To protect health, the Trump administration must cut ties to polluting industries and ensure scientific integrity in decision-making, scientists say.
Chronic disease, including cancer, diabetes, and neurological disease, is on the rise, in part driven by exposures to health-harming chemicals from fossil fuels and plastics according to scientists from the UC San Francisco Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment (PRHE) and public health experts who are urging the Trump administration to adopt scientific principles that will improve and protect health.
The Scientific Principles to Protect Public Health have been endorsed by 48 leading scientists and public health experts and 12 health and environmental organizations, reflecting strong consensus across the scientific and public health communities.
“An overwhelming majority of Americans want the government to do a better job of protecting people from harmful chemicals and ensure that the products they buy are safe,” said Tracey J. Woodruff, PhD, director of PRHE and a former EPA senior scientist and policy advisor. “To do that, the government must prioritize scientific integrity, eliminate corporate interference, and ensure our nation’s regulatory decisions are guided by the best available science to advance health.”
Research has demonstrated that corporate financial conflicts of interest bias science outcomes in favor of the supporting industry. To ensure health is prioritized over industry profits in government decision-making, the scientists recommend the next administration adopt four scientific principles:
- Safeguard Scientific Integrity
The government, including agencies like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must ensure scientific integrity at all levels of decision-making by eliminating financial and political conflicts of interest from the funding, generation, use, timely dissemination, and evaluation of environmental health research and scientific assessments.
- Stop Corporate Interference in Regulatory Decision-making
Over the past several decades, corporations have waged aggressive campaigns to delay and undermine health-protective regulations by influencing and attacking scientific assessments that inform the regulatory process. Industry capture has enabled corporate-conflicted individuals to gain influential roles in decision-making processes, resulting in weakened chemical regulations that increase human exposures to harmful chemicals and endanger health. We recommend that all industry financial conflicts of interest are identified, disclosed, and eliminated on advisory boards and accounted for in scientific assessments of chemicals.
- Use the Best Available Science
Too often, government agencies have failed to use the best available science recommended by the National Academies of Science and other authoritative bodies to assess chemical and health risks, leaving people exposed to health-harming chemicals. We recommend adopting these up-to-date peer-reviewed scientific methods for identifying hazards and risks of toxic chemicals and quantify risks for all health effects, both cancer and noncancer, at all anticipated levels of exposures.
- Protect Health for All
By ensuring scientific integrity, stopping corporate conflict of interest, and using the best available science, our government can identify and eliminate health harms driven by toxic chemical and pollutant exposures, especially in highly exposed and impacted communities.
“Our recommendations will not only strengthen the scientific frameworks of regulatory agencies but also enhance their ability to identify and mitigate toxic chemical exposures, protecting the health of all people who live in the U.S.—especially those who are most susceptible to harm," said Rashmi Joglekar, PhD, director of science and policy at PRHE.
Organizations endorsing the Scientific Principles to Protect Public Health include:
- Children’s Environmental Health Network
- Collaborative for Health & Environment
- Earthjustice
- Kids for Saving Earth
- Pesticide Action and Agroecology Network
- Physicians for Social Responsibility
- Science and Environmental Health Network
- Union of Concerned Scientists
For more information: prhe.ucsf.edu/recommendations-administration