Washington, DC — Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientists are being instructed to improperly discount dangers posed by chemicals, according to a video obtained by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The video shows a training session in which EPA staff scientists are counseled to short-circuit statutorily required scientific examinations of hazards posed to the environment and public health.

The video PEER obtained under the Freedom of Information Act shows a senior EPA scientist instructing some 80 staff members on how to do risk assessments for existing chemicals. In this training session, she instructs the staff scientists to continue to study the chemical “until the answer is affirmative” adding that, “when it passes, stop.”

The senior scientist concludes by saying, “For those areas of the risk assessment that do not ‘pass,’ where are the most efficient areas to refine?” In other words, scientists are instructed to keep working on the risk assessment until they can find a way to allow the chemical to continue to be used with little or no restriction.

“This video explains how protections of the Toxic Substances Control Act are circumvented to benefit chemical companies,” stated PEER Science Policy Director Dr. Kyla Bennett, a scientist and attorney formerly with EPA, noting that TSCA was enacted in 1976 and strengthened in 2016 with the aim of protecting Americans from harmful exposure to new and existing chemicals. “EPA conducts its reviews to ensure that every chemical passes, like a safety net in reverse.”

Every year, industry introduces roughly 2,000 new chemicals for commercial use, but literally no new chemicals have been blocked from entering commerce and only a handful of existing chemicals have been restricted in any way.

When President Obama signed the 2016 TSCA reform bill there was hope that chemical reviews would become more rigorous and health protective, but these changes to the law were almost immediately undermined when the Trump administration took control seven months later. The outcome was predictable, with near total industry capture of the program. Sadly, Biden’s term brought little positive change. Now Trump is back, and the chemical industry has regained complete control over reviews for unreasonable risks to public health and the environment.

The precipitous loss of much of EPA’s scientific staff during the past year has led EPA’s Inspector General to declare that “meeting statutory requirements for ensuring safe use of chemicals” is one of the top management challenges for EPA in the coming year. Its annual assessment concludes, “To effectively protect public health from the risks of using chemicals and pesticides, the EPA will need to conduct credible and timely chemical risk assessments and reviews.”

“EPA reviews of chemicals are neither timely nor credible,” added Dr. Bennett, pointing to the formaldehyde assessment, which was finished more than three years late and now has no cancer risks calculated at all. “Environmental protection is no longer the main mission at EPA.”

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Watch the video

Look at the abysmal TSCA track record

Examine how TSCA is being further weakened in Trump II

See Inspector General naming chemical regulation as a top management challenge

PEER protects public employees who protect our environment, natural resources, and public health. We support current and former environmental and public health professionals, land managers, scientists, enforcement officers, and other civil servants dedicated to upholding environmental laws and values across federal, state, local, and tribal governments.