Iraqi Death Toll Researcher Barred

In the US, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has barred Dr Gilbert Burnham from heading 'research involving human subjects' for five years, saying that he put survey participants at risk during his controversial research into civilian deaths in Iraq.

Earlier this month, the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) found Burnham guilty of violating its code of ethics and practices, after he repeatedly refused to make public facts about the research.

Bloomberg has also now disciplined him for breaking its own protocols, though it stands by the results of the study which found that 654,000 Iraqis died because of the US invasion of their country.

During the study, Burnham and his team partnered with Iraqi doctors who were told that while they could collect participants' first names, surnames should not be gathered. However, it was not until the questionnaires were returned that Burnham said he found that last names had been collected in Arabic. Results were then published in The Lancet medical journal, which incorrectly stated that identifying data had not been collected.

'The protocols are put in place to minimize the risk to participants, and a violation of those protocols could potentially put people at risk,' explained Tim Parsons, the school's Director of Public Affairs. 'And that's a serious matter.'

Burnham can appeal against the decision to the university Provost, but has said that he does not expect to do so. During the period of his ban, he will remain a Professor and Co-Director of the Center for Refugee and Disaster Response.

He responded to the ban by re-stating his belief that 'measuring the impact of war on populations is critical'.