Government Accountability Office: EPA's chemical safety database far behind schedule

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From: OMB Watch

EPA's Assessments of Chemical Dangers -- Too Slow

A government investigation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) process for assessing dangerous chemicals concludes the agency is so slow and lacking in credibility that the system is in "serious risk of becoming obsolete."

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) completed a new extensive review of EPA's Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), a publicly searchable database for studies and information on the human health effects of chemical substances. The GAO investigation concluded that recent EPA changes to the IRIS assessment process had made a bad situation worse.

This database is a significant tool to protect public health and the environment. Health risk assessments made using IRIS data directly influence the development of public health policies. The EPA's IRIS program is supposed to assess more than 540 chemicals now in the IRIS database, but from 2006 to 2007, it finalized evaluations of only four chemicals. At that rate, it will take almost three centuries to complete the assessments, assuming no new chemicals will require evaluation between now and then. The agency is also supposed to reevaluate old decisions to incorporate new scientific data.

EPA has a significant backlog of chemical assessments and a growing number of outdated assessments. The GAO reports that assessments of certain, especially dangerous chemicals, such as dioxin and trichloroethylene (TCE), the most frequently reported contaminant in groundwater, have been in progress for over 17 years and over 10 years, respectively. Unlike many other EPA programs that have statutory requirements, the IRIS program has no required deadlines.

In April, EPA released its new assessment process. The new process was not made available for public comment. This lack of transparency and public feedback occurred despite Office of Management and Budget (OMB) assurances that EPA would circulate a draft to the public before moving forward with the final process. Changes included one apparently demanded by OMB, which allows other agencies, including OMB, to comment on IRIS assessments. The comments from OMB and other federal agencies about the scientific assessments will not be made public nor be noted in any peer review process. Additionally, EPA changed the definition of the scientific assessment process to include policy considerations, where previously, science and policy were distinct.

GAO's Sept. 18 testimony before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations indicated that EPA's new procedures have failed to improve the program. Several factors contributed to the failure, including the fact that OMB and several other federal agencies now have an even larger role in evaluating the EPA's work, slowing down the process.

Under EPA's current IRIS procedures, OMB, as well as several other federal agencies, may intercede in the scientific assessment process multiple times. The comments and changes to the IRIS assessments made by these interceding agencies are not revealed to the public. In the GAO's analysis, this lack of transparency violates the principles of sound scientific analysis. Moreover, these federal agencies are often affected by IRIS assessments, which poses an apparent conflict of interest.

Another IRIS problem identified by GAO is that EPA management decisions to postpone completion of assessments to wait for more scientific analyses compound existing delays. Several of EPA's assessments are essentially stuck in a loop where the evaluation process stretches out over several years, during which time the scientific research used in the initial assessment becomes outdated, and the agency starts a new evaluation to incorporate more recent information. This cycle, combined with the new, longer evaluation process, is largely responsible for the significant delays in finalizing risk assessments, according to GAO. Without risk assessments, policymakers at the federal and state levels — and even in other countries — are not able to make informed risk management decisions.

For instance, in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provided trailers to those without housing, which caused health problems because of high levels of formaldehyde. FEMA officials cited the lack of a standard for formaldehyde exposure in mobile homes as one of the problems that delayed action. Apparently, EPA had initiated an assessment of formaldehyde in 1997 to update the data in IRIS, but the process had not been completed by 2005 when FEMA took action. Instead, EPA chose to rely on an industry-funded assessment of formaldehyde, which projected the risk from the chemical to be 2,400 times lower than that determined in studies by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, according to the GAO analysis.

At the hearing, EPA officials defended the program. Dr. George Gray, EPA's assistant administrator for research and development, cited increased staff levels and funding for the IRIS program. He also stated that there would be no way to conduct "scientific shenanigans" with the IRIS process because of existing independent peer reviews. Marcus Peacock, EPA's deputy administrator, also proclaimed that EPA "[does not] tolerate political interference with science."


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Electronic Communications Preservation Act targets executive branch agencies

We periodically receive newsletters from a wide variety of government reform news sources; the organizations focus on only the major events within their respective areas of expertise. Here is a selection from a recent email newsletter:
From OMB Watch
http://bit.ly/1qWaaS

House Decides Saving E-mails is a Good Thing

The White House has threatened to veto an already weak bill targeted at preserving electronic records, despite legal action and recommendations from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on the need for such accountability. On July 9, the House passed the Electronic Communications Preservation Act (H.R. 5811) by a veto-proof margin of 286-137. While targeted at the White House, this legislation will have an impact throughout executive branch agencies. [...]

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> All Things Reform Mobile: allthingsreform.mofuse.mobi
> Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121 (not toll-free)
> US House/ US Senate Mobile: bit.ly/members
> Contact your representative tips: bit.ly/dear
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Although the Consumer Product Safety Reform Act of 2007 (S. 2663) will give the CPSC much-needed muscle, it could be stronger than it is. For example, the maximum fine for violating the Act has been reduced from $100 million to $10 million, or $20 million in "aggravated" circumstances, a pittance for multibillion-dollar corporations. However, the current bill makes valuable improvements over current law that must be defended.

