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Standards for chemical exposures worldwide are heavily influenced by those originating in the US - which is bad news for workers, because new research shows those standards are heavily influenced by industry. Using the carcinogen vinyl chloride as an example, US academics found industry influence on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standard-setting process had led to 'weakened safeguards'. Writing in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, the researchers conclude 'the efforts of the regulated industries often outweigh the ability of the public, unions and public interest groups to participate in developing regulations.'
They say in the case of vinyl chloride, the external peer review system that vets the evidence for bias or flaws found 'at least seven of the 19 external peer reviewers… were chemical industry employees and consultants, four were government representatives, none represented unions or public interest groups.' Despite this, EPA had subsequent given industry even greater influence over certain standard setting activities, notably on pesticides. The authors conclude: 'The trend towards increasing industry participation allows corporate interests with products under regulation to more effectively recommend acceptable limits of public exposure to their own products and wastes,' adding: 'Public confidence is undermined when commercial interests, instead of scientific evaluations, shape public health policy.'
Source: Jennifer Beth Sass, Barry Castleman and David Wallinga. Vinyl chloride: A case study of data suppression and misrepresentation, Environmental Health Perspectives, published online 24 March 2005, doi:10.1289/ehp.7716
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