Science in the Regulatory Process || The \Bad Science\ Fiction: Reclaiming the Debate over the Role of Science in Public Health and Environmental Regulation (original) (raw)

Facts vs. passion: The debate over science-based regulation

paper, 2020

On May 4, 2018, Peter Wood, on behalf of the National Association of Scholars, submitted a letter to Scott Pruitt, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, in support of Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science, new rules about the quality of science that would be an acceptable basis for EPA regulations. Wood emphasized NAS’s recent report on the irreproducibility crisis in social and biomedical science and its implications for new and existing environmental regulations...

Quo Vadis? Science and Regulation as Uneasy Bedfellows

The Open Waste Management Journal, 2008

In the waste management field and the wider environmental sciences arena, science and regulation have become increasingly uneasy bedfellows. Scientific research should create the bedrock that underpins environmental legislation, shaping its construction, interpretation and implementation. It is the currency of investment in the future of waste management. Society must be assured that scientific knowledge has been subject to rigorous peer review to ensure its credibility and high standard. The architects of our waste management legislation must be similarly rigorous and fully transparent in their application of that knowledge and its use in the shaping of the legislative framework.

Deregulation and the Assault on Science and the Environment

Annual Review of Public Health

The quality of the environment is a major determinant of the health and well-being of a population. The role of scientific evidence is central in the network of laws addressing environmental pollution in the United States and has been critical in addressing the myriad sources of environmental pollution and the burden of disease attributable to environmental factors. We address the shift away from reasoned action and science to a reliance on belief and document the efforts to separate regulation from science and to remove science-based regulations and policies intended to protect public health. We outline the general steps for moving from research to policy, show how each has been undermined, offer specific examples, and point to resources that document the enormity of the current efforts to set aside scientific evidence. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Public Health, Volume 41 is April 1, 2020. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubd...

Upholding science in health, safety and environmental risk assessments and regulations

Toxicology, 2016

A public appeal has been advanced by a large group of scientists, concerned that science has been misused in attempting to quantify and regulate unmeasurable hazards and risks. 1 The appeal recalls that science is unable to evaluate hazards that cannot be measured, and that science in such cases should not be invoked to justify risk assessments in health, safety and environmental regulations.