EPA scientists complain about political pressure
WASHINGTON (AP) - April 23, 2008 The Union of Concerned Scientists said more than half of the
nearly 1,600 EPA staff scientists who responded online to a
detailed questionnaire reported they had experienced incidents of
political interference in their work.
EPA spokesman Jonathan Shradar attributed some of the discontent
to the "passion" scientists have toward their work. He said EPA
Administrator Stephen Johnson, as a longtime career scientist at
the EPA himself, "weighs heavily the science given to him by the
staff in making policy decisions."
But Francesca Grifo, director of the Union of Concerned
Scientists' Scientific Integrity Program, said the survey results
revealed "an agency in crisis" and "under siege from political
pressures" especially among scientists involved in risk assessment
and crafting regulations.
"The investigation shows researchers are generally continuing
to do their work, but their scientific findings are tossed aside
when it comes time to write regulations," said Grifo.
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., in a letter sent Wednesday to
Johnson, called the survey results disturbing and said they
"suggest a pattern of ignoring and manipulating science." He said
he planned to pursue the issue at an upcoming hearing by his
Oversight and Government Reform Committee where Johnson is
scheduled to testify.
The group sent an online questionnaire to 5,500 EPA scientists
and received 1,586 responses, a majority of them senior scientists
who have worked for the agency for 10 years or more. The survey
included chemists, toxicologists, engineers, geologists and experts
in the life and environmental sciences.
The report said 60 percent of those responding, or 889
scientists, reported personally experiencing what they viewed as
political interference in their work over the last five years. Four
in 10 scientists who have worked at the agency for more than a
decade said they believe such interference has been more prevalent
in the last five years than in the previous five years.
Timothy Donaghy, one of the report's co-authors, acknowledged
that a large number of scientists did not respond to the survey and
said the findings should not be viewed as a random sample of EPA
scientists.
Nevertheless, said Donaghy, "we have hundreds of scientists
saying there is a problem" with assuring scientific integrity
within the federal government's principal environmental regulatory
agency.
Asked to respond to the survey, EPA spokesman Shradar said, "We
have the best scientists in the world at EPA."
The EPA has been under fire from members of Congress on a number
of fronts including its delay in determining whether carbon dioxide
should be regulated to combat global warming. Johnson also has been
criticized for rejecting recommendations from science advisory
boards on a number of air pollution issues including control of
mercury from power plants and how much to reduce smog pollution.
In the survey, the EPA scientists described an agency suffering
from low morale as senior managers and the White House Office of
Management and Budget frequently second-guess scientific findings
and change work conducted by EPA's scientists, the report said.
The survey covered employees at EPA headquarters, in each of the
agency's 10 regions around the country and at more than a dozen
research laboratories. The highest number of complaints about
political interference came from scientists who are directly
involved in writing regulations and those who conduct risk
assessments such as determining a chemical cancer risk for humans.
Nearly 400 scientists said they had witnessed EPA officials
misrepresenting scientific findings, 284 said they had seen the
"selective or incomplete use of data to justify a specific
regulatory outcome" and 224 scientists said they had been directed
to "inappropriately exclude or alter technical information" in an
EPA document.
Nearly 200 of the respondents said they had been in situations
where they or their colleagues actively objected to or resigned
from projects "because of pressure to change scientific
findings."
Donaghy said EPA management was aware of the survey, conducted
by the Center for Survey Statistics & Methodology at Iowa State
University. He said while some EPA managers initially instructed
employees not to participate, the EPA's general counsel's office
later sent an e-mail to employees saying they could participate on
their private time.