{"id":247553,"date":"2025-02-27T00:15:14","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T00:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/27\/she-lobbied-for-formaldehyde-now-shes-at-e-p-a-approving-new-chemicals\/"},"modified":"2025-02-27T00:15:15","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T00:15:15","slug":"she-lobbied-for-formaldehyde-now-shes-at-e-p-a-approving-new-chemicals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/27\/she-lobbied-for-formaldehyde-now-shes-at-e-p-a-approving-new-chemicals\/","title":{"rendered":"She Lobbied for Formaldehyde. Now She\u2019s at E.P.A. Approving New Chemicals."},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/13\/multimedia\/00cli-formaldehyde-pqvk\/00cli-formaldehyde-pqvk-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"She Lobbied for Formaldehyde. Now She\u2019s at E.P.A. Approving New Chemicals.\" title=\"She Lobbied for Formaldehyde. Now She\u2019s at E.P.A. Approving New Chemicals.\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Formaldehyde, the chemical of choice for undertakers and embalmers, is also used in products like furniture and clothes. But it can also cause cancer and severe respiratory problems. So, in 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency began a new effort to regulate it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The chemicals industry fought back with an intensity that astonished even seasoned agency officials. Its campaign was led by Lynn Dekleva, then a lobbyist at the American Chemistry Council, an industry group that spends millions of dollars on government lobbying.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Dekleva is now at the E.P.A. in a crucial job: She runs an office that has the authority to approve new chemicals for use. Earlier she spent 32 years at Dupont, the chemical maker, before joining the E.P.A. in the first Trump administration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Her most recent employer, the chemicals lobbying group, has made reversing the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s course on formaldehyde a priority and is pushing to abolish a program under which the agency assess the risks of chemicals to human health. In recent weeks it has urged the agency to discard its work on formaldehyde entirely and start from scratch in assessing the risks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The American Chemistry Council is also seeking to change the agency\u2019s approval process for new chemicals and speed up E.P.A.\u2019s safety reviews. That review process is a key part of Dr. Dekelva\u2019s purview at the agency.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Another former chemistry council lobbyist, Nancy Beck, is back alongside Dr. Dekleva at the E.P.A. in a role regulating existing chemicals. The council\u2019s president, Chris Jahn, told a Senate hearing shortly after the Trump inauguration that his group intended to tackle the \u201cunnecessary regulation\u201d of chemicals in the United States. \u201cA healthy nation, a secure nation, an economically vibrant nation relies on chemistry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It is not unusual or unlawful for industry groups to seek to influence public policy in the interest of their member companies. The A.C.C. estimates that products using formaldehyde support more than 1.5 million jobs in the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">What has been extraordinary, health and legal experts said, is the extent of the industry\u2019s effort to block the E.P.A.\u2019s scientific work on a chemical long acknowledged as a carcinogen, and how the architect of the effort was back at the agency as a regulator of chemicals. At the same time, the Trump administration has moved <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/16\/climate\/trump-science-funding-cuts.html\" title=\"\">to sharply reduce the federal scientific work force<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThey already have a track record of ignoring the science,\u201d said Tracey Woodruff, director of the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment at the University of California, San Francisco. \u201cNow, they\u2019re in charge of government agencies that decide the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While leading the chemistry council\u2019s fight to limit formaldehyde regulation, Dr. Dekleva called for investigations of federal officials for potential bias. The industry group used freedom of information laws to obtain emails of federal employees and criticized them in public statements for what they had written. It submitted dozens of industry-funded research papers to agencies that minimized the risks of formaldehyde.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The A.C.C. also sued both the E.P.A. and the National Academies, which advises the nation on scientific questions, accusing researchers of a lack of scientific integrity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Allison Edwards, a chemistry council spokeswoman, said officials from the group had regularly met with E.P.A. staff members \u201cto share critical science and to try and ensure an assessment of any chemistry is objective, employs rigorous scientific standards, and is reflective of real-world human exposure.\u201d She said, \u201cWe\u2019re asking to be one of many stakeholders at the table.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Molly Vaseliou, a spokeswoman for the E.P.A., said the agency would continue to make sure it \u201censures chemicals do not pose an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment.\u201d At the same time, the agency would also work to approve \u201cchemicals that are needed to power American innovation and competitiveness,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-490fe526\">Formaldehyde\u2019s cancer risk<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Formaldehyde\u2019s fumes can cause wheezing and a burning sensation in the eyes, especially when they accumulate indoors. That danger was apparent when formaldehyde in plywood used to build temporary trailer homes for victims of Hurricane Katrina <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/05\/13\/us\/13homeless.html\" title=\"\">sickened dozens of people<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And there are longer-term dangers, namely several types of cancers. The World Health Organization\u2019s International Agency for Research on Cancer concluded in 2004 that the chemical is a human carcinogen<strong class=\"css-8qgvsz ebyp5n10\">,<\/strong> and the U.S. Department of Health listed it as a human carcinogen in 2011.