{"id":53353,"date":"2021-02-25T15:20:24","date_gmt":"2021-02-25T15:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/?p=346427"},"modified":"2021-02-25T15:20:24","modified_gmt":"2021-02-25T15:20:24","slug":"environmental-group-charges-epa-with-ignoring-evidence-of-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/25\/environmental-group-charges-epa-with-ignoring-evidence-of-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"Environmental Group Charges EPA With Ignoring Evidence of Cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"
An assessment of<\/u> a pesticide that the Environmental Protection Agency issued last year is fraudulent, according to a complaint the environmental group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility submitted to the EPA\u2019s Office of Inspector General today. The complaint<\/a> accuses senior managers at the agency\u2019s Office of Pesticide Programs of omitting \u201cknown facts\u201d and issuing false and misleading representations about the science on 1,3-Dichloropropene, or 1,3-D, which Dow AgroSciences, recently rebranded as Corteva Agriscience, sells under the brand name Telone. The complaint alleges that agency staff knowingly ignored studies showing that the pesticide causes cancer. PEER is requesting that the EPA\u2019s inspector general investigate the matter.<\/p>\n The human health risk assessment of Telone, which was published<\/a> in draft form on February 4, 2020, took the unusual step of downgrading the pesticide\u2019s cancer rating. In 1985, the National Toxicology Program found \u201cclear evidence\u201d of the chemical\u2019s carcinogenicity in rats and mice, which developed lung and bladder tumors after exposure. The EPA described the chemical as a probable human carcinogen that same year and went on to confirm that designation in 1996, 2000, and 2005. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state of California, and the National Toxicology Program have also repeatedly found Telone to be a \u201clikely human carcinogen.\u201d<\/p>\n But the recent draft assessment characterized Telone as less dangerous. Although the number of studies linking the pesticide to cancer has grown during the intervening years, this time the agency deemed the chemical as having only \u201csuggestive evidence of carcinogenic potential.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the PEER complaint, the EPA reached this conclusion in part because it omitted the full name of the chemical from a search of the medical literature, using the terms \u201c1,3-D\u201d and \u201cTelone\u201d but not \u201c1,3-Dichloropropene.\u201d As a result, 85 relevant articles were not considered in the assessment, including a 2015 peer-reviewed study<\/a>\u00a0that found the chemical induced DNA damage in liver cells in rats. According to PEER, this exclusion led the EPA to incorrectly conclude that Telone is not genotoxic.<\/p>\n The group also accused the EPA\u2019s Cancer Assessment Review Committee, whose September 2019 report provided the basis for the agency\u2019s finding that Telone is not genotoxic, of inappropriately dismissing evidence that the pesticide caused lung tumors in mice. In the past, the EPA had rejected an argument put forward by Dow scientists that something other than the pesticide caused exposed lab animals to develop cancer. This time, the agency accepted a new, unsupported theory from Dow to exclude lung tumors in mice.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are not honest mistakes and carry the earmarks of deliberate malfeasance,\u201d said Tim Whitehouse, PEER\u2019s executive director.<\/p>\n The EPA did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n The draft assessment as well as the report from the Cancer Assessment Review Committee also failed to consider several studies linking Telone to cancer in humans, as a letter<\/a> to the EPA from the attorneys general of California, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Vermont pointed out in April. Among the research that wasn\u2019t included was a study that documented cases of lymphoma in first responders who cleaned up after a tank truck spilled\u00a0the pesticide\u00a0and another that linked exposure to the chemical\u00a0to pancreatic cancer in agricultural communities.<\/p>\n The downgrading of Telone\u2019s cancer classification paves the way for the reregistration of the pesticide, a process that happens every 15 years and enables the product to remain in use.\u00a0It also allows the EPA to escape responsibility for conducting a cancer analysis for occupational and dietary harm from the chemical, since the agency is only required to do those analyses for chemicals that are either likely or known carcinogens.\u00a0Telone\u2019s reregistration was all but completed during the Trump administration and is now awaiting\u00a0final\u00a0approval.<\/p>\n\u201cThese are not honest mistakes and carry the earmarks of deliberate malfeasance.\u201d<\/blockquote>\n