Scientists Resign from Unbalanced EPA Advisory Panel on Toxins

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Integrity in Science Watch, Week of Oct 9, 2006

Scientists Resign from Unbalanced EPA Advisory Panel on Toxins

Three members of a federal science advisory panel on pollution prevention_

resigned last week_ (http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/84/i41/8441EPA.html) , citing

excessive industry influence over the board's agenda. Denison,

senior scientist for Environmental Defense, ph Guth, executive director of

the

California League for Environmental Enforcement Now, and Tickner,

assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts, resigned October 2 from

the Environmental Protection Agency's National Pollution Prevention & Toxics

Advisory Committee, which is charged with reviewing the agency's assessment and

management of chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act. The three

scientists said the seven industry representatives on the 15-member panel have

limited its agenda to " narrow, short-term issues " that do not warrant the

time or expense to EPA. The panel includes representatives from Dow, Procter &

Gamble, the American Chemistry Council, and the American Petroleum Institute.

And....

Odds and Ends

Scholars affiliated with the _Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public

Policy _ (http://defendingscience.org/newsroom/LCP-Sequestered-Science.cfm) are

calling for a " Sarbanes-Oxley " for science in the current edition of the Duke

University Law School's Law and Contemporary Problems. . . In a letter to the

Inspectors General of the Department of Commerce and the National Oceanic

and Atmospheric Administration, fourteen senators _requested a formal

investigation_ (http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/oct2006/2006-10-02-02.asp) into

the

continuing allegations of the suppression of NOAA scientists, including a

blocked NOAA report on global warming.