PRESS RELEASE

Don’t Cede Chemical Safety to Chemical Manufacturers

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Contact:
Kyla Bennett (508) 239-8833 kbennett@peer.org


 

Don’t Cede Chemical Safety to Chemical Manufacturers

EPA Nominee Should Keep Corporate Foxes Out of Regulatory Henhouse

 

Washington, DC The nominee to serve as the next Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should pledge to ensure safety reviews of new and existing chemicals are conducted according to the best available science and not dictated by chemical corporations, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Under both the prior Trump and Biden administrations, EPA’s chemical assessments have been repeatedly discredited by whistleblower disclosures which have been validated by Inspector General investigations.

Former Representative Lee Zeldin’s nomination for EPA Administrator will be heard this week by the Senate Committee of Energy & Public Works. In that position, he will be the principal official responsible for preventing the agency’s chemical approvals from being compromised by corporate influence to the detriment of public health.

During the first Trump term, officials from the American Chemistry Council, the principal trade association representing the industry, were appointed to oversee the implementation of then-new safeguards enacted as 2016 amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to protect the public and the environment from unreasonable risk due to chemical exposures.

Although the Biden EPA reversed a few of the most indefensible actions of its predecessor, it kept the same senior managers in place (and promoted some) while leaving industry control of the chemical review process largely intact. As a result, only two chemicals have been found to present an unreasonable risk of injury to health since the 2016 amendments were passed, and both of these occurred in the final days of the Obama administration.

“EPA’s chemical review process has been a school for scandal which cries out for an injection of integrity,” stated PEER Executive Director Tim Whitehouse, a former senior EPA enforcement attorney whose organization has represented a series of scientists who have exposed fundamental corruption in reviews. “Mr. Zeldin should promise us that these past abuses will not continue.”

One of the most troubling examples was EPA’s recent approval of a component of boat fuel made from plastic waste. EPA’s own assessment showed that everyone exposed to the chemicals over a lifetime would be expected to get cancer. Even though this risk is a million times higher than what EPA typically considers reasonable, EPA gave this toxic chemical the green light. EPA only agreed to redo its assessment after a lawsuit and a public backlash.

In a series of scathing reports, EPA’s Inspector General (IG) confirmed significant problems in EPA’s assessment of the potential risk to human health and the environment from chemicals new to the marketplace. The most recent IG report found agency scientists had suffered retaliation for raising concerns about inadequate reviews. The IG also found that EPA lacks consistent procedures to prevent tampering. The IG has also issued reports detailing serious scientific deficiencies in decisions to release chemicals to the market. Besides those past reports, there are several more IG reports slated for issuance in 2025.

“EPA’s chemical review program protects chemical company profits at the expense of human health and the environment,” added PEER Science Policy Director Kyla Bennett, a scientist and attorney formerly with EPA. “If Mr. Zeldin does not clean house while embracing basic reforms, these inherited problems will soon become his alone.”

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Read IG reports confirming retaliation against scientists 

Look at IG report outlining EPA’s broken chemical program

Examine an egregious example of EPA chemical malpractice

See how undue industry influence persists 

Read more about EPA’s approval of the component of boat fuel

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