Who does the government look to when it needs a scientific expert? Those with previous government funding, naturally.
A new bill introduced by Democrats to study potentially harmful chemicals would establish a board of experts to advise the federal government, but only those with previous federal funding would qualify as experts.
Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, and Rep. Jim Moran, Virginia Democrat, recently introduced the “Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals Exposure Elimination Act of 2011,” which aims to ban chemicals that are suspected to be hormone disruptors, such as bisphenol A (BPA).
The bill would establish an “Endocrine Disruption Expert Panel” to advise the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. To be appointed to the panel, one must “have established expertise in the field of endocrine disruption research by publishing research in peer-reviewed literature and have received Federal endocrine-research-related funding within the 2 years preceding appointment.”
Michael Kalichman, director of the Center for Ethics in Science and Technology at the University of California, San Diego, said there was nothing immediately concerning about the requirement.
“Off the top of my head, I don’t see a problem with it,” he said. “The likelihood is pretty high that someone who is conducting research would seek out federal funding. I don’t see any challenges here that are significant.”
However, Kalichman did acknowledge that the requirement could possibly exclude qualified experts. (Airport security breached 25,000 times since 2001)
Democrat staffers said the requirement would actually ensure impartiality on the board.
“This provision ensures that the scientists appointed are actively involved in current research,” a Kerry aide wrote in an e-mail. “It helps avoid conflict of interest because federal grants are reviewed solely based on merit, not other affiliations.”
“The language was written to ensure the panel is comprised of qualified, impartial and current researchers,” said a spokesperson for Rep. Moran.
The NIEHS conducts research into chemicals like BPA and funds additional research at other laboratories. As of now, it has no regulatory power, but if the bill passes, the NIEHS could ban up to 10 chemicals a year for 10 years. That power would ultimately fall to the director of the NIEHS, Linda Birnbaum, a former senior staffer at the Environmental Protection Agency.
The bill is likely to encounter heavy opposition from chemical manufacturing lobbies, which spent millions of dollars to defeat similar legislation in 2009 and 2010.
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences declined to comment.