In an exclusive interview with The Dartmouth this week, former US Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop '37 blasted critics who have recently accused him of corruption and conflict of interest in his testimony to Congress concerning the safety of latex gloves.
Koop responded to his critics on Tuesday, calling them "junk scientists" who are bent on ruining his spotless reputation in the medical community, rather than upholding their stated goals of protecting the safety of health care workers.
The controversy comes in the wake of scrutiny concerning Koop's stake in a health care website, drkoop.com, which some have criticized for blurring the line between objective medicine and commercial interest.
In late March of this year, Koop -- who is also the head of the Koop Institute at the Dartmouth Medical School -- testified before Congress that a brand of latex glove widely used by health workers across America was not hazardous.
In his testimony, which dismissed claims by many health care professionals that latex gloves have the potential to bring about dangerous, and potentially fatal, allergic reactions, Koop did not disclose that he had once been under contract with a major distributor of the gloves.
Defending his reputation
Though Koop had signed a $1 million contract with glove distributor WRP Corporation in 1994 -- ostensibly as payment for annual speeches on health and nutrition to the company's employees -- he was not under violation of any law when he testified before the House Committee on Education and the Work Force this spring, since his contract had expired years before.
Still, representatives from such public interest groups as the American Nurses Association, Healthcare Without Harm and the Public Citizen's Health Research Group have spoken out against Koop, calling his testimony on behalf of the glove maker biased and unethical.
"I cannot be bought," Koop told The Dartmouth. "And if I were for sale, I would have sold my reputation for billions -- not millions -- and it would have been to the cigarette companies."
Koop earned his reputation during the Reagan administration as a non-partisan scientist who spoke his mind plainly, without regard for political rhetoric. During his tenure as Surgeon General, Koop took on the formerly sacrosanct tobacco industry -- a mission he continues to this day at the Koop Institute. He also fought to educate Americans on the dangers of a newly emerging disease, the AIDS virus.
"Between the years of 1984 and 1988, I spent most of my life trying to put a thin layer of latex between people and the virus that produces AIDS," Koop said.
"Many people don't remember this, but at the time people thought you could get the disease through casual contact. I was not appointed to educate people about AIDS, and in fact there were many people who wished I wouldn't talk about it because of the nature of the disease," he said.
Koop said that the results of his work can be found in the now prevalent use of condoms as well as in the ubiquitous use of latex gloves by health care professionals.
Despite the strength of his public image, Koop has weathered a sea of controversy in recent months, beginning with ethical questions related to drkoop.com. The latex glove scandal has only added fuel to his critics charges of corruption.
"What this long admired and respected man has done in taking money from a glove manufacturer and then speaking out on its behalf is wrong," Susan Wilburn, senior specialist in occupational safety and health for the American Nurses Association, told the New York Times on Friday.
"But worse, he has given very powerful help to an industry whose product is harming health workers and patients," she said.
Wilburn cited statistics from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health which show that 10 percent of health care workers regularly exposed to the gloves and 17 percent with heavy exposure have developed allergies.
More than 300 lawsuits have been filed against glove manufacturers by health professionals and patients who claim they have been harmed through allergic reactions to latex gloves, The Times reported.
Koop maintains that his testimony was given strictly on the basis of scientific integrity and safety.
According to Koop, his relationship with the company under question was marginal at best.
Involvement with WRP
In 1994, Koop signed a contract as a consultant for a company made up of American and Malaysian partners interested in manufacturing vitamins.
Soon after Koop signed his deal with the corporation, the Malaysian partner dropped out, effectively eliminating the venture. Despite this, the American half of the partnership agreed to honor Koop's contract, and continued to pay him $250,000 per year as a consulting fee.
Two years later -- after Koop had accepted half a million dollars from the company -- the Malaysian interest was bought by another American partner. One of this partner's holdings happened to be a company that distributed latex gloves.
"This company inherited me just like if you bought the Boston Red Sox you would inherit the pitcher," Koop said.
Again, the new organization agreed to honor Koop's contract.
A short time later, however, Koop met with the CEO who revealed that the company was losing money. They agreed to terminate his contract.
Koop agreed to the termination after he had been paid approximately $600,000, since he felt he was doing little for the company.
"I actually felt guilty about having taken the money since I had never done anything -- not even had a phone call with them up to that point."
Protecting latex
Then, in the spring of 1997, just as the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health was about to issue a warning on the danger of latex to the medical community, Koop made a call to the director of the group, Dr. Linda Rosenstock.
Koop responded to the language of the warning -- which stated that allergic reactions to latex gloves were potentially life threatening -- saying that it was overstated and could cause health workers to abandon gloves that might protect them against infection.
Koop repeated the same sentiment this year before Congress.
"I was asked to testify before the House subcommittee because there were people out there who were calling for the banning of latex gloves altogether," he said.
"My feeling was, if you're a person who has an allergy to latex you have the obligation and the privilege to use some other kind of glove, like neoprene, but we shouldn't take latex off the market because of all the diseases the other health workers would be exposed to," Koop said.
Koop added that there is also an interest in preserving the use of latex in terms of condoms, which have been proven to be the most effective means of preventing sexually transmitted diseases.
Yet some of the country's most prominent hospitals -- including Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic -- have begun to switch from latex to other kinds of gloves.
This has led critics to question Koop's motives in defending latex.
Sanford Lewis, a lawyer for the activist group Healthcare Without Harm, asked in a recent interview with The New York Times, "Would even Dr. Koop have sounded so convincing if he had disclosed his financial deal with the glove company?"
Koop responded Tuesday by saying that when he was working as a consultant, he was never asked one question about latex gloves.
"The Times went to the people who hate me already, who they knew would give them the answers they wanted. Healthcare Without Harm is a group of 141 organizations -- one of which is the Lutheran Church -- who only agree to the vague notion that harmful healthcare is wrong. What does the Lutheran Church know about latex? Absolutely nothing."
Koop has declined repeated requests from The Times and other major news sources to be interviewed about his testimony and his relationship with WRP.
