The Biden Administration has promised to tackle PFAS pollution. Here are some of the things they can do to fulfill that promise. Read more >
New Year, New EPA: How the Biden Administration Can Catalyze PFAS Action in 2021
Genna Reed, Lead science and policy analyst
January 6, 2021 1:53 PM EDT
Roy Luck/Flickr
EPA Watchdog Report Reveals a Failure to Talk to Communities with Higher Ethylene Oxide Health Risks
Genna Reed, Lead science and policy analyst
April 2, 2020 1:22 PM EDT
The EPA’s watchdog, the Office of Inspector General (IG), released a report this week that highlights how inadequate EPA’s communication around the hazardous air pollutant, ethylene oxide, has been in communities that need information most. The IG’s report confirms what communities have been saying for months and recommends that EPA take urgent action to engage with all communities near ethylene oxide-emitting facilities to let them know about the real and present dangers associated with exposure. Read more >
EPA Must Keep Communities Safe from Ethylene Oxide Cancer Risks
Genna Reed, Lead science and policy analyst
January 16, 2020 3:59 PM EDT
This morning, I found myself back at EPA headquarters in downtown Washington, DC, asking EPA a second time to do something that should be obvious: listen to its own scientists and use the best available science to protect communities from hazardous air pollution. Read more >
Photo: Mike Mozart/Flickr
Administrator Wheeler is Hiding the Truth About Formaldehyde
Genna Reed, Lead science and policy analyst
April 19, 2019 2:40 PM EDT
The Union of Concerned Scientists along with the Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Environmental Protection Network asked EPA’s Scientific Integrity office to investigate what seems to be political interference that occurred at the EPA in its recent suspension of the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) formaldehyde risk assessment. In his responses to senators’ questions about the assessment earlier this year, Wheeler claimed that “Formaldehyde was not identified as a top priority.” But, in documents obtained through FOIA request, the Union of Concerned Scientists found evidence that EPA staff was not only interested in the formaldehyde risk assessment, but as of 2017 the air office had a “strong interest in the review and are anxious to see it completed.” Read more >
Photo: Roy Luck/Flickr
EPA Needs to Trust Its Own Scientists and Protect Us from Ethylene Oxide
Genna Reed, Lead science and policy analyst
March 27, 2019 11:12 AM EDT
The EPA is holding a public hearing related to its proposed rule on facilities producing hydrochloric acid (HCl). In addition to HCl, many of these sites emit ethylene oxide, a flammable colorless gas that EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) determined was carcinogenic to humans back in 2016. According to the proposed rule, communities near these facilities experience a lifetime cancer risk of 600-in-1-million, which is six times EPA’s unsafe level. What is the agency doing to protect people from this risk? There is no regulatory action proposed in the rulemaking—instead, the agency is asking for comment on the use of the IRIS ethylene oxide risk value for “regulatory purposes,” calling into question the work of its own scientists in the IRIS program. Read more >
