What does the chemical spill from the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment, Florida’s red tide, and chemicals in household cleaning products have in common? They all rely on EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) to figure out how toxic they are and how they harm your health and the environment. Now the new administration is shutting down the office.
You may have never heard of ORD or EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), but these scientific programs, with highly trained and experienced scientists, have had an impact on your life: they evaluate the toxicity of chemicals used in everyday products and those released into the environment, how you are exposed, whether and how those chemicals are contaminating air, food, water, and soil, and what it all means for your health and development.
In an ideal scenario, ORD and IRIS should function without political or corporate interference. Now they won’t be able to function at all, unless Congress steps in.
Why does the chemical industry want ORD and IRIS gone?
The chemical industry is on record calling for the elimination of IRIS and the independent research and scientific assessments they produce – and the industry appears to be succeeding. Removal of these scientific programs would have far-reaching ramifications and undermine the development of new or updated objective and scientifically rigorous assessments of the hazards posed by the chemicals of greatest concern to human health. It would also lead to greater use of biased corporate science to fill the gap for government decisions on whether a chemical is harmful.
“If the current administration is serious about making America healthy, they should be expanding, not shutting down, science that is used to protect people’s health from harmful chemicals and contaminants,” said Tracey J. Woodruff, PhD, professor and director of UCSF’s Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment and co-director of the Center to End Corporate Harm.
ORD’s science impacts nation’s health and economy
A National Academies of Sciences report described ORD this way:
The Office of Research and Development (ORD) provides the scientific bases for regulatory and public health policies that have broad impacts on the nation’s natural resources and quality of human life, and that yield economic benefits and incur compliance costs for the regulated community. In addition, ORD develops the agency core research capabilities, providing tools and methods for meeting current and anticipating future environmental challenges, such as the risks to health and the environment posed by climate change.”
EPA’s IRIS program, which is within ORD, provides the scientific foundation for critical risk management actions to protect people’s health from toxic chemicals. IRIS toxicity values are an essential part of reducing harmful chemical exposures and protecting health. These toxicity values are used to evaluate widespread toxic chemicals like arsenic and formaldehyde. The ORD analyses are used for hazardous waste clean ups, air quality standards, drinking water regulations, and Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) regulations. And they are widely used both inside and outside of EPA, including by state and local agencies assessing chemical risks and for cleaning up contaminated sites.
IRIS and ORD have no risk management authority, which helps ensure that the science is kept separate from regulatory decision making to prevent political or corporate pressure.
IRIS – a model of government efficiency
Started in the 1980’s, the IRIS program ensures that chemicals of concern have a single EPA assessment of hazard and dose-response instead of multiple redundant and inconsistent assessments by different EPA regulatory programs. In other words, IRIS is a model of government efficiency.
Since its inception, IRIS has assessed 572 different chemicals. Its assessments form the basis for EPA decisions such as that 1,4-dioxane and formaldehyde pose an unreasonable health risk, and rules banning methylene chloride, a lethal paint remover, and trichloroethylene (TCE), a solvent which increases the risk of cancer, Parkinson’s disease, and birth defects.
No IRIS means no EPA science
Legislation pending in Congress, called “The NO IRIS Act,” would take these office shutdowns one step further by preventing any use of IRIS science or toxicity values. This would essentially halt the enforcement of science-based rules that are designed to protect health, particularly for communities where polluting chemical manufacturing plants are sited.
“Closing EPA’s scientific offices is the full-on destruction of decades of science that has helped to protect America’s health,” said Woodruff. “Want to make America healthy? Then protect ORD and IRIS, increase their funding, and preserve their scientific independence.”
