Scientists Say Chemical Policy Guided by Junk Science

“Politics, Environmentalism Beating Out Science In Regulating Risk Say Experts,” by Trevor Butterworth.
A survey of three professional societies, each focused on risk assessment, reveals that science is being pushed aside by politics and environmental advocacy when it comes to protecting the public from the risks of chemicals. When asked to weigh the most important factor that should go into managing risk, the scientists overwhelmingly said science (98 percent). But when asked to weigh the factors that do influence risk management, science trailed legal concerns (72 percent), politics (66 percent), the precautionary principle (52 percent), and environmentalists (49 percent); at 47 percent, science barely exceeded the weight of influence of the media (43 percent) … Read more.