10 July 2002 13:47

The DU work at Memorial University Newfoundland has been stopped!

It is time to get this out to the press, so they can phone Memorial and ask questions. Pat Horan resigned on Friday after months of harassment. Here are the basic facts.

Pat Horan Another Casualty of Depleted Uranium

Pat Horan has been working on the analysis of depleted Uranium in human samples since 1999. The story came to media attention in 2000. (See New York Times and London Times )

Jim Wright became Head of Earth Sciences on January 1, 2000, two months before Pat Horan's office was broken into.

Since Jim Wright was put in charge of the Dept he has,

• Put human DU samples as low priority
• Last summer he accepted and gave priority to a Department of National Defense study on DU control samples thereby intentionally delaying the analysis of the Gulf War veterans samples for almost four months

The results were not properly conveyed to the veterans. Six veterans, whose samples were collected by the CBC's Kathy Tomlinson, were told they were negative while only one was tested. There is a possible lawsuit over this deception. This samples was given priority over the medical research study being conducted.

Early in 2002, the great shuffle began leading up to Pat's removal

• In early February, Jim Wright removed Greg Dunning as head of AURIF (the radiogenic isotope facility). Greg Dunning had always supported Pat Horan in this important research allowing her access to the TIMS machine. (Greg had been head of AURIF since 1993).
• Jim Wright then put Pat Horan in charge of AURIF. Ten days later he removed Pat and installed Paul Sylvester as the new chair for AURIF at a user group meeting. (Paul has no working knowledge of a TIMS machine or clean lab.)

Pat's assistant who did the chemistry on the DU samples was reassigned to other duties mostly sitting around. He was finally dismissed on Friday July 5, the day Pat resigned.

• He then hired a French post doc from South Africa who is totally unfamiliar with the work on DU and unable to perform the analysis. Actually this was in the works unbeknownst to Pat since the fall of 2001 when he was first contacted.
• Removed Pat Horan as manager of the AURIF facilities in early April. She had been manager of the AURIF facilities since 1989-1990.
• Removed Pat's assistant and assigned him to other duties.
• Ordered the locks changed on June 14th, they were actually changed June 20th thereby locking Pat Horan out of the TIMS lab and her office as she was preparing to go back to work in July 5th after her sick leave. Her first priority upon returning was to finish all the DU samples.

This marks the end of the DU work at Memorial.

• Refused to answer calls from veterans, widow and legal representatives who were acting to retrieve the unfinished samples and data from the finished samples.
• After several calls to the University, one of Jim Wright's superiors, the Dean of Science Robert Lucas agreed to speak with him. The outcome was an agreement that Jim Wright would allow Pat Horan in to the labs to collect the samples on 4th and 5th of July. Then in the afternoon of July 5th,she would be permitted to pack up her personal effects in her office.
• Jim Wright changed his mind the evening of August 2nd regarding the retrieval of the samples he also decided not to allow Pat Horan even to enter her office to collect her personal belongings as he had previously agreed.
• Finally Pat had no other choice but to ask for the assistance of the human resources people. When arrangements were made to go over to let her pack her office, Paul Sylvester told human resources that he would physically restrain her from entering her office. Human Resources then asked for the assistance of MUN security to prevent Paul from physically restraining Pat from packing up her office. When she did so they were all confronted with Paul Sylvester's assistant and a PC support person to ensure that whe did not access anything on her She was not allowed to access the DU data from her computer. It is sad that it has come to this, treating Pat Horan like a criminal. The only reason she gained access to her office that she has occupied for over 16 years is that the security guards and Human Resources were willing to stand up for her.
• The samples and data are still being held, the samples may be released next week but they are refusing to give Pat access to the data on her computer. It will not work to have someone else access the data. Jim Wright is suggesting this.
• Paul Sylvester has now placed an ad in a journal to hire a TIMS expert to teach "him" to use the TIMS machine after eliminating a very competent scientist who has been working there for 16 years running the lab and doing the analysis and the AURIF assistant who has been working for two years in the lab and who was hired to help with the DU work.

It may be stated that Pat Horan resigned. However many questions need to be asked as to why she was harassed and forced to resign in the middle of her year's research contract and with a firm intention of finishing the samples of sick veterans and bone specimens of deceased veterans.

Why did Jim Wright and the person he put in charge of the TIMS lab, Paul Sylvester, carry out months of harassment and lock her out of her office if not to force her to resign before finishing this DU work.

