valued for the treatment of burn victims,

and Dr Wang said that in 1995 he skinned a shot convict's body while the

man's heart was still beating. Dr Wang, who was seeking asylum in the

US, also alleged that corneas and other body tissue were removed for

transplant, and said his hospital, the Tianjin paramilitary police

general

brigade hospital, sold body parts for profit.

 

Human rights activists in China have repeatedly claimed that organs

have been harvested from the corpses of executed prisoners and sold to

surgeons offering transplants to fee-paying foreigners.

 

Dr Wang's allegations infuriated the Chinese authorities, and in a rare

move officials publicly denounced him as a liar. The government said

organs were transplanted from executed prisoners only if they and their

family gave consent.

 

Although the exact number of people facing the death penalty in China

is an official secret, Amnesty International believes around 3,400 were

executed last year, with a further 6,000 on death row.

 

What is it?

 

Collagen is a major structural protein found in abundance in skin,

bones, tendons and other connective tissue. Matted sheets of collagen

give

skin its toughness and by winding into molecular " cables " , it adds

strength to tendons.

 

What is it used for? Collagen injections are used in cosmetic surgery

to plump up lips and flatten out wrinkles. After botox, collagen

injections are the second-most popular cosmetic operations in Britain.

Collagen does not have a permanent effect and several injections are

often

needed.

 

What else is it good for?

 

Collagen was being put to good use as far back as the stone age.

Neolithic cave dwellers around the Dead Sea are believed to have used

it as a

primitive form of glue some 8,000 years ago. More recently, researchers

have developed a form that can be poured or injected into wounds to

seal them.

 

Where does it come from?

 

A number of sources. Some companies extract it from cow skin and treat

it to minimise the risk of allergic reactions or infection. Others

collect it from human donors or extract cells from the patient before

growing the necessary amount in a laboratory.

 

Is it safe?

 

Collagen can cause allergic reactions if it has not been treated

correctly, and there is a theoretical risk of disease being passed on. A

small amount of collagen is often injected into the skin a few weeks

before

treatment to test for possible allergic reactions. Earlier this year,

Sir Liam Donaldson warned that collagen injections could spread

conditions such as hepatitis and variant CJD, the human form of mad cow

disease.

 

 

 

 

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