White House Preventing EPA From Testing Toxicity of Chemicals

What do you know, the White House and the EPA are in our ‘Planet Killers’ news once again. Congressional investigators have found that the Bush administration is keeping the EPA from performing important tests on chemicals to determine health effects. What they’re doing, basically, is allowing nonscientists to have a big say in the process, and keeping it a secret from the public (or trying to).

From MSNBC.com:

The administration’s decision to give the Defense Department and other agencies an early role in the process adds to years of delay in acting on harmful chemicals and jeopardizes the program’s credibility, the Government Accountability Office concluded.

At issue is the EPA’s screening of chemicals used in everything from household products to rocket fuel to determine if they pose serious risk of cancer or other illnesses.

A new review process begun by the White House in 2004 is adding more speed bumps for EPA scientists, the GAO said in its report, which will be the subject of a Senate Environment Committee hearing Tuesday. A formal policy effectively doubling the number of steps was adopted two weeks ago.

While we’re stewing in a toxic mix of chemicals that could very well be altering our cells in a way that science has yet to identify and understand, the government is engaging in this chaotic game of ping pong where various agencies are throwing information back and forth at each other with no apparent rhyme or reason to the process. I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised, since hardly anything the government does is actually efficient, but this is a matter of life and death – literally.

What it amounts to is the government protecting chemical companies. How many industries has the Bush administration whored itself out to? It’s astounding.

Link [MSNBC]

Photo credit: Flickr user Foxtongue