He also served as chair of the California Scientific Review Panel on Toxic Air Contaminants for nearly 30 years before resigning in 2013 amid controversy and claims of conflict of interest.
He won a post-doctoral fellowship from the National Science Foundation to work in the laboratory of Nobel Prize-winning chemist, Dr. George Porter, at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in London from 1966 to 1968.
Community organizing projects inspired by SDS, and in particular, its first president Tom Hayden, were launched by civil rights and anti-poverty activists in various cities such as Newark, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, and Oakland.
[6] After a lengthy trial that drew national media attention, two of the defendants, Froines and Lee Weiner, were acquitted of the charges against them; the others were found guilty on one count.
[8] Seale had his case severed from the other defendants after the judge refused to acknowledge his right to have an attorney of his choosing, and had him gagged and bound in the courtroom in an effort to silence him.
[9][10] From 1970 to 1971, Froines and his wife Ann lived in New Haven, Connecticut, where both worked with the Black Panther Party Defense Committee in support of Bobby Seale and Ericka Huggins during their controversial trial for conspiracy to murder.
“Over the decades, the nine-member panel has reviewed 450 assessments on a witch’s brew of toxins: Chloropicrin, methidathion, metam sodium, benzene, tobacco smoke, endosulfan, and many other pesticides and air contaminants that are potential carcinogens, genotoxins, neurotoxins, or all of the above.
"[18] He resigned in 2013 amid claims that he had conducted independent research with the panel while maintaining ties to other scientists who disapproved of the chemicals he was evaluating, creating a conflict of interest.
That is why we were trusted although not always agreed with.”[21] One example of this disagreement was the decision by the California Department of Pesticide Regulations to “ignore its own staff of scientists and a peer review panel led by Froines when setting legal exposure limits of farmworkers to the strawberry fumigant methyl iodide.
[22] The California Air Resources Board honored Froines in 2011 as an “outstanding individual who has made significant contributions toward improving air quality throughout a lifetime of commitment and leadership and innovation in research and environmental policy.”[23] Physicians for Social Responsibility in Los Angeles recognized Froines and his wife Andrea Hricko in 2012 for their "courageous commitment to scientific integrity and for of increasing our understanding of the health impacts of toxic chemicals on the health of workers and communities.
"[24] In 2013, Froines was the Ramazzini Award Recipient and Lecturer for his “pioneering work the develop the federal occupational lead and cotton dust exposure standards in the United States, and his work in California that led to the recognition of diesel exhaust as a significant toxic air contaminant, preserving the health and lives of millions.” The Collegium Ramazzini in Bologna, Italy is an independent, international academy founded in 1982 of internationally renowned experts in the fields of occupational and environmental health.