May----, 2004
The Honorable George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Bush,
We are writing to express our concern about a recent press report indicating that members of your staff improperly altered science-based regulations in order to create a misperception about an important public health issue, namely, the devastating effects of mercury, especially if ingested by children and pregnant women. On April 8, 2004, the New York Times reported that White House staff, while working with the Environmental Protection Agency on the recently released draft mercury regulations, edited documents in order to play down the toxic effects of mercury. The New York Times reports that "[White House] staff members deleted or modified information on mercury that employees of the environmental agency [EPA] say was drawn largely from a 2000 report by the National Academy of Sciences that Congress had commissioned to settle the scientific debate about the risks of mercury." Throughout a draft of the proposed regulations, White House staff reportedly crossed out the word “confirmed” from the phrase “confirmed public health risk” with reference to mercury. Additionally, in numerous places, the words “are” and “can” were allegedly replaced with “may.” For example, a sentence stating the children exposed to mercury in the womb “are at increased risk of poor performance on neurobehavioral tests” was reportedly changed to “may be at increased risk.” These reports suggest a willingness to disregard proven scientific fact, as presented by scientists at the National Academy of Sciences and EPA, and a lack of concern for public health. These reports are all the more troubling given other news accounts that report that the recently released mercury rules contain sections taken verbatim from memos sent to EPA from representatives of the utility industry. Although EPA recently announced that it will extend the public comment period for the proposed mercury rule, we find these reports deeply disturbing. While we understand the need for prudence in crafting environmental and health regulations, disregard for sound science and the health of Americans should not be excused. We ask that you look into these troubling accounts and provide assurances that political considerations do not trump science and public health. Sincerely, United States Senator
