A non-profit advocacy group, the Union of Concerned Scientists, has reported that 889 out of 1,600 EPA scientists responding to a recent survey it conducted said they have personally experienced at least one incident of "political interference" in the past five years.
Among EPA scientists that have been with the agency for over 10 years who participated, 43 percent said that sort of interference has increased in the past five years, compared to the five-year period before that.
The group said large numbers of EPA scientists reported widespread and inappropriate interference from political appointees, the White House and other federal agencies that prompted it to interview current and former EPA staff, analyze government documents and conduct its survey.
According to its survey, 94 scientists said they frequently or occasionally had been directed to inappropriately exclude or alter technical information from an EPA scientific document, while 191 said they had personally experienced situations in which scientists have actively objected to, resigned from, or removed themselves from a project because of pressure to change scientific findings.
Other findings include: 232 scientists said they had personally experienced frequent or occasional changes or edits during review that changed the meaning of research, 516 said they knew of cases in which EPA political appointees had "inappropriately" involved themselves in scientific decisions, and 783 said EPA policies do not allow scientists to speak freely to the news media about findings.
The chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Henry Waxman, D-Calif., warned EPA administrator Stephen Johnson that he would be asked to respond to the survey in May during a hearing on EPA-established ozone air quality standards.
