Adios, IRIS

The EPA’s decision to end the use of IRIS for developing chemical risk assessments is a fundamental change in how the agency will decide what chemical hazards mean for regulation. By returning hazard and dose-response assessments to individual program offices, EPA may gain flexibility and scientific currency, but it risks recreating the very inconsistency IRIS was designed to prevent.

In Assessing Cancer Risk It’s Time to Follow the Science

Every administration says it prioritizes getting the science right, and our current Administration has emphasized using “gold-standard science” as the basis for policy and regulatory decisions. However, for over six decades, regulatory agencies have relied on a flawed model, the linear non-threshold model, as the basis for cancer risk assessment, which significantly affects regulatory decisions at many agencies, including the EPA.

EPA thinks about limiting water toxin, but only because court ordered it

The agency crafted the proposal to adhere to a 2023 D.C. Circuit decision, despite its opinion that the toxic chemical is not prevalent enough warrant the potential costs of testing for it.

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From Industry to E.P.A.: Lobbyist Now Oversees Pesticide Rules

Kyle Kunkler fought for a restricted weed killer that can harm plants and wildlife when it drifts to nearby land. He’s now at the E.P.A., which wants to allow its use.