Sometime this week, exact date unknown, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) directed its scientists in at least one research office to cease almost all publishing of research.
This directive specifically impacted the Office of Water; unless their research was in the final phase of being published (known as having “returned proofs”), the studies would undergo an updated review process. The order for this new review process came not from other scientists and health experts, but from political appointees, who are enjoying a more significant role in Trump’s second term.
Employees for the Office of Water requested an explanation from their superiors that they can provide to scientific journals, who will be left wondering why the research that they requested has stopped flowing. No explanation was given.
Despite Trump and his administration’s apparent call to decrease waste, fraud, and abuse within the federal government, the cessation of publishing effectively wastes millions of taxpayer dollars that went into the process, which is critical to securing public health and exposing the dangers to it. For instance, the EPA’s research brought attention to microplastics, lead, and other impurities in water that put millions of Americans at risk.
Critics have warned about the politicization of science within the Trump administration. Nicole Cantello, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 700, which represents EPA employees in Chicago, flatly stated that the move “violates the agency’s scientific integrity policy.” With no justification given for this recent action by the EPA, Cantello’s accusation likely has merit.
