Michael Dourson, a professor in the Risk Science Center at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, has been nominated to head the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. He was approved by the Senate Environment Committee on a party line vote, and could be confirmed by the full Senate at any time.
In an alarming op-ed for The Hill, Senator Tammy Duckworth has sounded the alarm that Dr. Dourson is fundamentally unfit to lead the nation’s efforts to regulate toxic chemicals. Her full piece, which is worth reading (here) details the industry ties and dangerous skewing of research he has been guilty of in the past.
“Dr. Dourson has a long track record of manipulating scientific research for profit to benefit corporate interests at the expense of public safety. He has been paid by companies like Koch Industries to falsely claim that dozens of dangerous chemicals are safe for common usage, most alarmingly chemicals like Perchlorate, Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), Trichloroethylene (TCE), and 1,4,-Dioxane.
…How skewed in favor of industry has Dourson’s research been? PFOA, for instance, has been linked to prostate, kidney and testicular cancer. Dr. Dourson recommended a level of 150 parts per billion (ppb) was safe. By contrast, the chemical manufacturer DuPont, which manufactures the chemical, set an internal safety level of 1 ppb and the EPA set a health advisory level even lower at 0.07 ppb…”
We must call our Senators and demand they vote NO on Dr. Dourson’s confirmation.
- Call Rob Portman at 202-224-3353
- Call Sherrod Brown at 202-224-2315
Script:
“Hi, my name is [NAME] and I’m calling from [ADDRESS]. I’m calling today to ask the senator to oppose the nomination of Michael Dourson to the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. His advocacy for toxic chemicals in the past, and his readiness to expose US service members to them, makes him unfit for a regulatory position. At a time when the US military is investigating water contamination at bases across the country, we should strive to set toxic exposure standards as low as possible, not as high as industry would like.”