Scientific Integrity Update--05/2008
Contents
- Summary
- Victory! Senate Passes Consumer Product Safety Bill with Whistleblower Protections
- Get your pens ready—it’s time for Science Idol!
- Survey reveals widespread political interference at EPA
- Scientific Freedom and the Public Good
- Scientific Integrity in the Science Classroom
- Endangered Species Fly-in
- Additional Activity
This spring, thanks in part to the help of UCS activists, Congress passed major legislation that will help federal government scientists protect the U.S. public from unsafe toys and other products. A new report exposing pervasive political interference at the Environmental Protection Agency leads the charge for agency reform, while a new call-to-action lays the groundwork for restoring integrity to government science under a new administration. In late May, we'll testify twice on Capitol Hill about political interference in science. And, get your pens ready! It’s time for this year's editorial cartoon contest!
Victory! Senate Passes Consumer Product Safety Bill with Whistleblower Protections
On March 6, the Senate approved comprehensive consumer product safety legislation that will provide whistleblower protections to employees at the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The bill will also open up the decision-making process at CPSC to more public scrutiny. The 79-13 vote is a hard-fought victory for UCS and our allies.
Through meetings with congressional staff and sign-on letters, UCS built support for whistleblower protections for CPSC staff, many of whom are statisticians, psychologists, chemists, and engineers. We also successfully fought for a requirement that the agency post consumer complaints about product injuries in a publicly accessible database.
Get your pens ready—it's time for Science Idol!
In partnership with several great cartoonists, UCS recently launched the third annual Science Idol: the Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon Contest. UCS is again seeking creative, original, and compelling cartoons to help make the issue of political interference in science accessible to all.
Our panel of celebrity judges includes Dave Coverly, creator of the syndicated cartoon Speed Bump; Kevin Kallaugher, editorial cartoonist for The Economist; Mike Keefe, editorial cartoonist for the Denver Post; Wiley Miller, creator of the synidacated cartoon Non Sequitur; Signe Wilkinson, Pulitzer prize-winning editorial cartoonist for the Philadelphia Daily News and creator of Family Tree; and Jesse Springer, last year's Science Idol winner. Together they will help UCS choose the 12 finalists, which will be featured in our annual calendar and used on websites and in publications all year.
The Science Idol website includes the contest guidelines, examples of political interference, and even tips on how to incorporate editorial cartoons into classroom lesson plans. The deadline to enter is June 11, 2008, so put your pen to paper and enter today!
Survey reveals widespread political interference at EPA
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the simple yet profound charge "to protect human health and the environment." EPA scientists apply their expertise to protect the public from air and water pollution, clean up hazardous waste, and study emerging threats such as global warming. Yet challenges from industry lobbyists and some political leaders to the agency's decisions have too often led to the suppression and distortion of the scientific findings underlying those decisions—to the detriment of both science and the health of our nation.
An investigation of the EPA released in late April found that 889 of nearly 1,600 staff scientists reported that they experienced political interference in their work over the last five years.
The EPA's independent scientific assessments are a crucial ingredient in good policy and should never be adjusted to fit a predetermined policy decision. Furthermore, the agency's findings should be freely available to the public; its regulatory process should be more open and less susceptible to White House interference; and its scientists should be free to report political meddling without fear of retribution. Without these safeguards, the EPA cannot possibly fulfill its worthy mission of protecting human health and the environment. To highlight this report, UCS Senior Scientist Francesca Grifo recently testified at a Senate hearing about the impact of interference on EPA science and regulatory decisions. She will also testify at a May 20 hearing before the House Government Reform Committee focused on recent EPA air pollution decisions. Watch the webcast from the committee website.
Scientific Freedom and the Public Good
Restoring scientific integrity to federal policy making will take a sustained commitment by Congress and the president—and that will require persistent and energetic engagement from scientists and citizens alike. In order to build from our past victories while looking forward to a new administration, we recently launched a scientist call-to-action. This statement urges the next president and Congress to establish conditions that allow federal science to flourish. If you are a scientist or engineer, you can join the 15,000 scientists and engineers who have spoken out against political interference in science by endorsing this statement and joining the Restoring Scientific Integrity Network.
We also recently released a new report that highlights both specific abuses of science and the systemic changes that must be reversed in order to restore scientific integrity to federal policy making. UCS released this report and the new call-to-action at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). These two products were featured on the February 15 edition of National Public Radio’s Science Friday during a discussion about strengthening federal science.
Scientific Integrity in the Science Classroom
The scientific integrity program traveled to Boston in March for the National Science Teachers Association annual meeting, where we met with hundreds of teachers from across the country. We were able to share stories and information about scientific integrity and how this issue can be incorporated into classroom discussions. In anticipation of this meeting, we also updated the scientific integrity curriculum guide based on feedback from teachers and instructors.
Endangered Species Fly-In
Two dozen scientists united on Capitol Hill this January as part of a fly-in organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Endangered Species Coalition. In more than 20 meetings, scientists protested the dismantling of the Endangered Species Act through the manipulation and suppression of science. During these valuable meetings with members of Congress and aides, the group asked for hearings and better congressional oversight of the Interior Department, where Bush appointees control the fate of threatened and endangered species. UCS Senior Scientist and Program Director Dr. Francesca Grifo will testify May 21 in front of the House Natural Resources Committee on the effect of political interference in endangered species science.
Additional Activity
In the past few months, UCS has used a number of different venues to continue our work to expose, document, and draw attention to political interference in science, including:
- The A to Z Guide to Political Interference in Science, a web resource in the shape of the periodic table that details dozens of recent allegations of political interference in federal science from 2001 to the present. The examples are presented in several accessible ways with primary source documentation. Featured among the new entries are articles documenting how Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) decisions exposed thousands of Katrina disaster victims to harmful levels of formaldehyde; how a top official at the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) delayed a critical report on all-terrain vehicle (ATV) safety and attempted to reverse its conclusion that ATVs were becoming more dangerous to ride; and how White House officials heavily censored Congressional testimony from the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) that described the hazardous effects of climate change on public health.
- UCS testified at a Congressional hearing on the impact of Environmental Protection Agency library closures. The House Science and Technology Committee’s Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee reviewed a new Government Accountability Office report criticizing the way EPA handled the closures. Scientific Integrity Program Director and Senior Scientist Dr. Francesca Grifo discussed results from our EPA survey showing that hundreds of EPA scientists believe the library closures impaired their work.
