Controversy Greets Trump Pick to Lead EPA Chemical Safety Programs

A toxicologist named this week by President Donald Trump to oversee the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) chemical safety programs is catalyzing controversy. Some scientists and industry groups are praising Michael Dourson of the University of Cincinnati in Ohio for his policy experience and technical expertise. But critics worry Dourson’s links to the chemical industry will color how he’ll implement a new law reforming EPA’s process for regulating potentially dangerous chemicals. Dourson’s religious beliefs are also attracting attention, in particular his past use of scientific findings to support claims made in the Bible.

Dourson, tapped on 17 July to be EPA’s assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP), would oversee EPA programs that regulate industrial chemicals and pesticides if he earns Senate confirmation. The nomination has become a political hot potato, as Dourson would lead OCSPP as it reworks its approach to implementing a bipartisan 2016 law that reformed the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA, the statute that governs EPA’s ability to regulate industrial chemicals).

Dourson’s experience, spanning 4 decades, includes multiple science- and risk-assessment–related posts in low- to middle-tier EPA offices throughout the 1980s and 1990s, as well as decades as a research toxicologist. That experience has proved to be a double-edged sword, though, as a chemical risk-assessment nonprofit that he led for 2 decades has come under scrutiny for its longtime reliance on chemical industry funding and its history of consulting for chemical companies