Re: Re: Bush Administration to Close EPA Research Libraries, Despite Outcry

[Guest guest]

There is no doubt that the Bush administration is politicizing science

in the same way that historically, totalitarian regimes have done so.

Why, is anybody's guess.

See (these and many, many more pieces of evidence on this flagrant

abuse of the public trust, on a scale unmatched by any previous

American administration)

Scientific Integrity in Policy Making

Investigation of the Bush administration's abuse of science

(Union of Concerned Scientists)

http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/interference/reports-scientific-integ\

rity-in-policy-making.html

(You can read an article about the report at Common Dreams)

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0219-02.htm

For an example thats more relevant to this group, read this article on

their 'influence' on the CDC:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4020/is_200301/ai_n9228549

Excerpt:

" Politicizing science: The case of the Bush administration's influence

on the lead advisory panel at the centers for disease control

Journal of Public Health Policy, 2003 by Markowitz, Gerald, Rosner,

SINCE the 1970s, the CDC has depended upon independent scientists and

policy consultants, who are experts in the field to gather information

and provide advice to the CDC regarding policy initiatives for a

variety of toxic materials. Their role as advisors has been to

....utilize the most up-to-date information in providing guidance and

expert opinion. As the technologies improve and as more information

becomes publicly available, policy itself is reformed and reshaped

accordingly. Hence, the gathering of information itself is often the

spur that promotes change in the thinking of the scientific community.

One of the most important safeguards of the scientific integrity of

governmental policy and research has been the 258 scientific advisory

committees to the various branches of the CDC that presently help

policymakers decide on the appropriate means of addressing serious

scientific issues. These advisory committees, while not possessing the

actual power to reshape policy, are important in their role as the

font of expert opinion available to various CDC chiefs. During the

past two years, the Bush administration has changed the traditional

manner in which appointments to the committees have been made and

substituted a process that by and large has reflected its own

well-known anti-regulatory and anti-environmental agenda. In this

paper we will look at this process, focusing on one important

committee that has been responsible for protecting the nation's

children from the devastating effects of lead on their neurological

well-being.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CHILDHOOD LEAD POISONING

....end of excerpt, see the URL above for the entire article.. "