A shrinking workforce of EPA scientists has been yet another blow to its chemical toxicity assessment program, which is bearing the brunt of criticism from Congress and the chemical industry.
“Significant attrition” has made it difficult for the program to speed up its assessments and keep pace with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s focus on efficiency, according to Tina Bahadori, head of the National Center for Environmental Assessment.
Bahadori spoke at a Feb. 1 workshop the National Academies of Sciences in Washington to review the program.
The center’s chemical toxicity assessment program, known as the Integrated Risk Information ...