{"id":6663,"date":"2017-07-18T08:18:21","date_gmt":"2017-07-18T13:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/?p=6663"},"modified":"2017-10-10T08:36:45","modified_gmt":"2017-10-10T13:36:45","slug":"edf-has-deep-concerns-over-nomination-of-industry-consultant-to-lead-toxics-program-at-epa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/2017\/07\/18\/edf-has-deep-concerns-over-nomination-of-industry-consultant-to-lead-toxics-program-at-epa\/","title":{"rendered":"EDF has deep concerns over nomination of industry consultant to lead toxics program at EPA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>[Use <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/tag\/dourson\/\">this link <\/a>to see all of our posts on Dourson.]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>We are deeply concerned over the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.epa.gov\/newsreleases\/widespread-praise-dr-michael-dourson\">nomination of Michael Dourson <\/a>to head the toxics office at EPA.\u00a0 Unfortunately, this nomination fits the clear pattern of the Trump Administration in appointing individuals to positions for which they have significant conflicts of interest.\u00a0 Dr. Dourson has extensive, longstanding ties to <a href=\"https:\/\/insideclimatenews.org\/news\/20141219\/one-stop-science-shop-has-become-favorite-industry%E2%80%94and-texas\">the chemical industry (as well as earlier ties to the tobacco industry)<\/a>.\u00a0 He also has a history of failing to appropriately address his conflicts of interest.\u00a0 For example: \u00a0<!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>After the 2014 chemical spill in Charleston, West Virginia, the state hired Dourson\u2019s company, Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA), to <a href=\"https:\/\/insideclimatenews.org\/news\/20141219\/one-stop-science-shop-has-become-favorite-industry%E2%80%94and-texas\">convene and manage a health effects expert panel<\/a>. TERA then appointed Dourson to chair the panel and act as its only spokesperson. The panel\u2019s report failed to disclose that Dourson and TERA had done paid work for both of the companies that produced the chemicals involved in the spill.\u00a0 These conflicts only came to light upon questioning of Dourson by a reporter at the panel\u2019s news conference.<\/li>\n<li>Dourson and TERA have done extensive work on behalf of the so-called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sourcewatch.org\/index.php\/Perchlorate_Study_Group\">Perchlorate Study Group<\/a> (PSG), which is actually comprised of producers and users of perchlorate. The work was aimed at reducing the stringency of federal standards.\u00a0 Dourson, who is on EPA\u2019s Science Advisory Board (SAB), was asked to recuse himself from the Board\u2019s 2013 meeting to review EPA\u2019s work to develop a drinking water standard for perchlorate.\u00a0 Immediately upon doing so, <a href=\"https:\/\/yosemite.epa.gov\/sab\/SABPRODUCT.NSF\/PeopleSearch\/3BB19C9B7E8C322385257AED006A01CC\/$File\/Minutes-03+29+13-final-formatted.pdf\">Dourson provided \u201cpublic\u201d comments <\/a>to the Board based on the work he had done for PSG.<\/li>\n<li>In 2012, Dourson and TERA, with funding from the American Chemistry Council (ACC), set up and ran a website called \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/med.uc.edu\/eh\/centers\/rsc\/risk-resources\/kidschemicalsafety\">Kids + Chemical Safety<\/a>.\u201d (This website is now inactive and TERA itself has been migrated to be a center at the University of Cincinnati.) The site was designed to look like a neutral source of advice for parents concerned about chemical safety, but instead <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/category\/industry-influence\/tag\/american-chemistry-council-acc+children-safety+front-group+chemical-industry-tactics\/\">mirrored industry talking points <\/a>about its chemicals and sought to shift responsibility for ensuring safety to the consumer or parent and away from the industry.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Dourson also has a history of undertaking work, often with significant funding from industry, to undermine public health protections and the science underlying them.\u00a0 For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dourson and TERA have worked extensively for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TDEQ) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicintegrity.org\/2014\/12\/18\/16532\/texas-weakens-chemical-exposure-guidelines-opens-door-polluters\">to undermine EPA air pollution regulations<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Dourson set up the Alliance for Risk Assessment, and leads its \u201cBeyond Science and Decisions\u201d project. Heavily funded by industry (see <a href=\"http:\/\/allianceforrisk.org\/beyond-science-decisions\/\">here <\/a>and <a href=\"http:\/\/allianceforrisk.org\/sponsors\/\">here<\/a>), the project is aimed at undermining the seminal 2009 National Academy of Sciences report \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nap.edu\/catalog\/12209\/science-and-decisions-advancing-risk-assessment\">Science and Decisions:\u00a0 Advancing Risk Assessment<\/a>.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Dr. Dourson\u2019s nomination comes at a critical time for the EPA toxics office, which is charged with implementing last year\u2019s Lautenberg Act, which overhauled the ineffectual Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and passed with broad bipartisan support.\u00a0 That legislation was able to advance even in a highly partisan Congress because all stakeholders saw reform as needed to restore public and market confidence in our broken chemical safety system.\u00a0 The law struck a delicate balance between public and private interests.<\/p>\n<p>Already, however, that balance has been upset when EPA recently finalized \u201cframework rules\u201d implementing the new law that <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/2017\/06\/29\/final-tsca-framework-rules-retreat-from-best-available-science\/\">skewed heavily in the chemical industry\u2019s favor<\/a>.\u00a0 If his track record is any indication, Dr. Dourson\u2019s nomination threatens to move us further away from health-protective implementation of the new TSCA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Use this link to see all of our posts on Dourson.] We are deeply concerned over the nomination of Michael Dourson to head the toxics office at EPA.\u00a0 Unfortunately, this nomination fits the clear pattern of the Trump Administration in appointing individuals to positions for which they have significant conflicts of interest.\u00a0 Dr. Dourson has &#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":[44,56093,114108],"tags":[91812],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-6663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policy","category-industry-influence","category-tsca","tag-dourson"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6663","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=6663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6663"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}