A Victory in the Battle Against Junk Science!

EPA's Science Advisory Board Tells EPA to Reinstate Statistical Significance in EPA's Cancer Risk Assessment Guidelines

Long-time fans of the Junk Science Home Page will recall the Junkman's dispute with the Environmental Protection Agency over EPA's deletion from the proposed cancer risk assessment guidelines of the requirement that epidemiologic studies be statistically significant before inferring cause-and-effect.

When EPA first proposed its revised guidelines, I asked EPA staff whether they intended to delete the requirement or whether it was innocent omission. The EPA staff denied the requirement had been deleted.

When other members of the public inquired about the deletion, EPA denied it.

When members of Congress inquired about the deletion, EPA again denied it.

Then things got really weird. The American Industrial Health Council, normally a rational group of industry scientists, sided with EPA. Egad!

Now in a letter to EPA administrator Carol Browner reviewing the proposed cancer risk assessment guidelines, EPA's Science Advisory Board wrote:

There is no explicit statement in the proposal that statistical significance should be a basic requirement for determining causality. This lack of an explicit statement has been interpreted as misleading and implying there is a hidden intent to eliminate statistical significance as a consideration in assessing causality. Adding appropriate and specific language concerning statistical significance should rectify this problem.

Pretty strong language from the SAB, which is usually totally intimidated by EPA staff!

Of course, we're not home free yet. The SAB's comments are not binding on EPA--they never are. EPA can always choose to ignore them.

But we won't let that happen, will we?

So go ahead EPA, ignore the SAB. Make my day.

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Copyright © 1997 Steven J. Milloy. All rights reserved. Site developed and hosted by WestLake Solutions, Inc.