Oppose the EPA’s “secret science” proposal! Comment deadline Aug. 16!
- Alliance for Science
- Closed on
- Target:
- EPA
- Region:
- United States of America
Thank you for signing.
Scientists and environmental campaigners are calling for your support in their campaign to stop the EPA implementing a new rule that — under the guise of scientific "transparency — risks seriously weakening air pollution and other environmental regulations that currently save thousands of lives per year.
The EPA calls it “Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science.” Specifically the agency is proposing that scientific studies should only be allowed to underpin regulations if the data underlying the science "is publicly available in a manner sufficient for validation and analysis". The EPA says that it is particularly interested in the transparency of dose response data and models that underlie what it calls “pivotal regulatory science.”
Sounds great, right? Who could be against the EPA only being allowed to use scientific studies underpinned by fully transparent and publicly available data? But read down into the small print of the proposal and you can see what it's really about — re-opening the debate on the health effects of specific pollutants. By excluding certain studies under the guise of "transparency," polluting industries are in fact trying to weaken EPA regulations.
So what's the problem? As a recent letter signed by nearly 1,000 scientists pointed out, many public health studies cannot be replicated, as doing so would require intentionally and unethically exposing people and the environment to harmful contaminants or recreating one-time events such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Furthermore, there are multiple valid reasons why requiring the release of all data does not improve scientific integrity and could actually compromise research, including intellectual property, proprietary, and privacy concerns.
And the EPA doesn't need to invent a whole new category for quality and integrity in science. One already exists — it's called peer review. The EPA's proposal as it stands would allow the agency to ignore peer-reviewed studies that rely on confidential information, thereby eliminating some of the best research we have to inform policy.
Make your voice heard! Please sign our petition below and join other Science Allies in defending scientific integrity in policymaking. And hurry — time is running out. The EPA's comment period closes on August 16th!
I submit this comment as a concerned citizen to call on the EPA to exclude valid science from regulations on air pollution and other health issues.
The EPA already relies on transparent science to make its decisions. The proposal will not improve this process. Instead, it would allow the agency to ignore critical studies that show the relationship between our health and the environment. We cannot limit the information used to protect our health and environment.
The effects of air pollution and other environmental risks are documented by research that has already undergone a long-established, transparent peer review process. Many of these studies contain confidential patient information that can’t and shouldn’t be made public. This is no reason to exclude those studies’ critically important, well-vetted findings. I am deeply concerned that EPA’s proposal would allow the agency to ignore these important health studies.
Our communities depend on the EPA to use the best available scientific evidence in making policy decisions. We deserve clean air and water and ask that you adhere to the EPA mandate to protect our health and environment. The EPA must rely on the best available science to protect our future - this proposal makes that impossible.
Please withdraw this proposal and send a message that your time as head of the EPA will bring back science-based policies to protect our planet.
The Oppose the EPA’s “secret science” proposal! Comment deadline Aug. 16! petition to EPA was written by Alliance for Science and is in the category Science & Technology at GoPetition.