Supplemental information for Infant monkeys, deprived of mothers, used in disturbing blue light research in US, posted 31 May 2023

Summaries of the experiments for this Take Action alert:

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• Copy 'To' recipients below
  
  Michael F. Chiang, M.D. <michael.chiang@nih.gov>
  
  
• Copy 'Cc' recipients below
  
  Lawrence A. Tabak, D.D.S., Ph.D. <lawrence.tabak@nih.gov>, Director, IACUC <iacuc@central.uh.edu>, Renu Khator <rkhator@uh.edu>, NIH Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare <olaw@od.nih.gov>, Patricia D'Amore PhD, MBA, FARVO <patricia_damore@meei.harvard.edu>, Iris M. Rush, CAE <arvo@arvo.org>, Daphne L. McCulloch, PhD <daphne.mcculloch@uwaterloo.ca>
  
  
• Copy 'Subject' information below
  
  Grants EY003611 and EY007551
  
  
• Copy 'Body' information below
  
  Michael F. Chiang, M.D. Director National Eye Institute Dear Dr Chiang: I am writing to strongly object to research being funded by the National Eye Institute at the University of Houston in which at least fifteen infant rhesus macaques were permanently removed from their mothers (see below for reference). The infants were divided into two groups who were exposed to 12 hours a day of either blue light (seven infants) or white light (eight infants) over a 10-month period. The infants were forced to continuously wear a helmet - which held a lens system to alter the quality of their vision - for about 143 days. This helmet would have been alien to the infants, bulky and uncomfortable. Adding to the tragedy experienced by these infants, the information gained by the research was already known, as acknowledged by the authors of the study. Not only is such research immoral, it has no direct benefit to people and the resources used would be better applied to help people directly. I urge the NIH in its entirety to stop funding these cruel experiments and to end the use of non-human primates as 'surrogates' for human beings. Sincerely, Reference: Long-term blue light rearing does not affect in vivo retinal function in young rhesus monkeys (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10633-023-09931-0)

List of recipients for those involved, directly or indirectly, in the research in this Take Action alert:

• To:
• Michael F. Chiang, M.D., Director, National Eye Institute <michael.chiang@nih.gov>
• Cc:
• Lawrence A. Tabak, D.D.S., Ph.D., Acting Director, National Institutes of Health <lawrence.tabak@nih.gov>
• Director, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, University of Houston <iacuc@central.uh.edu>
• Renu Khator, President, University of Houston <rkhator@uh.edu>
• NIH Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare <olaw@od.nih.gov>
• Patricia D'Amore, PhD, MBA, FARVO, President, Board of Trustees, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology <patricia_damore@meei.harvard.edu>
• Iris M. Rush, CAE, Executive Director, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology <arvo@arvo.org>
• Daphne L. McCulloch, PhD, Editor-in-Chief, Documenta Ophthalmologica <daphne.mcculloch@uwaterloo.ca>