Open source information: new proposal

[Guest guest]

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/189564E117AF585586256E170\

07E600A?OpenDocument & Headline=White+House+seeks+control+on+health,+safety

WASHINGTON - Under a new proposal, the White House would decide what and when

the public would be told about an outbreak of mad cow disease, an anthrax

release, a nuclear plant accident or any other crisis.

The White House Office of Management and Budget is trying to gain final control

over release of emergency declarations from the federal agencies responsible for

public health, safety and the environment.

The OMB also wants to manage scientific and technical evaluations - known as

peer reviews - of all major government rules, plans, proposed regulations and

pronouncements.

Currently, each federal agency controls its emergency notifications and peer

review of its projects.

.....

One of the signers, s, said: " It goes beyond just having the White

House involved in picking industry favorites to evaluate government science.

Under this proposal, the carefully crafted process used by the government to

notify the public of an imminent danger is going to first have to be signed off

by someone weighing the political hazards. "

s, a former assistant secretary for environment, safety and health at the

Department of Energy, is now a research professor at Washington

University's School of Public Health. He added: " OMB is not a science agency.

The ramifications of it attempting to insert itself into a time-proven system of

having the most knowledgeable scientists available evaluate proposed policy or

regulations is a disaster in the making. "

In addition to s, the letter is signed by two former Environmental

Protection Agency administrators, a former secretary of labor, two former heads

of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a former assistant labor

secretary in charge of mine safety and health, and 13 other former senior

officials of both political parties.

The letter, obtained by the Post-Dispatch, referred to a Nov. 18 conference

sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences on the OMB's plan.

" Speaker after speaker warned that implementation of this proposal would lead to

increased costs and delays in disseminating information to the public and in

promulgating health, safety, environmental and other regulations, while

potentially damaging the existing system of peer review, " the letter said.

[Guest guest]

>WASHINGTON - Under a new proposal, the White House would decide

>what and when the public would be told about an outbreak of mad

>cow disease, an anthrax release, a nuclear plant accident or any

>other crisis.

another good argument for libertarianism ;-)

Suze Fisher

Lapdog Design, Inc.

Web Design & Development

http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3shjg

Weston A. Price Foundation Chapter Leader, Mid Coast Maine

http://www.westonaprice.org

----------------------------

" The diet-heart idea (the idea that saturated fats and cholesterol cause

heart disease) is the greatest scientific deception of our times. " --

Mann, MD, former Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry at Vanderbilt

University, Tennessee; heart disease researcher.

The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics

<http://www.thincs.org>

----------------------------

>

[Guest guest]

>>WASHINGTON - Under a new proposal, the White House would decide

>>what and when the public would be told about an outbreak of mad

>>cow disease, an anthrax release, a nuclear plant accident or any

>>other crisis.

>

>

>another good argument for libertarianism ;-)

Suze:

Somehow I expected that :-p But note this is

from the people who espouse " small government " .

Which is one of the reasons I distrust the " small government "

camp at this point --- this " small government " is

getting weirder and weirder.

-- Heidi