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British microbiologist and writer (1940–2019)
Richard Westgarth Lacey
Born 11 October 1940 Died 3 February 2019 Occupation(s) British microbiologist, writer
Richard Westgarth Lacey (11 October 1940 – 3 February 2019) was a British
microbiologist and writer, known for arguing that
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy "mad cow disease" can be passed to humans.
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
Biography
Lacey read medicine at the
University of Cambridge . Subsequently he became a
lecturer , later
reader at the
University of Bristol , where he gained his
PhD . He was appointed to the chair of
clinical microbiology at the
University of Leeds in 1983, where he remained until his retirement in 1998 to become an emeritus professor.
[5]
[6]
In 1990 Lacey was ridiculed for suggesting a link between bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and its human
Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease . He was vindicated in 1996.
[7] Lacey warned of the dangers of BSE before the crisis was revealed by the government.
[8] Lacey believed there was a "systematic cover-up" from the government and scientists about the dangers of food that British people eat.
[8]
[9] He made headlines after a
Sunday Times interview in which he called for the slaughter of all BSE-infected herds.
[3] Lacey gave up eating beef in 1988 but was not a
vegetarian . He stated he was not a
conspiracy theorist until the crisis of BSE.
[10]
Lacy was acclaimed as brave and fearless in his beliefs but was denounced by the media as a panic monger and self-publicist.
[7]
[9]
Selected publications
Safe Shopping, Safe Cooking, Safe Eating (1989)
Unfit for Human Consumption (1991)
[11]
Hard to Swallow: A Brief History of Food (1994)
[12]
Mad Cow Disease: History of BSE in Britain (1994)
Poison on a Plate: The Dangers in the Food We Eat and How to Avoid Them (1998)
[13]
Germ Wars (2019)
References
^ Hattenstone, Simon (5 March 2001).
"The Monday Interview: Richard Lacey" . Theguardian.com . Retrieved 12 March 2019 .
^
"Mad about bad food An independent mind" .
The Independent . 11 August 1996. Retrieved 12 March 2019 .
^
a
b
"Professor Richard Lacey, microbiologist rubbished but later vindicated for warning that BSE could be transmitted to humans – obituary" . Telegraph.co.uk . 21 February 2019. Retrieved 12 March 2019 .
^
"Professor Richard Lacey obituary" . Thetimes.co.uk . 11 March 2019. Retrieved 12 March 2019 .
^
a
b
"Obituaries - Secretariat - University of Leeds" . Leeds.ac.uk . Retrieved 12 March 2019 .
^
"Emeritus Professor Richard Lacey" . University of Leeds. Retrieved March 30, 2020.
^
a
b Illman, John (2019).
"Richard Lacey: microbiologist who came under fire for claiming a link between mad cow disease and variant CJD in humans" . The BMJ . 364 : 1078.
^
a
b
"UK Vet warned BSE would be 'problem'" . BBC News . Retrieved March 30, 2020.
^
a
b Boyce, Tammy. (2007). Health, Risk and News . Peter Lang Publishing. pp. 40-41.
ISBN
978-0-8204-8838-7
^ Hattenstone, Simon. (2001).
"Who's mad now?" . The Guardian . Retrieved March 30, 2020.
^
"Review: Leave it on your plate" . New Scientist . Retrieved March 30, 2020.
^ Duester, Karen C. (1995).
"Hard to Swallow: A Brief History of Food by Richard W. Lacey" . Journal of the American Dietetic Association . 95 (10): 1227.
^ Burne, Jerome. (1998).
"Health: Poison on our plates" . The Independent . Retrieved March 30, 2020.
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