At a shadow hearing held by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which conducts oversight of EPA, Dr. Tracey Woodruff testified that while most people have never heard of EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) or the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), these programs provide vital and necessary information and serve as the heart of EPA’s science.
Whether they eliminate ORD and IRIS or hollow them out through dramatically reducing staffing and budgets, these moves would have far-reaching ramifications. It will undermine the development of new or updated scientifically rigorous assessments of chemical hazards. It could also lead to greater use of biased corporate science in government decision making, which leads to greater chronic disease.
If the current administration is serious about making America healthy, it should increase investment in ORD and IRIS and expand rather than shut down the use of objective science to protect people’s health from harmful chemicals and contaminants.
To be clear, eliminating the science will not make the toxicity and harm go away. It will be quite the opposite as we will have no science to identify and mitigate toxic harms.”
Watch the full testimony here:
https://youtube.com/live/3l-bOsI9Gmw?feature=share
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