"Over the last few weeks, the Trump administration's relentless war on the U.S.'s scientific infrastructure has picked up speed. The New York Times's Lisa Friedman reported in late April that over the past months, more than 1,500 top scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Research and Development have either been laid off, pushed into early retirement, or reassigned to desk jobs that have nothing to do with their field of expertise."
"Less than 10 percent of the scientists - who run the gamut from biologists to epidemiologists, from toxicologists to greenhouse gas emissions specialists - now remain at the agency. Moving forward, they will be under a political commissar, and their research will have to "align with agency and administration priorities." Translation: They will no longer be able to do the groundbreaking work on pollution and its health impacts that for decades made the office a world leader in environmental health research."
"Instead, their work will be co-opted to end regulations that have placed some limits on the levels of pollution that can be spewed into the environment. The assault on the EPA's scientific expertise, which closely resembles attacks on independent science by other authoritarian and totalitarian regimes over the past century, hasn't occurred in a vacuum."
Over recent weeks, the Trump administration has accelerated actions targeting the U.S. scientific infrastructure. More than 1,500 top scientists at the EPA Office of Research and Development have been laid off, pushed into early retirement, or reassigned to desk jobs unrelated to their expertise. Less than 10 percent of the scientists remain, covering fields such as biology, epidemiology, toxicology, and greenhouse gas emissions. Remaining researchers will be placed under political control, and their work must align with agency and administration priorities. As a result, pollution and health-impact research that previously supported environmental health leadership is likely to be redirected toward ending or weakening regulations limiting pollution levels.
#epa #scientific-workforce #environmental-health-research #regulatory-policy #political-interference
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