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The chemical is restricted in the workplace, in certain composite wood products, and in pesticides. Yet efforts to strengthen overall regulations in the United States <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/05\/04\/business\/energy-environment\/the-uphill-battle-to-better-regulate-formaldehyde.html\" title=\"\">have stalled in the face of industry opposition<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">President Biden, whose \u201c<a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/02\/02\/us\/politics\/biden-cancer-moonshot.html\" title=\"\">cancer moonshot<\/a>\u201d program had made reducing cancer deaths a priority, revived in 2021 an E.P.A. assessment of the health effects of the chemical, and published a draft the following year. That effort, under the agency\u2019s Integrated Risk Information System, was the first step toward regulating formaldehyde.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The chemistry council led a coalition of industry groups, including the Composite Panel Association and Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers, arguing that formaldehyde had already been rigorously studied and that strict industry controls were in place.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In a half-dozen letters to the E.P.A., Dr. Dekleva, on behalf of a formaldehyde panel at the industry group, raised a list of complaints about the way the agency was carrying out its assessment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">She questioned research linking formaldehyde to leukemia, or cancer of the blood, and accused the agency of not relying on the best available science. There was a dose, she said, at which formaldehyde did not cause risk. There was also research, she said, that showed inhaled formaldehyde did not easily travel beyond the nose to cause harm to the body.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In light of these issues, Dr. Dekleva wrote, agency\u2019s draft assessment was \u201cflawed and unreliable without significant revision.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">To bolster its case, the industry group enlisted experts at consulting firms to submit opinions and studies to the E.P.A. minimizing formaldehyde\u2019s risks. The firms included those previously commissioned by tobacco companies to help defend cigarettes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The A.C.C. also submitted 41 peer-reviewed studies that it said refuted a link between formaldehyde and leukemia. A New York Times review found that the majority of the studies were funded by industry groups, including at least 11 from the Research Foundation for Health and Environmental Effects, an organization established by the American Chemistry Council.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">David Michaels, an epidemiologist and professor at George Washington University School of Public Health and assistant secretary of labor under President Barack Obama, said the industry strategy was to create the appearance of disagreement among scientists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While it\u2019s true, he said, that inconsistencies can always exist in studies on humans, \u201cthere\u2019s little disagreement among independent scientists that formaldehyde causes cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-78f806a2\">Scientists targeted<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For more than 150 years, the National Academies has advised the U.S. government on science. In 2021, it was asked to weigh in on the E.P.A.\u2019s work on formaldehyde.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It became a target of the American Chemistry Council.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The industry group used freedom of information laws to obtain internal emails of members and support staff of a panel assessing the E.P.A.\u2019s formaldehyde review, and it accused one staff of showing \u201cbias in favor of disputed research claiming formaldehyde causes leukemia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The staff member, a former Environmental Protection Agency scientist, had for example described as \u201cwonderful\u201d the news that Congress might try to replicate an influential Chinese study that had shown formaldehyde could cause leukemia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Wendy E. Wagner, professor at the University of Texas School of Law and an expert on the use of science by environmental policymakers, said she did not see how the comment reflected bias. \u201cAfter all, they don\u2019t know what the results will be, do they?\u201d she said. \u201cI would expect all scientists to be enthusiastic about potential future research.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Dekleva called for investigations at both the E.P.A. and the National Academies, and for the removal of potentially biased panel members and staff. That included scientists who had previously accepted federal research grants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In July 2023, the industry group sued the E.P.A., as well as the National Academies, accusing researchers of a lack of scientific integrity. The chemistry council said that lack of integrity made the use of the National Academies research in regulating formaldehyde \u201carbitrary, capricious, and unlawful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt was relentless, and beyond the pale,\u201d said Maria Doa, a scientist at the E.P.A. for 30 years who is now senior director of chemicals policy at the Environmental Defense Fund. \u201cThey really ratcheted up their attacks on federal employees.