{"id":7057,"date":"2017-10-26T12:20:56","date_gmt":"2017-10-26T17:20:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/?p=7057"},"modified":"2024-02-12T11:02:01","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T16:02:01","slug":"in-2016-industry-funded-paper-dourson-and-beck-sought-weaker-standard-for-lethal-paint-stripper-chemical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/2017\/10\/26\/in-2016-industry-funded-paper-dourson-and-beck-sought-weaker-standard-for-lethal-paint-stripper-chemical\/","title":{"rendered":"In 2016 industry-funded paper, Dourson and Beck sought weaker standard for lethal paint stripper chemical"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Denison, Ph.D.,\u00a0<\/em>is a Lead Senior Scientist.<\/p>\n

[Use\u00a0<\/em>this link\u00a0<\/em><\/a>to see all of our posts on Dourson.]<\/em><\/p>\n

[See clarification added on 10-26-17 in brackets below.]<\/em><\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/em>\u2019 investigation \u201cWhy Has the E.P.A. Shifted on Toxic Chemicals? An Industry Insider Helps Call the Shots<\/a>\u201d published this past Sunday cited evidence that Nancy Beck \u2013 a political appointee in EPA\u2019s chemical safety office who until May was a senior official at the American Chemistry Council (ACC) \u2013 is questioning the need for EPA\u2019s proposed rule <\/a>to ban the use of the deadly chemical dichloromethane (also called methylene chloride) in paint and coating removers.\u00a0 These products are responsible for\u00a0dozens of deaths\u00a0<\/a>in recent years.<\/p>\n

The Times\u2019<\/em> story also noted in its last paragraph that Beck and Michael Dourson \u2013 the Trump Administration\u2019s controversial nominee <\/a>to lead EPA\u2019s chemical safety office \u2013 are co-authors on a 2016 paper <\/a>that was funded by ACC.\u00a0 That paper was published in the industry\u2019s go-to journal, Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology<\/em>, where Dourson has published most of his papers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The paper is of interest and relevant for another reason as well:\u00a0 Dourson and Beck assert that the acceptable risk levels EPA has set for 24 chemicals are all too stringent and should be relaxed by anywhere from 2.5 to 150 fold.\u00a0 (Funny, isn\u2019t it, how the numbers for all 24 chemicals all went in the same direction?)<\/p>\n

Among these 24 chemicals is the paint-stripping chemical dichloromethane (aka methylene chloride).\u00a0 This chemical is a particularly concerning one:\u00a0 It is a likely carcinogen and is linked to numerous other chronic health impacts, but it is also acutely and tragically lethal.\u00a0 \u00a0Dourson and Beck call for EPA\u2019s standard for the chemical to be relaxed to a level that is 8.3 times less protective. [Clarification added 10-26-17:\u00a0 This factor applies to EPA’s ingestion standard (reference dose); Dourson and Beck’s proposed adjustment to EPA’s inhalation standard (reference concentration) was 2.5-fold less protective.]<\/em><\/p>\n

The Times<\/em> article makes clear that, despite her prior work on this chemical<\/a> while at ACC, and the fact that this chemical is made by numerous ACC companies<\/a>, Beck has not recused herself from making decisions about its risk and regulatory responses \u2013 decisions that are being considered at EPA even as I write.\u00a0 Indeed, as I noted earlier this week<\/a>, her astounding\u00a0ethics agreement<\/a>\u00a0gives her wide latitude to work on issues in which ACC has financial interests in order to ensure those interests are taken into account.<\/p>\n

In Dourson\u2019s nomination hearing held by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on October 4, he was repeatedly asked if he would, if confirmed, recuse himself from work on chemicals he had been paid by industry to work on, and he repeatedly refused to say he would do so.<\/p>\n

One more reason that Michael Dourson should not be entrusted with our health and the Senate should reject his nomination to head EPA\u2019s toxics office.<\/p>\n

Just yesterday, Dourson\u2019s nomination was voted out of the committee<\/a> by an 11-10 vote.\u00a0 The fight over his nomination now moves to the full Senate.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard Denison, Ph.D.,\u00a0is a Lead Senior Scientist. [Use\u00a0this link\u00a0to see all of our posts on Dourson.] [See clarification added on 10-26-17 in brackets below.] The New York Times\u2019 investigation \u201cWhy Has the E.P.A. Shifted on Toxic Chemicals? An Industry Insider Helps Call the Shots\u201d published this past Sunday cited evidence that Nancy Beck \u2013 a …<\/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":[44,5009,56093,114108],"tags":[91812,91777],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-7057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policy","category-health-science","category-industry-influence","category-tsca","tag-dourson","tag-methylene-chloride"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7057","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=7057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12812,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7057\/revisions\/12812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7057"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=7057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}