Eliot Spindel

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Eliot Spindel, MD, PhD is an associate professor in Neuroscience and Medicine at Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU).

Brief bio

Dr. Spindel received a B.S. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1980. He was employed as an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard until 1989, when he received his appointment at OHSU. According to his OHSU bio, his research "focuses on the role of nicotine in lung disease and lung development and new clinical therapies". "His co-workers have discovered that the nicotine in cigarettes is one of the key factors in harming fetal development." ,

In 1972, human epidemiological studies confirmed that smoking caused fetal abnormalities.

CDCP statistics on birth defects

The Birth Defects Monitoring Program (BDMP) monitors birth defects using data collected when newborn infants are discharged from hospital. The BDMP was initiated by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in 1974. In 1990, researchers looking for trends examined records for 38 types of birth defects from 1979-80 through 1986-87. During this seven-year period, of the 38 types of birth defects, 29 increased; two decreased; and seven remained stable (meaning they changed less than 2% per year during the period).

Approximately 25% of all infant deaths could be eliminated with better pre-natal services. Infant deaths would decrease by 10 to 25% if women gave up smoking during pregnancy. Alcohol abuse during pregnancy is the leading cause of preventable birth defects.

Nicotine studies on pregnant & infant primates

Eliot Spindel has conducted nicotine studies on rhesus monkeys since 1978, although the futility of animal testing in tobacco studies has been well documented. Originally, he injected pregnant monkeys with nicotine in order to study lung development on fetuses. In 2000, he began allowing monkey fetuses to grow to full term before killing the infants in different developmental stages; again, to "study their lung development". While nicotine addiction programs and prenatal care are not available to many who require them, Spindel's studies continue to be funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). According to Eliot Spindel, who reported his research to the Journal of Life Sciences:

"Our discovery reveals the little extra push by nicotine. This loop can be revved up by smoking, so there's no question that not smoking is the best thing you can do."

Nicotine & vitaman C studies on pregnant & infant primates

OHSU's Oregon Regional Primate Research Center (ORPRC) houses almost 4,000 primates and has used over 900 in painful experiments, including tobacco, nicotine and pregnancy studies. Eliot Spindel injects pregnant monkeys with nicotine and gives one group high doses of vitamin C (to prove that pregnant women can smoke if they take vitamin C). He then removes their fetuses by C-section and performs invasive "lung function" tests on babies, after which they are killed to conduct necropsies.

Undercover investigation

From 1998 to 2000, Matt Rossell, an employee of the animal rights and laboratory watchdog group, In Defense of Animals (IDA), conducted an undercover investigation of Eliot Spindel's experiments as OHSU while employed as a primate caretaker at OHSU. According to Mr. Rossell, infant monkeys were removed from their mothers by cesarean section before their due date. In these case, he witnessed clinical depression among the mothers. Other monkey mothers were allowed to keep their babies for weeks or months before having them taken away for experiments. According to his investigation:

"Among the most horrifying things I witnessed at the lab were the times when baby monkeys were stolen away from their mothers. This was a chaotic, ugly, heart-wrenching scene. A worker wearing thick leather gloves would reach into the cage where the baby clung to her mother's breast, and snatch the baby by one shoulder and arm and rip her from her mother who was screaming and desperately fighting to keep her baby safe. Once removed, the entire room of monkeys would erupt into total pandemonium—screaming, thrashing and crashing against the sides of their cages—some even reaching out through the bars in vain to get the baby back."

Pregnant monkeys are subjected to multiple surgeries to implant nicotine pumps in their backs. Subsequent surgeries change the pumps up to five times during their pregnancies. Infants are cut out of their wombs at various stages of development in order to dissect their lungs. At OHSU and other government funded laboratories, an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) is responsible for approving research projects. According to Matt Rossell:

"There was literally no discussion; the grant was approved without question. The IACUC is made of employees of the lab all with a vested interest to approve these proposals. It's just a rubber stamp committee that gives the illusion of oversight."

Investigation & general animal welfare issues

According to the investigation, the ORPRC employed only two care takers for 1,500 animals. Carelessly conducted experiments were carried out by poorly trained animal technicians forced by scientists to perform the assembly-line style research at a break neck pace. The majority of primates at ORPRC are highly intelligent and social rhesus macaques. The investigation revealed distressed and diseased infant monkeys living in their own filth and adult monkeys who self mutilated. At ORPRC, infants are prematurely weaned (which frequently makes them ill) and placed in small isolation cages. Distressed monkeys cried out for their mothers. Industry experts agree that isolation during infancy is linked to psychosis and self-mutilation in later life, yet most monkeys are never paired. Almost all caged research monkeys live alone in cramped, barren 4.3 cubic foot cages. The only break in their daily boredom is fear as they are being manipulated for studies or having their cages hosed down while they are inside (an animal welfare violation).

