Early May, The Environmental Protection Agency has announced that it will split the key divisions of the institution dedicated to scientific research. According to Report From NPR, 1,500 research and development office scientists have been asked to expect further reductions in the organization in the coming weeks, being applied to around 500 new scientific research positions scattered across other areas of the agency.
This reorganization threatens the existence of small but important programs housed within this office. This is an integrated risk information system program commonly known as IRIS. The program is responsible for providing independent research into chemical risks and helping other offices within the agency set regulations for chemicals that could pose a risk to human health. Program Leader I recently left, It is prior to the announcement of the restructuring.
Experts say the EPA’s reorganization is likely to disband this important program. This has been targeted for decades by the interests of the chemical industry and right-wing.
“Unfortunately, it looks like the polluters have won now,” says Thomas Burke, founder and honorary director of Johns Hopkins’s Institute of Risk Science and Public Policy and former assistant assistant administrator of the EPA’s research and development office.
“All announcements from May 2 are part of a bigger, comprehensive effort to rebuild the agency as a whole,” EPA spokesman Molly Vaseliou told Wired in an email. “The EPA works quickly throughout the reorganization process and will provide additional information if available.”
The IRIS program, formed in the mid-1980s, was designed to investigate the health effects of chemicals and collate research available from around the world to provide an analysis of potential hazards from existing and existing substances. The program, along with other offices within the EPA, identifies top chemicals of concern worthy of further research and research.
Unlike other EPA offices, the IRIS program has no regulatory liability. Rather, it exists solely to provide science based on potential new regulations. Experts say this is insulated to evaluate IRIS production from external pressures that could affect research conducted in other areas of the agency.
Participating intensive programs like IRIS “has independence,” says Jennifer Olme Zavareta, former assistant assistant aide to the Research and Development Agency and former EPA science advisor. “They don’t try to assess risks for a particular purpose. They are just assessing the risks and providing basic information.”
IRIS has been creating databases since its founding Over 570 Chemicals and compounds that assess potential human health effects. This series of research will help guide federal government policies as well as state and international regulations.
The IRIS database is “the gold standard for health assessment of chemical pollutants,” says Burke. “Nearly all of our regulated contaminants, virtually all of our major success in cleaning up, regulating toxic chemicals, have been touched by our iris or iris staff.”
However, Iris has faced a critical and difficult battle in recent years. One is the vast number of chemicals that a limited number of people had to review. There is Over 80,000 Chemicals It is registered for use in the US, and chemical companies register hundreds more each year. Some chemical iris have been a substance of concern for years, and some have recently sparked new scrutiny. For example, synthetic materials named for their sustainability in the environment have been in use for decades, but recent water and soil prevalence has resulted in a revival of the iris. 2019 Start creating a draft assessment of five common types of these chemicals.
