« Perchlorate Book from Legal Group | Main | Mother Earth Exposed ? »

June 09, 2006

Risk Guidelines Under Fire

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has proposed a plan for standardizing risk assessments across the U.S. government, an idea that has considerable merit but could be manifested in various negative ways, according to some agency representatives.  The original OMB draft bulletin was designed to set minimum standards for the scientific quality of federal agency assessments of risk to human health, safety, or the environment. Areas affected include regulation of pollutants, approval of new pharmaceuticals, and development of safety systems for chemical plants. A June 5, 2006 article in C&E News (www.cen-online.org) suggests that the primary target of this directive is the EPA. The most notable example of what many consider to be an issue politicized on all sides has been the determination of a preliminary drinking water standard for perchlorate. The involvement of the NRC in the debate helped find a compromise, but the issue of whether sound science received a fair hearing on all sides remains contentious.  More on the potential effects on public health policy is presented in C&E News.

June 9, 2006 in Regulatory Guidelines | Permalink

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d834559fe469e200d8356358ae69e2

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Risk Guidelines Under Fire:

Comments

The comments to this entry are closed.

Copyright © VanishingZero.org. All rights reserved.