Rhesus macaques' native climates are the dry savannas of India and China. However, hundreds of these monkeys are warehoused outdoors in crude, corrugated metal enclosures for low-cost breeding in harsh Portland winter rains. Exposure leaves them wet, muddy, stressed and vulnerable to infections. The investigator witnessed epidemic outbreaks of painful shigella and listeriosis which left hundreds of monkeys sick and dozens of infants still born. One epidemic raged for months after management insisted that four sick monkeys be placed into a corral with healthy monkeys, to make room for a shipment of monkeys from China. When it became obvious that management would not correct substandard conditions, the investigator made an anonymous complaint to Dr. Isis Johnson-Brown, Oregon's U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspector. (Normally, USDA inspections are highly orchestrated tours, scheduled no more than once or twice a year.) However, Dr. Johnson-Brown took her job of documenting violations seriously. Although the USDA cleared the center of any wrong doing, Dr. Johnson-Brown charged that her own supervisors were working against her efforts and that her willingness to uphold the law led to her being "retrained" several times by USDA higher ups. According to her statements during a Portland news conference in August of 2000:

"ORPRC has over a thousand monkeys locked individually in small cages. Such isolation is a known cause of neurosis and often psychosis. Photographic documentation reveals that these problems at ORPRC are so severe that the animals chew holes in their own arms, spin incessantly, drink their urine, gouge their own eyes, and attack themselves in various ways."

Oregon Regional Primate Research Center (ORPRC)

According to critics, the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center has produced no significant benefits to human health in over forty years, billions in funds and countless lives lost. The facility is currently under a twenty year expansion which will increase animal research on-site in Beaverton, Oregon. In 1962, the ORPRC opened as the first of eight regional primate research centers in the U.S. in an attempt to narrow the gap between the U.S. and the Soviet space programs. The center merged with OHSU in 1998 and became eligible for state funds of approximately 30 million dollars annually. Its population of (predominantly) rhesus monkeys are so cognitively advanced, that they can beat an average 9 year old at computer games.

The Shively Report

In September of 2000, Dr. Carol Shively, a professor from Wake Forest University Medical School, was hired by ORPRC to assess the center's primate program. Her subsequent report is one of the few known instances of a primate researcher engaging in unsparing, documented criticism of colleagues. Among other things, the report faults the primate center for electro-ejaculation. The procedure is used to gather sperm from monkeys being studied for reproductive biology, a specialty. The sperm is collected as often as once a week from each of a dozen monkeys (chosen for their genetic line) by strapping a male rhesus into a chair, wrapping metal bands around his penis, attaching electrodes and giving him electric shocks to make him ejaculate. In December of 2000, the Willamette Weekly learned of the report and requested a copy under the Oregon Open Records law. ORPRC and OHSU legal counsel at first denied the report and then repeated requests until the report was finally released to the news paper on March 7, 2001. , ,

Ten Worst Laboratories

OHSU is listed on People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)'s ten worst laboratories according to worst violations of the Animal Welfare Act; largest numbers of animals killed; most painful and invasive experiments and least willing to make improvements.

Public relations

Americans for Medical Progress

Americans for Medical Progress's (AMP) board of directors consists of senior executives and other representatives employed by the pharmaceutical and vivisection industries. Board members represent multinational, billion dollar corporations as well as universities and institutions receiving government grants for vivisection. Four of the universities represented by AMP board members are on PETA's list of ten worst laboratories, including OHSU.

Funding

NIH grants 1992 to 2012

Eliot Spindel has received $7.6 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since 1992. He is scheduled to be funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute until 2012. See also National Institutes of Health, sections 4 & 5.

Oregon tobacco settlement money given to OHSU for "research"

In November 2000, Oregon ballot measure 89, which would have awarded OHSU up to ten million dollars in tobacco settlement money, was defeated. So, legislators took the liberty to award over 20 times that amount. In spite of the defeat of the ballot for 10 million, Oregon Senate Bill 832, which became law on August 8th, 2001, handed over approximately 200 million dollars to OHSU for research.

The passage in the May 2002 election of measures 10 and 11 awarded OHSU more power and funding. The objective of Measure 10 was to allow private gain from tax funded research. The stated purposed was to allow "public universities and colleges to hold and dispose of stock received in exchange for technology they create." Measure 11 changed the Oregon constitution by directing the State Treasurer to issue bonds for $200 million dollars for the "Oregon Opportunity Plan", created by OHSU to expand it's bio-tech industry. The total cost to Oregon over 20 years is approximately is $316 million dollars.

Articles & sources

Sourcewatch articles

• Animal testing
• Humane Movement
• National Institutes of Health
• Ten Worst Laboratories
• Tobacco industry
• U.S. Government's War on Animals

External articles

• Candle-Light Vigil for Animals in Labs at Eliot Spindel's house last night, Portland Independent Media Center, April 2008