More EPA Shennanigans

Not satisfied with reopening its closed libraries in a new handy lavatory size (see below), the EPA will once again thumb its nose at the prior Congressional directive and keep its specialized chemical effects library closed.

PEER Link

Washington, DC — Despite a growing need to understand the impacts of chemicals on our health and environment, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will not re-open its specialized posted today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). As a conseqlibrary for research on the properties and effects of new chemicals, according to documents uence, one of the world’s most comprehensive technical collections on pesticides and other compounds will be permanently lost.

The Office of Prevention, Pollution and Toxic Substances (OPPTS) Library, in EPA’s Washington D.C. Headquarters, had provided research services to EPA scientists who review industry requests for the introduction of new chemicals into the market. Without any public announcement or notice to its staff, EPA shut down the library in October 2006. Its holdings were dispersed and many journals “recycled.”

Recycled must be the new disappeared.

Disgraceful is the only way to describe this episode. A vast resource has been lost to science. In keeping the research results "hidden", the administration has likely given yet one more gift to big industry.