The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) filed a lawsuit Dec. 9 against the Army Corp of Engineers alleging the Corp released a status report that violates the Data Quality Act. The Corp failed to respond to a request for correction under the Department of Defense’s data quality guidelines filed by PEER on Aug. 20.

A data quality petition filed December 6, 2002 by the Animal Health Institute (AHI) challenged information the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) disseminates regarding fluoroquinolones. Background Fluoroquinolones are a class of antibiotics used on humans, pets, and more recently poultry. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) opposed the use of fluoroquinolone in poultry, but the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved two drugs -- one developed by Abbott Laboratories (approved in 1995) and another by the Bayer Corporation (approved in 1996).

The Center for Regulatory Effectiveness (CRE) filed a request for correction Sept. 8 to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the agencies' data quality guidelines. The petition challenges the World Health Organization (WHO) Technical Report 916 called Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases. USDA and HHS plan to base part of their 2005 Dietary Guidelines on the report.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) filed a data quality petition Feb. 20 with the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) that challenges global climate change information. The CEI petition seeks withdrawal of the National Assessment on Climate Change (NACC), which is the inter-agency technical document that underlies most of the federal government's recent statements about global climate change.