{"id":2885,"date":"2013-12-19T15:04:16","date_gmt":"2013-12-19T20:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/?p=2885"},"modified":"2024-02-12T11:01:31","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T16:01:31","slug":"doublespeak-is-alive-and-well-in-the-acc-backed-sab-reform-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/2013\/12\/19\/doublespeak-is-alive-and-well-in-the-acc-backed-sab-reform-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Doublespeak is alive and well in the ACC-backed \u201cSAB Reform Act\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Richard Denison, Ph.D.<\/em><em>,<\/em> is a Senior Scientist.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Orwellian\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;font-family: Calibri;font-size: medium\">George Orwell would be proud<\/span><\/a><span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri;font-size: medium\">.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri;font-size: medium\">Yesterday a <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.boozman.senate.gov\/public\/index.cfm\/press-releases?ID=24b88874-48c6-4911-82f6-b181dd159bd8\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;font-family: Calibri;font-size: medium\">Senate copycat<\/span><\/a><span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri;font-size: medium\"> of a House bill called the \u201cEPA Science Advisory Board Reform Act of 2013\u201d was introduced.\u00a0 The Senate bill <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/beta.congress.gov\/bill\/113th\/senate-bill\/1853\/text?q=%7b%22search%22:%5b%22Boozman%22%5d%7d\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;font-family: Calibri;font-size: medium\">has yet to be made publicly available<\/span><\/a><span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri;font-size: medium\">, but that didn\u2019t stop the American Chemistry Council (ACC) from sending out <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.americanchemistry.com\/Media\/PressReleasesTranscripts\/ACC-news-releases\/ACC-Supports-Bipartisan-Senate-Legislative-Reforms-to-Strengthen-EPAs-Peer-Review-Panels.html\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;font-family: Calibri;font-size: medium\">its own release strongly supporting the bill<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family: Calibri\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">, literally within minutes of the issuance of a press release by the bill\u2019s main sponsors.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri;font-size: medium\">Assuming (as stated in the release) that the Senate bill is the same as the House bill, <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/beta.congress.gov\/bill\/113th-congress\/house-bill\/1422?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22H.R.+1422%22%5D%7D\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;font-family: Calibri;font-size: medium\">H.R. 1422<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-size: medium\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri\">, no wonder ACC loves this bill:\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Tired of having your companies\u2019 scientists and hired consultants excluded from SAB panels because of conflicts of interest?\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Write a bill that eliminates such a pesky rule, <\/span><span style=\"font-size: medium\"><i>and then say the bill \u201celiminates conflicts of interest.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Frustrated by the time limit placed on comments from the army of industry commenters that typically show up at SAB panel meetings?\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Bar the setting of any time limit so you can stack the deck, <\/span><span style=\"font-size: medium\"><i>and then say the bill \u201cpromotes fairness\u201d and \u201cstrengthens public participation.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Unhappy with how many independent academic scientists are seated on SAB panels?\u00a0 Require not only that panel members be willing to devote their time to review lengthy EPA documents, but that they respond in writing to every public comment received \u2013 a massive expansion in the workload placed on panel members, given the flood of industry comments typically provided \u2013 <i>and then say the bill \u201cpromotes transparency.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Upset with academic scientists on SAB panels that receive government grants not always supporting the industry position?\u00a0 Claim that they are the ones who have conflicts of interest, single them out for disclosure of their grants and contracts \u2013 with no mention of industry consultants \u2013 <i>and then say the bill \u201cincreases disclosures\u201d related to potential conflicts.\u00a0 <\/i><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">(An earlier version of the bill would actually have set a 10% quota for government-funded scientists on SAB panels; happily that was removed after an outcry.)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Want to slow down the pace of EPA risk and hazard assessments?\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-size: medium\">Require that every single such assessment be sent to SAB for review, exponentially expanding the SAB\u2019s workload and adding months or years to the process of finalizing assessments, <\/span><span style=\"font-size: medium\"><i>and then say the bill merely \u201cenables SAB reviews\u201d of such documents.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri\">Despite its grand claims, the EPA SAB Reform Act is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt by ACC and its Hill allies to heavily stack the deck in its favor when it comes to independent scientific reviews of EPA work products.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri;font-size: medium\">When the House bill was introduced earlier this year, more than a dozen of the country\u2019s premier <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/11\/files\/2013\/12\/Public-Health-Scientist-letter-on-SAB-Reform-Act-FINAL.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;font-family: Calibri;font-size: medium\">public health scientists weighed in strongly opposing the bill<\/span><\/a><span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Calibri;font-size: medium\">, as did a group of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/11\/files\/2013\/12\/NGO-Letter-opposing-HR-1422-4-10-13.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;font-family: Calibri;font-size: medium\">prominent environmental NGOs<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family: Calibri\"><span style=\"font-size: medium\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">.\u00a0 See those letters for more details.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri\">While the bill clearly parrots the talking points of the chemical industry when it comes to peer review of government chemical assessments, it should be noted that the bill would apply to any and all aspects of SAB\u2019s work, not just that on chemicals.\u00a0 So scientists in all fields of endeavor relating to protection of health and the environment ought to be concerned.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist. George Orwell would be proud.\u00a0 Yesterday a Senate copycat of a House bill called the \u201cEPA Science Advisory Board Reform Act of 2013\u201d was introduced.\u00a0 The Senate bill has yet to be made publicly available, but that didn\u2019t stop the American Chemistry Council (ACC) from sending out its &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,5009,56093],"tags":[39150,39990,5017],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policy","category-health-science","category-industry-influence","tag-american-chemistry-council","tag-conflict-of-interest","tag-risk-assessment"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2885"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12690,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885\/revisions\/12690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2885"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}