A friend mentioned that I forgot to say what this is all about. Main post is Health Consumer Activist Group Subject to Legal Threats -- Send Help
Details: Doctor's Data, a lab that caters to chelation therapists, has sued Dr. Stephen Barrett. [Barrett S. Why Doctor's Data is trying to muzzle me. Quackwatch, July, 2010]. http://www.quackwatch.org/14Legal/dd_suit.html
The suit is primarily concerned about Barrett's article, "How the urine toxic metals test is used to defraud patients," which describes how chelationists mislead patients into believing that they need treatment for heavy metal toxicity. [http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Tests/urine_toxic.html]
The heart of the deception is "provoked" testing, in which the practitioner administers a chelating agent before the urine specimen is obtained. This artificially raises the levels of lead, mercury, and/or other heavy metals in the urine. The test report states that its "reference values" are for non-provoked specimens. However, if a provoked test level exceeds the reference values-which it usually does-it is reported as "elevated," even though it should not be considered significant. Dr. Barrett's article also tabulates disciplinary actions, court decisions, and lawsuits related to provoked testing.
Doctor's Data is asking for damages exceeding $10 million and a sweeping injunction against further criticism. Although it is unlikely to prevail, defending against the lawsuit could be costly. Contributions to Barrett's defense fund can be made through the Quackwatch donations page: http://www.quackwatch.org/00AboutQuackwatch/donations.html
Those who support Barrett (updated silently as I find them)
- June 30 2010 Orac More Legal Thuggery Against A Defender of Science-Based Medicine Doctor's Data
- June 30 2010 Stavros Isaiadis More Libel Lawsuits instead of Scientific Debate Journey Through A Burning Mind Doctor's Data
- June 30 2010 Barbara Drescher Quackwatcher Dr. Steve Barrett Is Under Attack Woo Fighters Doctor's Data and Doctor's Data
- June 30 2010 Monica Pignotti Science Based Medicine Blog on Legal Thuggery Potential Harmful and Other Questionable Therapies Doctor's Data
- June 30 2010 Todd W. Doctor's Data Inc. Uses Legal Threat to Silence Criticism Silenced by Age of Autism Doctor's Data
- June 30 2010 Skepacabra News from Around the Blogosphere Doctor's Data
- June 30 2010 Kim Wombles Supporting Skeptics Who Speak Up Countering Age of Autism Doctor's Data
- June 30 2010 The Ashartus Files Attacks on Scientists The Ashartus Files Doctor's Data
- June 30 2010 Glenn Reynolds Threatening Bloggers is Generally a Bad Idea Instapundit Doctor's Data
- June 30 2010 Peter Trzeciak Legal Trouble Again -- Spreading the News Pete's Wicked Blog Doctor's Data
- July 1 2010 Mike Masnick Quackwatch Sued for Suggesting Medical Lab Quackery Techdirt Doctor's Data
- July 1 2010 Derek Lowe "Doctor's Data": Telling the Truth and Getting Sued for It In the Pipeline (Corante) Doctor's Data
- July 1 2010 John Pieret This Could Take A While Thoughts in a Haystack Doctor's Data
- July 1 2010 John Pieret The DDI DDDidn't Thoughts in a Haystack Doctor's Data
- July 1 2010 Jack of Kent US libel suit against Quackwatch Jack of Kent Doctor's Data
- July 1 2010 Landon Ross Quackwatch Sued by Quacks The Rational Ape Doctor's Data
- July 1 2010 Ian Musgrave Anti-Science Bullies At It Again Doctor's Data
- July 1 2010 Timothy Sandefur Quackwatch needs your help The Panda's Thumb Doctor's Data
- July 1 2010 Anonymous Coward Chelation Therapy Quack sues Quackwatch Bayblab Doctor's Data
- July 1 2010 Cujo359 Medical Quackery Meets Legal Quackery Slobber and Spittle Doctor's Data
- July 1 2010 Dana Hunter The Legal Jackboot En Tequila Es Verdad Doctor's Data
- July 1 2010 Brad Evans The Streisand Effect? I hope so Blue Horizons Doctor's Data
- July 1 2010 Reddit thread on the case Doctor's Data
- July 1 Robert Carroll Skeptic's Dictionary Quackwatch Doc Sued for $10 Million Doctor's Data
- July 1 Acagle ArcheoBlog How Not to Sweep An Enemy Under the Rug Doctor's Data
- July 2 2010 Health Care Renewal Quackwatch being sued by "Doctor's Data", a laboratory that caters to chelation therapists Health Care Renewal Doctor's Data
- July 3 2010 The Lucky Atheist Spread the Word: Quacks Sue Skeptic Doctor's Data
- July 3 2010 Hemant Mehta Science Defender Gets Sued by Doctor's Data The Friendly Atheist Doctor's Data
- July 4 2010 PZ Myers Attempted Intimidation by a Quack Pharyngula Doctor's Data
- July 4 2010 Horse Goes West Intimidation Fail Horse Goes West Doctor's Data
- July 4 2010 Bing McGhandi Doctor's Data: Litigious F^ckwits Suing Quackwatch Happy Jihad's House of Pancakes Doctor's Data
- July 4 2010 Michael Hawkins Doctor's Data is a Fraud For the Sake of Science Doctor's Data
- July 4 2010 Peter Bowditch Doctor's Data Millenium Project Doctor's Data
- July 4 2010 Mike Stanton Doctor's Data Sues Quackwatch Action for Autism Doctor's Data
- July 5 2010 MediaWatchWatch Doctor's Data Doctors Data (UK) Doctor's Data
