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Dr. La Donna Porter REMOVED from state medical panel by governor

When I read scientific journal articles, I read the “Materials and Methods” section first, to see whether to bother with anything else! 😉

Most of us in California have learned to read, very QUICKLY from the “bottom up,” when watching political commercials on TV (not that anyone is trying to DECEIVE us! 😉 ). Midway through the paragraph on the bottom is usually where major contributors to the ad are listed. A recent ad that opposes Proposition 29 (which would RAISE taxes on cigarettes, increasing the price by about a dollar a pack) appeared to me to be a “red herring,” and I was not surprised to find that major contributors to the anti-29 campaign were (BIG surprise! 😉 ) Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds!

Governor Jerry Brown has not taken a position on Proposition 29.  The governor recently received a $26,000 campaign contribution from Philip Morris USA. Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds together have contributed nearly $40 million to the No on 29 campaign.

You may remember the doctor in the “No on 29” ads, Dr. La Donna Porter, who appeared in a doctor’s smock in the “No on 29” commercials that bombarded TV viewers for three weeks. On Wednesday, the ad was pulled and the doctor was replaced with an actor in a lab coat.

After critics complained about her ties to the tobacco industry, Gov. Jerry Brown approved her removal Thursday from the Proposition 65 Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee, along with four others who’d been previously appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The committee identifies toxicants known to be harmful to fetuses and infants.

Plans had been in the works to overhaul the seven-member panel, administration officials said, but intense pressure began building to remove the Porter after news reports revealed that the 46-year-old family physician at San Joaquin Hospital near Stockton had done previous work for the tobacco and chemical industries.

“Changes had been under discussion long before the Proposition 29 ads,” said Sam Delson, deputy director at the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, which oversees the committee. “But it’s fair to say attention to those ads may have focused attention on reviewing this panel and making changes.”

The Mercury News found, on researching Dr. Porter’s past, that she had faced two bankruptcies, in 1998 and 2008, and that her home in Wilton, a rural town 30 miles south of Sacramento, is scheduled for a foreclosure auction on May 23. Dr. Porter previously appeared in a tobacco industry-backed ad opposing Proposition 86 in 2006, which would have imposed a $2.60 per pack excise tax on the retail sale of tobacco cigarettes, as well as levy a similar excise upon the sale of other commercial tobacco products, such as cigars and chewing tobacco. Proposition 86 was defeated. In 2002, she took the side of the chemical industry against health advocates. Dr. Porter became a key opponent of an EPA-proposed regulation of perchlorate, a water pollutant that environmentalists say has harmful effects on infants and children.

This week, the proponents of Proposition 29 aired a TV ad with an image of Dr. Porter, obscured by smoke, entitled “Smokescreen.” :-)

-Bill at

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