Harvard has launched its own probe into a dental professor accused by a watchdog group of fudging research results.

In a statement, the Harvard School of Dental Medicine said it “takes all allegations of misconduct seriously and has a standard system for reviewing allegations of research impropriety.”

Harvard plans to “assemble an inquiry committee to review the questions raised concerning the reporting of this work.”

The Herald reported yesterday that the Environmental Working Group said Dr. Chester Douglass told federal officials there was no link between fluoridated water and bone cancer in boys, contradicting exhaustive research done by one of his doctoral students.

The Washington, D.C.-based group said Douglass received possibly more than $1 million in grant money from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to research whether there’s a link between fluoride and bone cancer in boys.

Douglass is editor-in-chief of the Colgate Oral Care Report, a newsletter supported by toothpaste maker Colgate Palmolive. He has been chairman of the Department of Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine since 1978.

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