NEWS OF THE WEEK

suit to go to trial against OxyChem re­garding the leak.

Romness says OxyChem will not agree to any settlement that does not resolve all the outstanding lawsuits and include all plaintiffs.

At press time, state district Judge Manuel Banales of Corpus Christi had approved the settlement pending a June 30 hearing in which at least one lawyer representing about 500 plaintiffs is ex­pected to argue against converting the case into a mandatory class action. "But we trust the judge will overrule those objections and that we will be able to proceed with the settlement/, says Rom­ness. Another possible roadblock: Plain­tiff lawyers could appeal.

The litigation, which began April 24, stems from the Oct. 23,1992, release of 2.5 tons of unburned hydrocarbons from an extinguished flare over the course of an hour. A plant operator failed to follow corporate procedures that call for an immediate shutdown of the plant. Over the next few months, more than 9,000 people—nearly three-quarters of the population of nearby Robstown, Texas—sued OxyChem, complaining of various illnesses. How­ever, OxyChem says the sole chemical that escaped was butadiene, which would produce only transitory health effects in the low concentrations that

To Walter Gilbert, 1980 winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, Thereza Imanishi-Kari is guilty of falsifying data in a 1986 paper on transgenic mice. But David Baltimore, winner of the 1975 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine and one of the controversial publication's coauthors, does not be­lieve the Tufts University immunolo-gist committed scientific misconduct.

Both men testified during the first three weeks of a Washington, D.C., ad­ministrative hearing, requested by Imanishi-Kari, who insists she is inno­cent (C&EN, June 19, page 7). She asked for the trial-like appeal proceed­ing after the Department of Health & Human Service's Office of Research In­tegrity (ORI) concluded late last year that she fabricated data, then tried to cover up with additional falsifications. Imanishi-Kari will be denied federal grant or contract money for 10 years if the three-member panel judging the

would have reached Robstown five miles away.

Although lawyers for the plaintiffs in­sist that the release involved extremely hazardous chemicals that caused serious and permanent health effects such as blindness and birth defects, the 12 peo­ple that confronted OxyChem in court had milder health problems including headaches, asthma, and nausea.

From the outset, OxyChem alleged that the lawsuits were the result of greedy lawyers who were determined to "create fear and anxiety in the community for their own personal financial gain," says an OxyChem spokesman. "For a few days following the release, citizens com­plained only about odors coming from the plant." About a month later, follow­ing a public meeting called by lawyers representing the plaintiffs, a multitude of Robstown citizens "were suddenly sick. In almost every case, plaintiffs saw law­yers first and doctors second," he says.

In 1992 and 1993, OxyChem volun­tarily paid out $1.8 million to cover medical expenses of about 5,000 people who claimed illness from the incident. In addition, it has spent more than $2 million on new and redesigned equip­ment for the butadiene unit to "virtual­ly eliminate the risk of another chemi­cal release," the spokesman says.

Susan Ainsworth

appeal finds that ORI's lawyers have proven their case.

The paper in question [Cell, 45, 247 (1986)] was first challenged nine years ago by Margot O'Toole, then a postdoc in Imanishi-Kari's lab. O'Toole, now a researcher at Genetics Institute in Cam­bridge, Mass., who also testified at the hearing, has consistently said Imanishi-Kari admitted privately that she had never done crucial experiments. Secret Service agents who have scrutinized Imanishi-Kari's lab records conclude that she cut and pasted old gamma counter tapes into her loose-leaf note­books to fudge key data.

Baltimore testified that Imanishi-Kari kept her raw data such as gamma counter tapes scattered in folders and drawers. "Some were yellowing on her window sill," he said. "They were all over." But her record keeping met the standards of the mid-1980s, he claimed.

"Today, people keep notebooks with

Baltimore: notebooks met 1980s standards

the view that they might become public, subject to the scrutiny of Congress or ORI," he said. "Before, they were more of a personal crutch. I've known scientists who keep very skimpy notes—sometimes on paper towels, for example."

Baltimore believes the Cell paper is valid, even though he retracted it in 1991, he told the hearing. That the pa­per is cited in the literature shows that "many members of the immunological community think it continues to be an important and correct contribution."

Gilbert, however, testified that wheth­er the paper turned out to be correct was "not relevant. The issue is not whether the paper is true or false, but whether or not fraud was committed in transferring data from the notebook to the paper. My opinion is Dr. Imanishi-Kari did falsify data listed in the paper."

The appeal hearing will reconvene in late August to hear testimony from Se­cret Service agents and forensic experts hired by the defense. No decision is ex­pected before year's end.

Pamela Zurer

Pros, cons of foreign grad students described The substantial numbers of foreign graduate students in science and engi­neering at U.S. universities are not an unmixed blessing, independent immi­gration researcher David S. North told a congressional subcommittee last week during a hearing on immigration reform.

Nobel Laureates disagree at misconduct hearing

6 JULY 3,1995 C&EN