EPA/Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention
 EPA/Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention    | |
|---|---|
| Parent organization | EPA |
| “The Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention is broken,” says whistleblowers | |
Contents
Official narrative
Using sound science as a compass, OCSPP’s mission is to protect you, your family, and the environment from potential risks from pesticides and toxic chemicals. Through innovative partnerships and collaboration, we also work to prevent pollution before it begins.[1]
Whistleblowers
According to four scientists who work at the agency and became whistleblowers in 2021, managers and career staff in the Office tampered with the assessments of dozens of chemicals to make them appear safer. The whistleblowers, whose jobs involve identifying the potential harms posed by new chemicals, provided detailed evidence of pressure within the agency to minimize or remove evidence of potential adverse effects of the chemicals, including neurological effects, birth defects, and cancer.
On several occasions, information about hazards was deleted from agency assessments without informing or seeking the consent of the scientists who authored them. Some of these cases led the EPA to withhold critical information from the public about potentially dangerous chemical exposures. In other cases, the removal of the hazard information or the altering of the scientists’ conclusions in reports paved the way for the use of chemicals, which otherwise would not have been allowed on the market.[2]
William Irwin
William Irwin, one of the four whistleblowers, who has worked at the EPA for over 11 years as a toxicologist, was moved out of the office after repeatedly resisting pressure to change his assessments to favor industry. Several months after protesting internally and meeting antagonism from management, Irwin transferred out of the office. The scientist saw the move as a last resort for his managers. “I have three board certifications in toxicology, so it was hard for them to say, ‘William, you’re stupid,’ and so instead they just kicked me out of the program.”[2]
Mysterious chemicals approved
The law gives the EPA 90 days to respond to a new chemical submission. But determining whether chemicals are safe can be time-consuming, especially since the assessors often receive very little information about their health effects. In some cases, companies provide only the chemical name and structure without any information on health and safety. To properly vet them, assessors need to find and read through relevant studies and sometimes seek opinions from outside experts. Yet the whistleblowers said they were regularly encouraged to pass even these mysterious chemicals so quickly that they were often unable to thoroughly review them.[3]
Further Reading
