GAO Report Released on the EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System
Today, Congressman Brad Miller (D-NC), Ranking Member of the Energy and Environment, released a new GAO report on the EPA’s science-based chemical assessment program.
That program, the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), provides basic assessments to states and other agencies regarding the toxic risks associated with exposure to particular chemicals. During the Bush Administration this EPA science program was crippled by White House official’s intent on forcing EPA to endlessly revise and redo proposed assessments.
Commenting on the report, Mr. Miller said:
“We have clusters of rare cancers and birth defects scattered around the country that we know must be caused by exposure to something but we don’t know what. We desperately need a reliable, scientific assessment of the effects of exposure to the thousands of chemicals now on the market.
“During the eight years of the Bush Administration, EPA and OMB actively sabotaged the IRIS program and IRIS is still swimming in shark-infested waters. Some of the companies that manufacture and use toxic chemicals would rather we not know what exposure to those chemicals does to us.”
GAO found that the IRIS program has yet to make operational all the reforms promised by the new Administration. Further, the program is still working to incorporate advice from the National Academy of Sciences regarding how EPA should produce and present their IRIS assessments. The delays in fully reforming the program have produced a situation where new assessments are still not being released as promptly as promised.
Mr. Miller added:
"The Obama Administration has made progress by shining a light on what was an indefensibly secretive program, and they’ve made it less political and more scientific. But they’ve still got a lot of work to do. I asked for this study to make sure someone was looking over EPA’s shoulder. GAO needs to stay on the case and EPA needs to take GAO’s criticisms to heart.”
The GAO report is available here: https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-42
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