White House Weakens EPA Cancer Safeguards to Protect Chemical Industry Instead of Children
Posted on July 09, 2008 in Generic medical release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MARCH 29, 20052:41 PM CONTACT: Natural Resources Defense Council Dr. Jennifer Sass, 202-289-2362 or 301-752-8069 cell Elliott Negin, 202-289-2405 White House Inserted Language in Guidelines Making it Easier for Chemical Industry to Stymie EPA Chemical Reviews WASHINGTON -- March 29 -- The Environmental Protection Agency's new guidelines for assessing cancer risk from chemical pollutants will give industry too many opportunities to stifle safeguards that protect children, according to NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). EPA's guidelines acknowledge, for the first time, that children under 2 years of age are 10 times more likely to get cancer from certain chemicals than adults who are similarly exposed. But the White House Office of Management and Budget undermined that acknowledgment by inserting language in the guidelines that make it easy for industry to block EPA from following them when assessing cancer-causing chemicals. "The White House decided it was more important to protect the chemical industry than protect our kids from cancer," said Dr. Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist with NRDC's environmental health program. The guidelines announced today, which dictate how EPA regulates cancer-causing chemicals, finalize a draft policy issued by EPA in March 2003. That draft policy included supplemental guidelines for assessing cancer risks to children. The guidelines had to go through several rigorous scientific reviews before they were released today. EPA's draft guidelines, including the children's supplemental, first passed through an internal agency review two years ago. The agency's Scientific Advisory Board reviewed the guidelines and agreed with EPA's conclusion that early-life exposures to chemical pollutants increase cancer risk. The board recommended finalizing EPA's draft guidelines as written. The guidelines then went to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for scrutiny, where they languished until today. Out of public view, OMB substantially weakened the guidelines by adding language that will allow the chemical industry to contest policy decisions more easily, according to NRDC. Specifically, OMB inserted language allowing for "expert elicitation," opening the door for any outside party to challenge the way EPA applies the guidelines to assess chemicals. Such a challenge could slow the agency down for months, if not years, in making a decision on regulating a cancer-causing chemical, according to NRDC. OMB further weakened the guidelines by adding language requiring any EPA cancer evaluation to meet the standards of the Data Quality Act, a law designed by tobacco industry consultants to quash protective regulations. By opening the process to relentless industry challenges, said Dr. Sass, OMB set the bar so high that children will not be adequately protected from many cancer-causing chemicals. "The White House took what would have been strong guidelines to protect our children from cancer and turned them into an industry punching bag," said Dr. Sass. "Chemical companies will be able to pummel any new safeguard to death. The chemical industry wins, our children lose." The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, nonprofit organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. Founded in 1970, NRDC has more than 1 million members and online activists nationwide, served from offices in New York, Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Tags: chemical, guidelines, cancer, epa, industry
My Name is Dr John Elliott, and I am about to die with my head held high
Posted on June 24, 2008 in Generic drugs
A laboring display in today's Sydney Morning Badge, Sydne's grade daily, welcome Dr John Elliott, an American physician (a Sydney resident) who travelled fully the convention to Zurich to bank physician assisted suicide. There's not regularly matter amid me re-telling what has happened. Unravel it here!
Foley resigns
Posted on May 09, 2008 in Generic prescription drugs
What a disgrace. Sexually explicit emails to a 16 year-old are appropriate wrong. When I deem these things I always ask myself: How stupid are folk? Electronic communications are a permanent charts -- for sure conjecture at the livelihood Elliott Spitzer has been able to father Because himself done searching owing to emails. There were longtime rumors Foley was gay or bi. Who cares? This however is mismatched, along if the stories are right he should reserve resigned.