It is a repeat of several DU scientists in the US who were also locked out of their departments, denied access to their computers, harassed and dismissed simply for yielding to the pressure to stop their work on behalf of the GW veterans who were exposed to DU.

Another interesting point is that the same president, Axel Meisen who awarded Pat the Presidential award for excellence in science for her work on DU among other research has allowed all of these events that lead to the resignation of the scientist he praised just last year.

Why did Jim Wright who also praised and defended her work suddenly turn and eliminate both Pat, her assistant and the DU work. Was it just coincidence that this change in attitude happened after he was approached by Ed Ough of the Royal Military College and the Department of National Defense and forced Pat to do work for them. This work proved that she could in fact see the levels of Uranium isotopes that distinguish DU from natural Uranium . Ed Ough and the DND had originally called Pat's work laughable and she proved during 4 months of work for them that her data was accurate and reliable. This work has never been mentioned.

The other labs that did the analysis on Canadian veterans most certainly did not succeed in the test organized by the DND and Ed Ough to try to discredit Pat's work, her accuracy in measuring the minute levels of U 234 U235 and U236 necessary to distinguish between natural and depleted Uranium were excellent. (The announcement made by Col Scott and the DND to the press that all 136 veterans tested in the commercial labs that they were negative were all based on measurements of U238 as they said that the levels were too low and they could not detect the other isotopes. Pat's success in the DND test proved she could accurately detect levels of U234 U235 and U236. Since the science stood up under scrutiny what else remained but to remove the scientist.

See below Jim Wright's quote defending Pat's work.

Jim Wright's quote from an interview by Mike Trickey in a Southam newspaper Ottawa article entitled MUN tests show "substantial" depleted uranium

"Memorial's equipment for testing for isotopes is considerably more sensitive than those used to test for the mere presence of uranium, which occurs in all humans

Maclean's March 21 2001 Jim Wright is quoted again

"DND has been critical of Pat Horan's work, but we have absolutely stuck behind her."

More quotes form the MUN gazette "Dr. Jim Wright, head of the Earth Sciences Department stands firmly behind their results.

"Pat's data is totally reliable, and clearly establishes there has been exposure to significant levels of DU contamination in those tested. What we have been doing is looking for the isotopic signatures of depleted uranium and, indeed, we've been finding them," he said, adding, "Memorial's equipment for testing for isotopes is considerably more sensitive than those used to test for the mere presence of uranium, which occurs in all humans."

Dr. Wright went on to say, "The laboratory is an Atlantic regional facility for isotopic analyses to measure minute amounts of uranium isotopes. The lab has been in operation for more than 10 years and it has a very strong peer review record both in Canada and Europe."

What happened to Jim Wright that he moved from absolutely sticking behind her to months of harassment and locking her out of her office? Was it that after wasting four months of valuable time and holding up the real research on sick veterans, she refused to do more work for the DND? This answer may be a long time in coming as Pat Horan has moved on. She did admirable ground breaking research for as long as she could. Quotes from the MUN gazette, the Memorial University newspaper:

"Dr. Meisen also had praise for, "the work of faculty members such as Pat Horan, whose work with depleted uranium attracted international media attention earlier this year, and the "very consistent success of the Faculty of Business in national and international competition.""
"
In 2001, Pat Horan received the he Presidents award for excellence in Science at Memorial: the following was read during the award ceremony:

"Patricia (Pat) Horan; Research and project geologist, Department of Earth Sciences

Pat began her career at Memorial University 15 years ago when she was hired after graduating from our Chemistry Department. Her laboratory, and the work that she performs there, are known nationally and internationally. She provides analyses for Memorial's researchers and, because her lab is the only one of its kind in Atlantic Canada, she consistently takes on work from other universities.

Pat is probably most well known for her work in identifying depleted uranium in British war veterans. While this project generated much controversy and military scrutiny, Pat continued her work, many times working through the night, with one goal in mind: determining if depleted uranium was indeed the cause of the veterans' health problems.

Pat has contributed to the evolution of a complex university lab facility into one of the most productive radiogenic isotope laboratories in North America; in turn this lab has enhanced the national and international reputation of Memorial University. And all this was done while continuing her work and commitment to Memorial."

*This work has been written up in newspapers, the subject of many TV interviews and documentaries as well as having been presented at many international scientific and medical conferences.