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The National Academies stood its ground, issuing a report the following month <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalacademies.org\/news\/2023\/08\/new-report-provides-scientific-review-of-epas-draft-formaldehyde-assessment\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">affirming the E.P.A.\u2019s Integrated Risk Information System findings<\/a> that formaldehyde is carcinogenic and increases leukemia risk.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Those conclusions are shared by other global health authorities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mary Schubauer-Berigan, the evidence-synthesis head at the World Health Organization\u2019s Agency for Research on Cancer, said there was \u201csufficient evidence in humans\u201d that formaldehyde causes leukemia as and <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cancer.gov\/types\/head-and-neck\/patient\/adult\/nasopharyngeal-treatment-pdq#:~:text=Nasopharyngeal%20cancer%20is%20a%20type,breathing%2C%20speaking%2C%20or%20hearing.\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">nasopharynx cancer<\/a>. Mikko Vaananen, a spokesman for the European Chemicals Agency, said that while some questions around specific links to leukemia remained unanswered, evidence was sufficient to classify formaldehyde as a carcinogen. Formaldehyde \u201ccannot in principle be placed on the E.U. market,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In March 2024, a federal judge dismissed the chemistry council\u2019s lawsuit. And early this year, near the end of the Biden administration, the E.P.A. issued a final risk determination, under the Toxic Substances Control Act: Formaldehyde \u201cpresents an unreasonable risk of injury to human health.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mary A. Fox, an expert in chemical risk assessment at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and a member of a committee that reviewed the E.P.A.\u2019s research on formaldehyde, said agency scientists had accurately reflected the uncertainties around the links between formaldehyde and leukemia. But they had documented many other streams of evidence that indicated that link, Dr. Fox said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s an inevitable progress of science, that as we learn more over time, we generally learn that health effects appear at lower concentrations than we had thought,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Following Mr. Trump\u2019s re-election, the American Chemistry Council signed onto a letter from a range of industry groups calling for broad changes to policy, specifically citing formaldehyde. \u201cWe urge your administration to pause and reconsider\u201d the E.P.A. findings on formaldehyde, the Dec. 5 letter said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-9\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The E.P.A. \u201cshould go back to the scientific drawing board,\u201d chemistry council said in January. The group was particularly concerned about the workplace limits the agency was suggesting, which it said ignored steps companies were already taking to protect workers, like the use of personal protective equipment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The A.C.C. is also supporting <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cruz.senate.gov\/newsroom\/press-releases\/sen-cruz-files-bill-to-repeal-costly-chemical-tax-on-american-manufacturers\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a bill from Republican members of Congress<\/a> that would end the Integrated Risk Information System.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Soon after, Trump transition officials said Dr. Dekleva would be returning to the E.P.A. to run a program assessing chemicals for approval. The chemistry council, which has long complained of a backlog, is pushing the agency to speed up approvals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">During the first Trump administration, agency whistle-blowers described in <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.epaoig.gov\/news-releases\/epa-office-inspector-general-identifies-concerns-involving-agencys-scientific\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">an inspector general\u2019s investigation<\/a> how they had faced \u201cintense\u201d pressure to eliminate the backlog, sometimes at the expense of safety. Shortly after the inauguration, the Trump administration fired the inspector-general who carried out the investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Jan. 20, the A.C.C. <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.americanchemistry.com\/chemistry-in-america\/chemistry-creates-america-competes\/chemistry-is-critical-to-national-priorities\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">welcomed President Trump<\/a>. \u201cAmericans want a stronger, more affordable country,\u201d said Mr. Jahn, the group\u2019s president. \u201cAmerica\u2019s chemical manufacturers can help.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/26\/climate\/epa-lynn-dekleva-formaldehyde.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Formaldehyde, the chemical of choice for undertakers and embalmers, is also used in products like furniture and clothes. But it can also cause cancer and severe respiratory problems. So, in 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency began a new effort to regulate it. The chemicals industry fought back with an intensity that astonished even seasoned agency [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/13\/multimedia\/00cli-formaldehyde-pqvk\/00cli-formaldehyde-pqvk-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[174239,37045,174240,281,130,56003,191899,169716,165183,191897,165179,191898,9430,171492,191900,174241,164110,420,163486],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247553"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247553"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247555,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247553\/revisions\/247555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}