The EPA Science Advisory Board, composed of a panel of outside experts convened to give the agency scientific input, held a public meeting in January to solicit input for the draft EPA Science Advisory Board comments. The comments are critical of the use or misuse of scientific information to justify EPA’s decision at issue for major proposed policies including: Mercury Air Toxics rule, Vehicle Tailpipe Emissions rule, Transparency Rule, and Waters of the U.S.A. rule. For each of these major policies, the EPA Science Advisory Board has issued draft letters to EPA that point out how the proposed EPA policy either ignores or misapplies available scientific information.

Kevin Cromar, PhD, and vice chair of the ATS Environmental Health Policy Committee opposed EPA’s decision to willfully ignore particulate matter pollution reduction, and its accompanying health benefits, that would be achieved under the Mercury Air Toxics rule. Dr. Cromar further noted that in discussing proposed rules, EPA has started to discuss a threshold level for exposure to particulate matter, when no particulate matter threshold has yet been described. Ignoring the real health benefits of particulate matter reduction and operating under a false assumption of a threshold effect for particulate matter are contrary to good science and contradict years of EPA policy precedence.