"Koch Leaves Federal Cancer Panel as Groups Urge Ethics Probe"

"Energy magnate David Koch ceded his spot on a National Cancer Institute (NCI) advisory board last month, but green advocates are taking aim at the conservative mega-donor nonetheless by calling for a review of federal ethics policies that allowed him to sit on the panel despite a potential conflict of interest.

Koch Industries Inc., the privately held company run by Koch and his brother Charles, burst onto the political scene this year thanks to multimillion-dollar contributions the duo steered to right-leaning groups that help fuel the tea party movement. But David Koch's membership on the National Cancer Advisory Board, which advises NCI, became a flashpoint of its own after The New Yorker magazine last month reported that a Koch-owned company lobbied against designating formaldehyde as a known human carcinogen while he sat on the panel.

In a request sent Monday to the Office of Government Ethics, which polices executive-branch conflicts of interest, Greenpeace and Physicians for Social Responsibility asked for a full accounting of any financial disclosures Koch was required to make ahead of his nomination to the advisory board by then-President George W. Bush."

Elana Schor reports for Greenwire October 27, 2010.