Toxic Clout is a year-long investigation exposing how chemical industry influence and regulatory malaise create uncertainty and delay, imperiling public health as thousands of chemicals flood the market with relatively limited scrutiny. The Center’s investigation took reporters to the Mojave Desert, the state capital in Connecticut, the research triangle of North Carolina, the academic hub of Berkeley, Calif., and a blue-collar plant in Niagara Falls, NY. Those reporting journeys helped reveal deep ties between industry and researchers, manipulation and suppression of science, neglect by government watchdogs – and the resulting impact on the public.
Among our major findings:
• An Environmental Protection Agency panel, appointed to assess the safe davalent chromium, urged the EPA to delay tougher new standards. What the EPA did not know: Three of the five members urging delay had performed consulting for industry in California – on hexavalent chromium. The Center revealed these ties while exposing a striking loophole in EPA oversight. The EPA hires private contractors to select and vet members for its panels – but, under its own rules, never sees the financial disclosure forms those members file. Our report prompted the EPA to write tighter conflict of interest rules, ensuring the agency receives a fuller financial picture of members serving on its chemical safety panels.
• A U.C. Berkeley public health school dean, while lauded for her work protecting children, had worked for decades as an expert for industry, an entanglement that posed real conflict questions and cast her tenure in a fuller light. The Center’s investigation of these ties triggered calls for tougher conflict-of-interest rules overseeing academic hubs.
• A first-ever national investigation revealing how the American Chemistry Council, the chemical industry’s $100 million lobbying arm, had fought and helped kill hundreds of state bills, from Maine to Washington State, that would have revealed and removed potentially toxic chemicals. In some cases, we reported, the ACC helped supportive legislators craft bills word-for-word.
• A report revealing how paper giant Georgia-Pacific launched a secret research program, overseen by company lawyers, to help beat back 60,000 legal claims involving deadly asbestos.
• And, a profile of ‘The Cancer Factory’ –a Goodyear plant in upstate New York where so many workers developed bladder cancer linked to a potent chemical that the disease often passed through generations. In a cautionary tale, industry moved slowly to warn workers of the hazard and regulations did little good. For some of the reports, The Center collaborated with the PBS NewsHour, which produced two in-depth segments, ‘Science for Sale,’ exploring how industry ties and government malaise imperiled residents in California, and across the country.