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Here is Public Citizen's description of its newest report on consumer product safety issues and the federal government:

U.S. Consumer Protection Officials Wait Months to Notify Public of Dangerous, Defective Products, Public Citizen Study Finds

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• Read the press release
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$55 billion in improper HHS payments in 2007

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HHS is not the only agency still working to develop improper payment estimates. GAO reported that the fiscal 2007 estimate did not include data from 14 risk-susceptible programs with outlays of $170 billion. Nine of these fall under the Homeland Security Department and were only recently identified as risk-susceptible. GAO considered the identification of programs as an important step toward proper reporting and prevention of improper payments. Twelve of the 14 programs that did not report estimates aim to do so for 2008. The other two did not report target implementation dates.

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While parents were in panic over the lead paint on their children's toys (like "Robot 2000"), what was the head of the government agency in charge of protecting us doing? Traveling - on the dime of the very industries she is supposed to be regulating.
Nancy Nord, the interim Chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), has not shied away from that fact that she accepts lavish trips from the industries she regulates and even claims that it is perfectly ethical.
The CPSC is charged with monitoring thousands of products that we use everyday, including toys, but has been systematically gutted by lack of funding and industry-friendly political appointees. A proposed bill, the CPSC Reform Act of 2007, would help fix that. It would more than double the agency's funding, give it new powers to punish those who sell dangerous products, and offer protection to government whistleblowers who courageously report wrongdoing within the agency.
Guess who isn't a fan?
Nord. She is also opposed to a bill that would make her agency more effective and better protect consumers from dangerous products. Could her position having anything to do with a recent free trip to New Orleans? Or maybe she is just more interested in protecting industry profits than consumers.
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Posted by Daniel De Bonis on November 09, 2007 at 05:48 PM

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End Mining Giveaways Support H.R. 2262
There was a time when only pirates made off with billions in someone else’s gold. But thanks to a 135 year old mining law still on the books, some of the world’s biggest corporations are still plundering.
Signed into law by President Ulysses Grant to encourage Western expansion, the 1872 Mining Law has long outlived its original intent. With the Wild West settled and multinational mining companies flourishing, wasteful subsidies continue to flow. Federal land can still be sold dirt cheap (no more than $5/acre!), hardrock miners are uniquely excused from royalty payments for the mineral they extract, and taxpayers are often left with the clean-up bill after expensive environmental damage is abandoned on federal lands.
The Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2007, H.R. 2262, introduced by Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV), takes steps to reform this age-old law and address these critical issues. The bill imposes a modest eight percent royalty on the value of the gold, silver, and other stones and metals extracted. It prohibits the sale of federal land to hardrock mining companies. And it tackles the steep clean-up costs by establishing standards to minimize damage, requiring more stringent planning and disclosures from mining companies to reduce unforeseen catastrophes, and investing royalty and fee revenues into a fund to help cover these expensive damages.
Write to your Member of Congress today and urge them to cosponsor this important legislation and support these long-awaited reforms.
Take action now.

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The drugs in your medicine cabinet will soon be safer because Congress passed strong drugs safety legislation.The House and Senate hammered out an agreement on a final drug safety bill earlier this week and the House passed it on Wednesday. The Senate will pass the identical bill today, but the President, who has sided with the pharmaceutical industry and their goal of weak drug safety reforms, still must sign the bill.The pharmaceutical industry has opposed many of the safety reforms in the bill, but in the end there were too many headlines about dangerous drugs and Congress had to act. We're glad they did.Our top drug safety priority passed. Drug makers must release the results of their safety studies on-line. No more hiding unflattering or dangerous results. This will help patients and doctors figure out if the drug's risk is worth its benefits.
The bill also authorizes the FDA to issues fines of up to $10 million for drug makers who fail to complete follow-up drug safety studies. Drug makers used to routinely ignore follow-up studies. The threat of this stiff fine should get their attention.The bill includes other good safety provisions such as strengthening conflicts-of-interest rules at the FDA and increasing by $225 million the budget for follow-up drug safety studies. These studies are extremely important for people taking drugs for years at a time to control chronic conditions.Together we can make sure this legislation is signed into law. Join me in telling President Bush to sign the strong drugs safety legislation passed by Congress.
To take action, click on the link below or paste it into your browser: https://www.uspirg.org/action/health-care/strong-bill?id4=ES
Sincerely, Dr. Matthew Tejada TexPIRG Advocate, MatthewT@texpirg.org, http://www.texpirg.org/
P.S. Thanks again for your support. Please feel free to share this e-mail with your family and friends.

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Travel restrictions in the Congressional ethics bill apply to the administration

A light has now shined on executive branch travel finances: Bush administration officials have been routinely accepting trips from companies and trade associations with a stake in their agencies' decisions. From April, 2006 to March, 2007, more than 100 of these trips would be out of bounds for members of Congress under the recently passed ethics bill, because they lasted more than one day and were paid for by companies or groups that employ lobbyists; the bill doesn't apply to the Executive or the Judicial branches of federal government.

The ethical question would be, of course: do the special interests paying for these trips by their regulators constitute a conflict of interest? It would seem to me that, if Company X in a resort area has polluted the river next to it, and flies Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials there for free to argue their cause, that would be a conflict of interest. The EPA is the regulator, and it's financial support must come exclusively from the American taxpayer, so that a hands-off relationship with their regulatees is maintained.

The Congressional ethics bill to be given a veto or signing by President Bush should have applied to the Executive branch as well. Otherwise, executive officials not mindful of their only financial supporters may continue falling for these travel finance mistakes.

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