British BSE committee opens up to the public

URL: http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v409/n6816/full/409006a0_fs.html

Date accessed: 11 February 2001

Nature 409, 6 (2001) © Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

[ LONDON]

HOLT STUDIOS

Going public: the inquiry into the British BSE epidemic condemned a 'culture of secrecy'.
Advisors to the UK government are planning to open up their discussions on mad cow disease and variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD) to the public for the first time.

A recent public enquiry into the BSE epidemic found that a culture of secrecy had contributed to its spread (see Nature 408 , 3–5; 2000). To help regain public confidence, some members of the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee — a group of experts who advise ministers on the science of BSE and vCJD — are pushing to have some of their sessions made public. Sessions involving commercial or patient confidentiality will remain closed.

Currently, press briefings are held after each meeting of the committee. But Peter Smith of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the committee's deputy chairman, says that it will meet in public during 2001.

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Category: 4. Ethical and Social Concerns Arising out of Biotechnology, 26. BSE