EPA Toxic Chemical Testing Found to Be “High Risk”
Every two years, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) updates its record of federal government operations deemed to be “high risk,” and this year EPA’s testing of toxic chemicals was added to the blacklist, among the governing of financial institutions (no big surprise there) and FDA’s management of medical products, reports ENN. These groups are, according to the GAO, at “high risk for waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement or in need of broad-based transformation,” and bring the total of the list up to 30 government groups.
The judgment shouldn’t come as a surprise to EPA, as just a few months ago, the GAO released a report criticizing EPA’s management of toxic chemicals, saying that the system itself was not up-to-date and chemicals that were potentially toxic took years to test and re-test. In fact, EPA only completed nine tests in the past three years. The GAO also found the testing process to not be transparent, with there being a complicated process to access information.
By placing it on its “high risk” list, “I am hopeful that the inclusion of these issues will lead to greater scrutiny and spur needed reforms,” the head of the GAO said in the ENN article. The list comes out at the beginning of each new Congress, and focuses on programs that have the most impact in public health and well-being.
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EPA Toxic Chemical Testing is Flawed
EPA Protects Something…But Not Environment
Photo Credit: Petie_in_Cbus at Flickr under a Creative Commons License
Far more adroit minds than mine indicate we are what we eat, drink, breathe, consume, so is it any wonder then in the past 40 years as our education is sold to the highest bidder, our education specifically excludes teaching the ability and value of discernment…? We know only what corporate owned mass media defines for us as true or proof, as not longer do we have the capacity discern that for ourselves, it’s no longer our responsibility, we have gifted that to others. We are educated to be accountable as directed by former President George W. Bush …”to shop” … thereby proving our loyalty. Toxic does not even appear on our radar screens as corporate owned mass media has morphed it into an amorphous meaningless pabulum.