Chemicals and Kids

The Environmental Protection Agency just took $2 million from a chemical industry trade group to study the effects of pesticides and chemicals in children. Environmental Working Group president Kenneth A. Cook, quoted in the Washington Post , justifiably attacked this gross conflict of interest. "This is a government function," he said. "We should be investing government funds to be absolutely sure it's independent."

Paul Gilman, the director of the EPA's Office of Research and Development and a political appointee, defended taking money from the fox to study the chickens. "We're comfortable with the fact that it's our study design."

It was a good story as far as it went. The subtext is that the Bush administration over the past four years has steadily whacked away at the EPA's R&D budget, which has remained frozen at just under $600 million a year. Gilman hasn't uttered a peep. Meanwhile, career scientists inside the agency, whose job it is to discover and measure the environmental hazards jeopardizing our air, water and environment, are left wondering which division will be put on the chopping block next.

In a previous era, an industry-funded study like this children's study would have raised the hackles of numerous scientists inside the agency. Today, they just keep their heads down and allow the corporate takeover of the agency to proceed apace.