Professor Edzard Ernst steps down early….
Scientist brands prince ‘snake oil salesman’ as reported by Ian Sample Science correspondent of The Guardian newspaper on Tuesday 26 July 2011
Britain’s leading alternative medicine researcher has reignited a public row with Clarence House by branding the Prince of Wales a “snake oil salesman”.
Professor Edzard Ernst criticised the heir to the throne for lending his support to homeopathic remedies and for promoting the Duchy Herbals detox tincture.
In a briefing with reporters at the Science Media Centre in London, Ernst warned that “snake oil salesmen are ubiquitous and dangerous”, and named the prince as “one of the most outspoken proponents of homeopathy”.
He later told the Guardian: “There are no official criteria for a snake oil salesman, but if they existed, I think Charles would fulfil them.”
Ernst, who was Britain’s first professor of complementary medicine, agreed recently to retire early from Exeter University, where he presided for 18 years over a unit that subjects alternative medicines to thorough scientific scrutiny.
Many of Ernst’s studies have been critical of complementary medicine, with some proving no more effective than sugar pills. Other treatments, such as chiropractic spine manipulation, were potentially dangerous, he claimed.
In a briefing that coincided with his stepping down, Ernst blamed earlier confrontations with Clarence house for the threatened closure of his department and his early exit as head of the unit.
Clarence House said it would not respond to Ernst’s latest comments.
A spokeswoman for Waitrose, which has exclusive rights to sell the prince’s Duchy products, said only that the Duchy Herbals range “complies to all the regulatory standards”.
