"Academic research paid for by BP and Exxon is being used to combat workers’ claims that exposure to oil and chemical dispersants made them ill."
"A Florida law firm says a University of Louisville professor broke the school’s conflict of interest policies when he worked as a litigation consultant for BP at the same time that he published academic articles and presented on oil spill science.
The law firm sent a letter to the university’s president earlier this year detailing how professor emeritus and microbiologist Ronald Atlas allowed BP and Exxon to review and edit his work, which supported the oil companies’ claims that oil from BP’s 2010 spill in the Gulf and the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska degraded in toxicity and that the ecosystems could bounce back. The Downs Law Group, based in Miami, Florida, obtained emails between the professor and the companies through subpoenas in their lawsuits for personal injury and medical claims on behalf of cleanup workers.
“People should know if you are a scientist or a paid consultant,” said Jason Larey, an attorney at Downs Law Group. “When you’re a litigation consultant, you can’t conflict with your client,”he explained, which means you agree that your work won't conflict with the company's ability to make a profit. Such an agreement is incompatible with being an objective scientist."
Advertisement 
