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EPA Blocks Warnings on Cancer-Causing Chemical: Report (politico.com)
The Trump administration is suppressing an Environmental Protection Agency report that warns that most Americans inhale enough formaldehyde vapor in the course of daily life to put them at risk of developing leukemia and other ailments, a current and a former agency official told POLITICO. The news outlet adds: The warnings are contained in a draft health assessment EPA scientists completed just before Donald Trump became president, according to the officials. They said top advisers to departing Administrator Scott Pruitt are delaying its release as part of a campaign to undermine the agency's independent research into the health risks of toxic chemicals.
Andrew Wheeler, the No. 2 official at EPA who will be the agency's new acting chief as of Monday, also has a history with the chemical. He was staff director for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in 2004, when his boss, then-Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), sought to delay an earlier iteration of the formaldehyde assessment. Formaldehyde is one of the most commonly used chemicals in the country. Americans are exposed to it through wood composites in cabinets and furniture, as well as air pollution from major refineries.
Andrew Wheeler, the No. 2 official at EPA who will be the agency's new acting chief as of Monday, also has a history with the chemical. He was staff director for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in 2004, when his boss, then-Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), sought to delay an earlier iteration of the formaldehyde assessment. Formaldehyde is one of the most commonly used chemicals in the country. Americans are exposed to it through wood composites in cabinets and furniture, as well as air pollution from major refineries.
Environmental Pollution Agency
Poorly worded, but as you probably know it gives you a "chance" there's people who smoke 3 packs a day and live to 100 years old without cancer too, others get cancer and die after only 3 years of smoking. Humans aren't binary
As far as diseases go, leukemia is a pretty rare one. Formaldehyde has been commonly used for decades.
What exactly is the risk? If the risk is 1 extra person out of 1 million get it that's not significant. If it is 1 out of 1000, we'd be seeing a lot more people with it. The fact that leukemia is so rare makes me think that this is probably a non-event.
I'm not pro any sitting President stopping scientific announcements, don't get me wrong. I don't approve of Trump's actions; but I think in this instance the warning is probably for something minor.
Too many announcements is itself bad. So yes, it matters very much how great the risk is.
We're already at the point where most people just throw up their hands and say "ok, I guess everything causes cancer."
Too many warnings, too low of a threshold, is not only not useful; it's harmful.
It's not the individual incidents like this that you should be focusing on, it's the overall trend towards an anti-science, anti-facts, anti-truth attitude, and towards 'faith-based', 'superstition', 'mysticism', and my favorite: 'Dominionism', expecting that The Earth is going to be destroyed soon anyway, Zombie Jesus will take The Faithful home to Heaven, and all the Heathen Masses will die anyway, so why should they care? Don't think for a second I'm even kidding, these people exist, they think the Earth is only 6000 years old, and that Science is from Satan and is all lies. These are also often the 'anti-vaxers', too, who think vaccinations is literally injecting The Devil into their kids veins -- because 'science is evil'.
I'm not impressed by anti-cancer hysteria therefore I am anti-science? I don't treat any random pronoucement from any random "authority" as the word of god, therefore I am anti-science.
YOU I think have no clue what that term really means.
Those of YOU treating the ALL parts of the scientific establishment as if they are the Pope, are the real anti-science crowd.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
> The rate of new cases in the general population is about 12 per 100,000 population per year
So... a bit like knowing a victim of gun violence.
The problem with attributing any singular cause to any cancer is that it is so poorly understood. Even when they think they have a handle on it and have identified a single gene, even have targeted therapies to deal with that gene, those therapies pretty much behave completely randomly within the patient population.
There's nothing like actually being a cancer patient to disabuse you of any notions that "the guys in the white robes" have any real clue what they are talking about.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
It's almost like you don't want to give government too much power because sooner or later someone you don't like will be running it.
Welcome to the Federalist Society.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Naw, it's ok to question the media coverage, but if you're questioning the paper without reading it, then yeah, you're anti-science.