Karim Ahmed

This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation.

A. Karim Ahmed, Ph.D., "is President of the Global Children's Health and Environment Fund (GCHEF), a non-profit international organization based in Washington, DC. In addition, Dr Ahmed is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Council on Science and the Environment (NCSE), where he serves as its Secretary/Treasurer and Senior Staff Advisor.

"Previously, Dr. Ahmed was Senior Fellow and Deputy Director of the Program on Health, Environment and Development at the World Resources Institute (WRI) in Washington, DC. On behalf of WRI, Dr. Ahmed helped launch the 1998-99 World Resources Report (WRR) at a press briefing in New Delhi, India in July 1998, and gave a major public address on the impact of climate change on human health at the first Indian National Conference on Environment and Health. (The WRR is a bi-annual joint publication of WRI, United Nations Environment Programme, United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank.)

"Between 1974 and 1988, Dr. Ahmed served as Research Director and Senior Scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in New York City, where he directed an international program assessing the impact of toxic substances and hazardous materials on the global environment. Upon leaving NRDC, Dr. Ahmed was a senior executive with two environmental consulting organizations -- a Principal at Environ Corporation in Princeton, NJ (1988 - 1990), and a Principal and Director of Research and Assessment at Science and Policy Associates in Washington, DC (1992 - 1997).

"Dr. Ahmed has served on a number of high level advisory committees and technical panels of national and international government agencies and scientific institutions, including the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, National Institutes of Health, National Academy of Sciences, National Science Foundation, United Nations Environment Programme, United Nations Conference on Science and Technology for Development, World Health Organization, World Bank, etc.

"He has authored numerous publications, including technical books, scientific papers and general articles in the fields of environmental health, risk assessment and on issues related to science and public policy. Dr. Ahmed obtained a B.Sc. in Physics and Chemistry (with highest honors) from the University of Karachi, Pakistan in 1959 and a Ph.D. in Physical Biochemistry from the University of Minnesota in 1969. He conducted basic research in protein chemistry at Harvard University's Biological Laboratories (1963 - 1965) and as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota Medical School's Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology (1969 - 1971)." [1]

Tobacco Issues

Between 1974 and 1988, Dr. Ahmed served as Research Director and Senior Scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in New York City. He directed an international program assessing the impact of toxic substances and hazardous materials on the global environment. In this capacity, on December 14, 1976 he filed a statement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency discussing how people may have contracted and died from Legionnaire's Disease in a major outbreak of the disease at a hotel in 1976. Ahmed stated that a chemical substance called trichloromonofluoromethane, a common refrigerant used in air conditioning also known as Freon-11, or F-11, decomposes to phosgene [deadly mustard gas] at temperature ranges easily achieved in the combustion of tobacco products. Phosgene is also known as "mustard gas," a deadly gas used in WW I. Ahmed said the symptoms suffered by the people who succumbed to Legionnaire's disease resembled symptoms of people suffering from mustard gas poisoning.[2]

Interviews with friends and family of the victims after the outbreak revealed that 81 percent of the people who died from Legionnaires disease in the 1976 outbreak were smokers.[3]

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