By Melanie Benesh
By releasing the first 10 chemicals (click here) to be reviewed under the new federal chemical safety law, the Environmental Protection Agency reminds us of what’s at stake – and how decisions made by the incoming Trump administration could jeopardize Americans' health.
Many of the chemicals identified by the EPA are found in consumer products and have been linked to cancer. But the team deciding how the incoming administration will implement the new law is led by Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, an industry-funded front group that has consistently downplayed the risks toxic chemicals pose.
The front group's so-called experts deem chemicals posing serious health hazards safe – including arsenic, mercury, phthalates and formaldehyde. The Institute even laments that the notorious killer asbestos might be among the first “casualties” of the new law, which gives the EPA new power to review and regulate the most dangerous chemicals.
If people like Ebell, who is not a scientist, are put in charge of the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, there’s no telling how the science will be twisted to serve the chemical industry. And if the EPA gets it wrong with these first 10 chemicals, there could be serious consequences....
