Joel M. Kauffman, 78, chemistry professor and researcher

A MAN WHO will let a Florida king snake crawl through one sleeve of his robe and out the other is a man to be reckoned with.

And then there was the iguana that had free rein of his home in Wayne and later Berwyn. In fact, the king snake had free rein, too, until his wife put her foot down. It is now in a tank.

But Joel M. Kauffman was a man to be reckoned with for many other reasons, as well. A prominent chemist, researcher and medical writer, he would receive several hundred emails daily from people who just wanted to pick his brain.

He wrote a book, Malignant Medical Myths, that is a scathing denunciation of many popular medical misconceptions that can cause more harm than good, usually powered by big drug companies' passion for profits.

Joel Mervin Kauffman, retired chemistry professor at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, a man of many interests and a world traveler, died Jan. 5 at age 78. He had suffered a number of strokes.

In addition to his book, Joel authored 80 papers covering chemical and medical research, and held 11 patents. He wrote more than 100 book reviews on medical subjects, which can be found on Amazon.com.

"In his search for the truth, Joel was skeptical of everything until proven to be correct," said his wife, Frances Heckert Pane.

Malignant Medical Myths, written in his retirement, was praised by one reviewer as "eye-opening and meticulously documented."

Hoffman wrote that at least 200,000 deaths in the U.S. each year are caused by medical treatment. The nation "spends $2 trillion per year on healthcare, about $7,000 per person, yet it buys almost the poorest care among developed countries," he wrote.

"Based on a thorough review of the professional literature, Kauffman shows that official advice on screening tests, drugs, diet, exercise, alcohol, radiation and water fluoridation is often wrong and commercially motivated, that clinical trials are often slanted and that 'sickness' is created to sell treatments," reviewer David Pratt wrote in 2006.

He quoted Kauffman as having written: "There is compelling evidence that treatment with some of the best-selling prescription drugs fails to prolong life or improve its quality in many of the people who take them."

Among his points, Kauffman wrote that advice to adopt low-fat diets is "utterly baseless and results in immense suffering and costs."

"The safety of low-carb diets, on the other hand," he wrote, "is well established and there is indisputable evidence that they contribute to weight loss and help prevent the complications of diabetes."

Take an aspirin a day, to prolong life? Forget it. It doesn't work, wrote Kauffman.

A drink a day keeps the doctor away? No it doesn't, he said.

Radiation is bad for you? Actually, said Kauffman, background radiation is harmless and probably beneficial.

"Radon may be one of mankind's oldest therapies," he wrote.

Fluoride in water supplies is ineffectual in preventing tooth decay, he wrote. In fact, "There is evidence that fluoridation increases the incidence of cancer, hip fractures, joint problems, and that it damages both teeth and bones by causing fluorosis."

Joel wrote that many of these "myths" were perpetuated by "BigPharm" to make money.

Joel Kauffman was born in Philadelphia to David Kauffman and the former Mathilde Goldstein. He graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School and received his bachelor's degree in chemistry from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, now the University of the Sciences. He received a doctorate in organic chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Joel worked in the chemical industry in the Boston area for 11 years, including four years at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.

He returned to Philadelphia in 1979 and became a professor at the University of the Sciences. He retired after 23 years.

Joel had a fine ear for music. His wife said he could hear just a bar or two to identify many classical works.

As for the snake (king snakes are harmless, by the way) and iguana pets, Joel turned to them when he discovered he was allergic to the fur of cats and dogs.

He and his wife were married on Jan. 19, 2007.

Besides his wife, he is survived by a stepdaughter, Natalia Pane Tyrka, and a sister, Ellen Navin.

Services: Celebration of life 2 p.m. Jan. 24, at Jenkins Arboretum, 631 Berwyn Baptist Road, Devon. Burial will be private. Contributions may be made to the arboretum or to Tredyffrin Public Library, 582 Upper Gulph Road, Strafford PA 19087.