EPA Scientists Fear for Careers

White House Policy Undermining EPA Scientists On Cancer Risks Of Chemicals, GAO Says

WASHINGTON, Apr. 28, 2008

(AP) The Bush administration is undermining the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to determine health dangers of toxic chemicals by letting nonscientists have a bigger, often secret, say, congressional investigators say in a report obtained by The Associated Press.

The administration's decision to give the Defense Department and other agencies an early role in the process adds to years of delay in acting on harmful chemicals and jeopardizes the program's credibility, the Government Accountability Office concluded.

At issue is the EPA's screening of chemicals used in everything from household products to rocket fuel to determine if they pose serious risk of cancer or other illnesses.

A new review process begun by the White House in 2004 is adding more speed bumps for EPA scientists, the GAO said in its report, which will be the subject of a Senate Environment Committee hearing Tuesday. A formal policy effectively doubling the number of steps was adopted two weeks ago.

Cancer risk assessments for nearly a dozen major chemicals are now years overdue, the GAO said, blaming the new multiagency reviews for some of the delay. The EPA, for example, had promised to prepare assessments on 10 major toxic chemicals for external peer review by the end of 2007, but only two reached that stage.

GAO investigators said extensive involvement by EPA managers, White House budget officials and other agencies has eroded the independence of EPA scientists charged with determining the health risks posed by chemicals.

The Pentagon, the Energy Department, NASA and other agencies _ all of which could be severely affected by EPA risk findings _ are being allowed to participate "at almost every step in the assessment process," said the GAO.

Those agencies, their private contractors and manufacturers of the chemicals face restrictions and major cleanup requirements, depending on the EPA's scientific determinations.

"By law the EPA must protect our families from dangerous chemicals," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the Senate committee's chairman. "Instead, they're protecting the chemical companies."

The EPA's risk assessment process "never was perfect," Boxer said in an interview Monday. "But at least it put the scientists up front. Now the scientists are being shunted aside."

The GAO said many of the deliberations over risks posed by specific chemicals "occur in what amounts to a black box" of secrecy because the White House claims they are private executive branch deliberations.

Such secrecy "reduces the credibility of the ... assessments and hinders the EPA's ability to manage them," the GAO report said.

The White House said the GAO is wrong in suggesting that the EPA has lost control in assessing the health risks posed by toxic chemicals.

"Only EPA has the authority to finalize an EPA assessment," Kevin F. Neyland, deputy administrator of the White House budget office's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, wrote in response to the GAO. He called the interagency process "a dialogue that helps to ensure the quality" of the reviews.

One EPA scientist with extensive knowledge of the changes in the agency's risk assessment policies ridiculed the claim that the EPA still has the final say.

"Unless there is concurrence by other agencies, ... things don't go forward. It means we stop what we are doing," said the scientist, speaking on condition of anonymity because of fear of endangering his career.

"The (EPA) scientists feel as if they have lost complete control of the process, that it's been taken over by the White House and that they're calling the shots," the scientist said.

The GAO investigation focused on the EPA's computerized database, known as IRIS _ the Integrated Risk Information System. It contains data on the human health effects of exposure to some 540 toxic chemicals in the environment. New chemicals are being roposed constantly for inclusion under a complicated assessment process that can take five years or more.

After years of stops and starts, the GAO said, the EPA has yet to determine carcinogen risks for a number of major chemicals such as:

_Naphthalene, a chemical used in rocket fuel as well as in manufacturing commercial products such as mothballs, dyes and insecticides.

_Trichloroethylene, or TCE, a widely used industrial degreasing agent.

_Perchloroethylene, or "perc," a chemical used in dry cleaning, metal degreasing and making chemical products.

_Formaldehyde, a colorless, flammable gas used to making building materials.

Environmentalists say these chemicals have been widely found at military bases and Superfund sites and in soil, lakes, streams and groundwater.

The findings, after an 18-month investigation by the congressional watchdog agency, come at a time of growing criticism from members of Congress and health and environmental advocates over alleged political interference in the government's science activities.

Last week, a confidential survey by an advocacy group of EPA scientists showed more than half of the 1,600 respondents worried about political pressure in their work.

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On the Net:

Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov/

Footnote:
EU toxicology standards are driven by a chemicals industry lobby group disturbingly led by BASF (fka as IG Farben), according to Dutch source.

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Covanta Threatened Canadian Doctors Against Incinerator?

A committee consisting of Orillia's 54 doctors generated a report, based on extensive research of published health data, that recommended a rejection of the incinerator proposal: 52 (and later, 53) of the doctors endorsed the report.

Dr. Don Philpott, a member of the committee, noted that: "People can be bamboozled into thinking that acceptable risk means no additional risk, but that is just not true..."

In retaliation for the call to reject the incinerator's installation, Ogden Martin threatened to sue the doctors of Orillia for defamation.

The Ontario Medical Association (OMA) passed a resolution in support of the Orillia doctors, after which the threat of litigation was dropped.

The Ontarion Ministry of Environment under the NDP government banned the development of new municipal solid waste incinerators and enacted stricter standards for existing incinerators. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orillia,_Ontario]

In 1992 the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cited Ogden Martin (now Covanta) for 6,000 violations between 1989 and 1991 at its Indianapolis incinerator alone.

OGDEN MARTIN

is cited by the EPA with over 6,000 permit violations at its 2,300 tpd municipal waste incinerator in Indianapolis,Indiana.

Start-Up Date: November 1988
Permit violations: June 1989 to May 1991
Owner & Operator: Ogden Martin Systems of Indianapolis
Pollution Controls: Dry Scrubbers, Baghouse
Boiler Manufacturer: Riley Stoker
Builder: J.A. Jones Construction Company
Air Pollution Controls: Environmental Elements Corporation

EPA counted a total of 6,000 violations of Ogden Martin’s incinerator permit limits during a 2 year period from 1989 to 1991 at Ogden’s incinerator in Indianapolis. Among the violations: Ogden Martin bypassed their pollution controls - scrubbers and baghouse - 18 to 20 times. Ogden’s incinerator had 27 boiler tube failures within one year. According to an interview with Jeff Stant, the Executive Director of the Hoosier Environmental Council (HEC), the US EPA, the State of Indiana, the City of Indianapolis and HEC, are all currently involved in an official capacity in an enforcement action which is aimed at Ogden Martin’s poorly operated Indianapolis incinerator. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orillia,_Ontario , http://www.americanhealthstudies.org/wastenot/wn209.htm]

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Covanta Energy Corporation was formerly known as Ogden Martin.
CHWMEG Report Number: H482.2
http://www.chwmeg.org/asp/search/detail.asp?ID=466
http://www.secinfo.com/d2851.bd.5.htm
http://www.secinfo.com/dsvr4.138e.htm#7psh

Covanta Bankruptcy: On December 2, 2003, DHC executed a definitive investment and purchase agreement to
acquire the energy and water businesses of Covanta in connection with Covanta's emergence from Chapter 11
proceedings in bankruptcy
http://www.secinfo.com/dsvr4.138e.htm#1stPage