EPA embraces the swamp

[brycejones]

Scientists who receive grants from the EPA are forbidden from serving on EPA panels. However scientists who are funded by industry can serve.

"In an announcement at agency headquarters surrounded by conservative activists and Republican lawmakers who have long called for an overhaul of the advisory boards, Mr. Pruitt said he made the decision to ensure the agency would receive data and advice free from conflicts of interest or any appearance of a conflict. He said that people currently serving on E.P.A. advisory boards had received $77 million in grant money over the past three years as they were issuing advice on policy.

“Our focus should be sound science, not political science,” Mr. Pruitt said. “We want to ensure independence.”

nytimes link open in a private session should bypass the paywall.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/31/...lights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

 

[Jhhnn]

Making the EPA an industry lapdog...

 

[MomentsofSanity]

Yeah. Someone send them this study.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1392264

• In an article co-authored by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientists, Dearfield et al. (1993) compared the results from registrant-submitted mutagenicity studies to the U.S. EPA Office of Pesticide Programs with those from the published literature. The authors reported a selection bias, in which registrant-submitted studies on atrazine mutagenicity were all negative (no mutagenic activity), whereas over a dozen studies in the published literature reported mutagenic activity.
• 
  
• In an analysis of studies submitted to the U.S. EPA on the effects of atrazine on frog reproductive development, Hayes (2004) reported that financial sponsorship was a strong predictor of study outcome (p = 0.009). Funding sources varied for studies reporting adverse effects (including government and industry funding), whereas all of the studies that failed to detect adverse effects were funded by the manufacturer of atrazine.
• 
  
• In an analysis of 115 published studies on low-dose effects of the plastics-component bisphenol A, vom Saal and Hughes (2005) reported that > 90% of government-funded studies found significant low-dose effects, whereas none of the industry-funded studies did. More specifically, the authors found that
  Some industry-funded studies have ignored the results of positive controls, and many studies reporting no significant effects used a strain of rat that is inappropriate for the study of estrogenic responses. (vom Saal and Hughes 2005)
• 
  
• Studies of documents from the tobacco industry archives have revealed evidence of concerted industry efforts to obscure the contribution of secondhand smoke and other environmental toxics to disease through the development of their own version of “good epidemiological practices” and “sound science” (Ong and Glantz 2001).

 

[UglyCasanova]

It really has been. Good Frontline episode on it:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/war-on-the-epa/

 

[dank69]

I think this is great and exactly what America voted for.

 

[brycejones]

It is sad that we've sunk to the point that research funded by industry is considered to be "free of conflicts of interest" by the head of the EPA. Nothing like allowing companies to regulate themselves.

 

[K1052]

Pollute the Swamp!

 

[brycejones]

We had to double the swamp to drain the swamp?

 

[dainthomas]

It is sad that we've sunk to the point that research funded by industry is considered to be "free of conflicts of interest" by the head of the EPA. Nothing like allowing companies to regulate themselves.

What else would we expect an industry lawyer to say?

 

[brycejones]

What else would we expect an industry lawyer to say?

At this point I wonder if Pruitt should be required to register as a lobbyist.

 

[JSt0rm]

Thankfully California has its own epa type regulations. Let the other states have the freedumb to get weird cancers.

 

[K1052]

At this point I wonder if Pruitt should be required to register as a lobbyist.

Just as soon as you can pry him out from behind his squad sized security detail and soundproof booth, both of which are totally normal for an EPA administrator.

 

[FIVR]

I support Trump states rights to establish their own individual cancer alleys. In the Trump economy everyone gets their own facts and their own environment to pollute.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_Alley

 

[senseamp]

Thankfully California has its own epa type regulations. Let the other states have the freedumb to get weird cancers.

Agreed. Dump toxins on them by the boatload for all I care.

 

[Thebobo]

Well duh I missed this thread and started another lol.

Anyway it's a good thing cause I made a promise to God I don't think I could keep if God got rid of Pruitt. So maybe he won't read it now.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

God has nothing to do with this administration. Cthulhu on the other hand...

It's like the underworld race from "Pickman's Model" took over.

 

[zinfamous]

Good to know that this is exactly what Republicans want.

 

[Jhhnn]

Agreed. Dump toxins on them by the boatload for all I care.

And their descendants, too! Hatin' on people you don't even know is easy. Any fool can do it.

 

[senseamp]

And their descendants, too! Hatin' on people you don't even know is easy. Any fool can do it.

Yep, damage their DNA with environmental toxins, it will be a gift that keeps on giving for their descendants. They voted for it, let them have it. Adopt a lake in a red state and turn it into a toxic waste dump.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

We need a double impeachment and removal from office and the Dems to take the House.

 

[thilanliyan]

I don't understand how some people can be so shortsighted, all in the name of "economy", when in fact the economy won't even matter if where you live becomes too hazardous to do anything useful.

 

[Ken g6]

Nuts, I hoped this thread was about the EPA doing something good for wetlands.

 

[brycejones]

Nuts, I hoped this thread was about the EPA doing something good for wetlands.

No chance in hell under this EPA administrator.

 

[zinfamous]

I don't understand how some people can be so shortsighted, all in the name of "economy", when in fact the economy won't even matter if where you live becomes too hazardous to do anything useful.

yeah but it matters not whether your house is flooded by overrun swamp water or liberal tears, because MAGA!