Writer questions NRC's arsenic panelSuggests group may not be unbiasedMay 28, 2000 by CFACT In recent weeks, President Bush has taken a political bath for allegedly stonewalling efforts to reduce unsafe levels of arsenic in drinking water. But according to science writer Steven Milloy of the Junk Science Home Page and Foxnews.com it's the allegedly independent scientific body behind the current arsenic controversy that needs to be detoxified.
To begin with, Milloy notes that while many believe the prestigious National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is the august body calling for tighter standards, it is actually a politically pliable affiliate of the NAS, called the National Research Council (NRC), that is recommending new levels. He contends that NRC subcommittee members are not made up of the distinguished scientists who comprise NAS membership, but rather, second- or third-tier scientists eager for the prestige of serving in the group. In the case of the arsenic subcommittee, not one actual NAS member even participated. Milloy further charges that while the NRC supposedly picks subcommittee members independently of the customer agency requesting and funding the study (in this case, the EPA), "many familiar with the NRC process say agencies, particularly the EPA, exercise behind-the-scenes influence and even veto power over member selection." Worst yet, though, is the fact that the NRC pressures its members to compromise with each other and form consensus, even when that violates the basic tenets of scientific inquiry. So with arsenic, even though the subcommittee looked at various biochemical, toxicological, and human study findings, and firmly concluded that the EPA's so-called "linear model" of predicting cancer risk at low levels of exposure was wrong, it could not agree on what other model was correct. So incredibly, it opted for the very "linear model" the EPA supports, and the agency got the conclusion it paid for. No doubt that's why President Bush has wisely called for the arsenic issue to be reviewed again. America's current arsenic standard has been working well now for almost 60 years. Since real world data of U.S. populations show no cancer or other health effects from these levels, and the cost to reduce the standard in many communities would be astronomical (and likely result in some localities no longer even offering municipal drinking water), maybe it's time to pull the drain plug on all of this arsenic hype.
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Toss out New Orleans toxic soup mythSizing up link between pollution and cancerPutting U.S. mercury emissions in perspectiveWhen international treaties killSounding the bell on pesticide restrictionsWriter questions NRC's arsenic panelFacts about plastic unwrap hypeAnti-chlorine crusade fouls Great Lakes region |
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