- July 5 2010 Walter Olson Lab sues Stephen Barrett (Quackwatch) Doctor's DataOverLawyered
- July 6 2010 Cohen Stephen Barrett von Betrügern verklagt Doctor's Data Esowatch (in German, thanks Cohen)
- July 6 2010 Kimball Attwood, Doctor's Data sues Quackwatch Doctor's Data Science-Based Medicine
- July 6 2010 Skeptico Doctor's Data Sues Quackwatch Doctor's Data Skeptico
- July 6 2010 Beatis Stephen Barrett of Quackwatch Sued by Doctor's Data Doctor's Data Anaximperator
- July 6 2010 PalMD Quackbusting is Dangerous Work Doctor's Data White Coat Underground
- July 6 2010 Paul Ingraham More Legal Bullying Must Be Met With Public Outcry Doctor's Data Save Yourself.ca
- July 6 2010 Scott Gavura Defencer of Science-Based Medicine Sued Doctor's Data Science-Based Pharmacy
- July 7 2010 Le Canard Noir Doctor's Data The Quackometer
- July 8 2010 Paul Bradshaw Quackwatch blog sued by Doctor's Data Doctor's Data Online Journalism Blog
I shamelessly plug my own examiner.com post:
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-51132-Mesa-Special-Education-Examiner~y2010m7d5-Did-Doctors-Data-know-of-false-positives-from-mercury-tests
I plan on putting more up at "Evil Possum."
Ihave been struck by the fact that alt med/ biomed/ anti-vax sites seem to be simply ignoring this. Only Tim "O'Ranter" Bolen has come out in support of DDI.
Posted by: David N. Brown | Monday, July 05, 2010 at 02:22 AM
Stephen Barrett has never won any legal cases! In baseball terms he is batting.000 Send all your money to him, and watch him lose. This whole involvement of the atheist skeptic movement is a giant wast of time. Why don't you ask James Randi about his interest in young boys? I wouldn't want to be involved with these people! The tape will be on the internet soon for everyone to listen to what kind of people these are!
Posted by: James Randie | Monday, July 05, 2010 at 04:19 PM
Apparently, a few trolls are also trying to drum up interest. Any assertion that Barrett is unable to defend himself in court is fully comparable to the delusion of the US military pre-WW2 that the Japanese couldn't field an effective air force.
Posted by: David N. Brown | Monday, July 05, 2010 at 06:46 PM
Let´s try to spread the story into the germanspeking sceptics-scene:
http://blog.esowatch.com/?p=1707
Posted by: cohen | Tuesday, July 06, 2010 at 09:05 AM
I'm not sure what this site's purpose is, but I would hope you could understand why Barrett's claim against provoked testing is a complete manipulation. I'm guessing the author here doesn't?
Many heavy metals BIND to tissues in the body. They are not in circulation in the blood to be removed by the kidneys into the urine except for possibly a few days to a couple weeks. After that any collection of urine or blood will not reveal true poisoning or toxicity. Barrett knows this I assume as he gets so much financing from Pharma, but his purpose is to distort the truth.
Without provoked testing you have no idea of the body burden of heavy metals unless you were just poisoned the day before the test. The reference level is a non-provoked level because you essentially should not have any level of poison in your body that your body can't remove on your own.
I'm thankful this lab is suing Barret, however I see he has funding from a number of pharma financed media groups, so as always he will probably get to go on spewing lies and helping to boost their profits.
Posted by: jon | Tuesday, September 07, 2010 at 01:25 PM
I agree with jon's 07-07-2010 post. Doctors Data toxic metals test was especially useful as a GUIDE to how much mercury I had & how efficiently my body was eliminating it. This was supervised by a qualified professional--an ND who is NOT a quack. Mercury toxicity is a serious issue which most MDs don't take seriously. MDs don't have all the answers. There will always be charlatans, & many of them are MDs. Does Barrett write about them???
Posted by: Lu-Lu | Monday, September 27, 2010 at 02:58 AM
Lu-Lu, how many MDs are on the following list:
http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/index.html
?
Posted by: Chris | Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 11:13 AM
Stephen Barrett is in big trouble in the Doctor's Data v Barrett case.
BIG trouble.
You can follow the case at http:www.boleneport.com. There you can sign up for the newsletter, and follow the case as it happens.
Currently Barrett has filed a Motion to Dismiss the case, but there is little chance that will happen. His reason he wants a Dismissal? He claims he is "assisting the government..."
Next comes "discovery," a process where Barrett will have to cough up thousands of documents, then go into a video-taped Deposition where he will be forced to answer questions about his support network - those that helped him get his articles on the first page of search engines.
Barrett's lead attorney seems to have disappeared, and he has been LATE making EVERY filing deadline since the case began.
The fun has just begun.
Posted by: Tim Bolen | Monday, April 04, 2011 at 11:44 AM