NIEHS director steps aside temporarily

Dr. David Schwartz, the director of the federal government's institute overseeing environmental health issues, is stepping aside temporarily while senior officials review his embattled program, according to an Associated Press report (via Guardian Unlimited).

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), addresses environmental toxins and their health consequences. The public health blog Effect Measure covers the controversy in full, including Schwartz's recent letter to staff announcing his stepping aside, an earlier controversy over his effort to outsource the institute's flagship journal Environmental Health Perspectives, Congressional inquiries into Schwartz's initiatives, and his effort to address conflict-of-interest rules he perceived as unwise and personally disadvantageous.