Group tries to force EPA to release data; Shelby unable to get pollution figures

By Joyce Howard Price Copyright 1999 Washington Times May 16, 1999

The Environmental Protection Agency is using "secret science" to push for more air quality regulation, critics say.

A group called Citizens for the Integrity of Science (CFIS) has filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the data the EPA used to justify tough 1997 air quality regulations - struck down Friday by a federal appeals court - and other restrictions announced this month.

"The ruling Friday by the D.C. Court of Appeals really shows that there needs to be access to that data . . . which the EPA uses when it needs to regulate whatever and which it refuses to let anybody scrutinize," said Steve Milloy, head of CFIS and publisher of the Junk Science Home Page on the Internet.

Data from the American Cancer Society were used in a federally financed study led by researcher C.A. Pope that looked at "particulate air pollution," or soot from combustion, as a predictor of death among U.S. adults.

Andrea Andrews, spokeswoman for Sen. Richard C. Shelby, Alabama Republican, said the senator tried unsuccessfully to get the data from EPA Administrator Carol Browner, but "she turned him down."

"It was Senator Shelby's concern about not being able to get these data" that prompted him to add a rider to the 1999 budget bill requiring that "all data" from tax-funded studies used to set policy be made public under FOIA, she said.

However, Miss Andrews said the EPA is not obligated to release the data at this time. She noted that Mr. Shelby's provision required that the Office of Management and Budget draw up regulations before the law is implemented. And OMB has not finished that task.

In a telephone interview, Dr. Michael Tune, head of epidemiology and research for the cancer society and an author of the 1995 Pope study, said the research compared air pollution data for 151 cities with deaths in those cities. It found "a residual association between particulate air pollution and deaths from lung and heart disease," after controlling for other factors, he said.

But Dr. Tune acknowledged this link was "tiny" when compared with the effects of smoking.

Two years ago, the EPA used data from the Pope study to conclude that 15,000 premature deaths could be prevented yearly through more stringent standards for ozone and the first-ever implementation of standards for particulate matter, or soot.

Recently the EPA used the same data to justify proposals requiring sport utility vehicles to meet tougher tailpipe emissions standards and gasoline to contain less sulfur.

"No one can verify the statistical analysis underlying the EPA's wild assertion those rules would save up to 2,400 lives per year," Mr. Milloy said. "Without examining the data, we don't know if the rules will save any lives whatsoever."

Dr. Tune said the validity of data will be addressed in a study now under way. When EPA issued its air quality regulations, Congress ordered further research to confirm findings linking exposure to soot with an increased death risk.

Dr. Tune said that research is funded by the EPA and the automobile industry. It will be finalized in May next year, he said.

Meanwhile, two House Republicans - David E. Price of North Carolina and James T. Walsh of New York - are sponsoring a bill that would delay implementation of Mr. Shelby's amendment for one year.

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