1. EPA to disband a key scientific review panel on air pollution - The 20-person Particulate Matter Review Panel – made up of experts in microscopic airborne pollutants known to cause respiratory disease – that advises the agency’s leadership on the latest scientific information about soot in the atmosphere and what levels of pollutants are safe to breathe is not listed as continuing its work next year, an EPA official said. The discontinuance of this panel is particularly unsettling because the EPA will soon decide whether to revise air quality standards.
2. Deal would allow airports to stop using PFAS-containing foams - A provision in legislation to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration would allow airports to use firefighting foams that don’t contain toxic, persistent fluorinated chemicals. Commercial airports are currently required to follow standards outlined in military specifications, which call for fluorinated foams to be used.
3. EPA excluded its own top science officials when it rewrote rules on using scientific studies - The proposed rule, dubbed “Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science,” would allow the EPA to consider only studies for which the underlying data is publicly available and can be reproduced by other researchers. Such restrictions could alter how the agency protects Americans from toxic chemicals, air pollution, radiation, and other health risks, adding to the agency’s broader deregulatory agenda. Sixty-nine prominent scientific, medical and academic organizations – including the American Association for the Advancement of Science – called on the EPA to withdraw the proposed rule. They said it would exclude reputable studies founded on epidemiological data that include proprietary information or confidential information from patients participating in private-sector research.