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Science Group Resists What It Calls “Sidelining” Of Public Health
And Environmental Science By The Trump Administration
Up To 40,000
Extra Deaths And Thousands More Loss Work And School Days Anticipated
As A Result
A new report by the
Union Of Concerned Scientists (UCS) concludes that the Trump
Administration attack on science has been “pervasive” and “public
health and safety and our environment have suffered as a result.” In a
related blog in Scientific American, a UCS representative estimates
that the attacks on air pollution controls at the US Environmental
Protection Agency alone “will increase premature deaths in the US by
up to 40,000 people annually, along with tens of thousands of lost
work and school days because of illness.”
The report identifies
six areas where political interference has been manifest and gives
examples. They are:
1. Derailing air
pollution policy.
In this category,
scientific advisory panels on toxic pollutants have been dismissed,
regulations requiring major polluters to use the best available
techniques to reduce pollutants from entering the air have been
removed, and a report on the dangers of formaldehyde has been
suppressed.
2. Censoring
scientists and creating a chilling environment
Examples of adverse
actions in this category are asking scientists at the Department of
the Energy to avoid using phrases such as “climate change”, “emissions
reductions”, and “Paris agreement”, restricting Federal scientists
from sharing knowledge with the media, and restricting use of fetal
tissue by NIH funded scientists.
3. Cutting out
scientific advice
Here the examples are
not convening an expert panel on the health effects of ozone, and
disbanding an expert panel on particulate matter.
4. Undermining
science-based safeguards through process changes
In this category, the
Administration has required agencies to repeal two rules for each new
rule proposed, and has restricted the EPA from using the results of
studies when the raw data are not publicly available.
5. Halting,
suppressing, and altering scientific studies
Researchers here have
been impacted directly as when the Administration halted a study on
the health effects of mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia
and barred Federal economists from conducting analyses on the impact
of the Trump Administration tax cuts.
6. Compromising
scientific integrity at Federal agencies
In this category, the
examples of compromise are altering an analysis and later burying a
study about tip-pooling at the Department of Labor and attempting to
force the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry to suppress
the release of a report on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances which
have been linked to adverse health effects and are found in many
everyday products such as non-stick cookware and water-repellent
clothing.
The main thrust of the
report is to identify actions which the Congress can take to push back
on these different types of political interference in the use of
science for decisionmaking. Recommendations are made in the report for
Congress to take actions in each of the six areas. Also, the report
includes suggestions for how individual scientists can take action
with their elected representatives, including scheduling a face to
face meeting, making the case on a specific issue, or calling a
policymakers office.
To read the report,
visit:
https://bit.ly/2GC1gHd
To learn more about
resources to use in taking action, visit:
https://bit.ly/2ttUCdF
To read a related blog
in Scientific American, visit:
https://bit.ly/2NfF4Dk
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