White House seeks control on health, safety

[OneBlueSky]

The Office of Management and Budget wants to have the final say on releasing emergency declarations to the public.

By Andrew Schneider
Of the Post-Dispatch 2004, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
01/11/2004

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/189564E117AF585586256E17007E600A?OpenDocument&Headline=White+House+seeks+control+on+health,+safety

WASHINGTON - Under a new proposal, the White House would decide what and when the public would be told about an outbreak of mad cow disease, an anthrax release, a nuclear plant accident or any other crisis.

The White House Office of Management and Budget is trying to gain final control over release of emergency declarations from the federal agencies responsible for public health, safety and the environment. The OMB also wants to manage scientific and technical evaluations - known as peer reviews - of all major government rules, plans, proposed regulations and pronouncements.

(snip)

One of the signers, David Michaels, said: "It goes beyond just having the White House involved in picking industry favorites to evaluate government science. Under this proposal, the carefully crafted process used by the government to notify the public of an imminent danger is going to first have to be signed off by someone weighing the political hazards."

Michaels, a former assistant secretary for environment, safety and health at the Department of Energy, is now a research professor at George Washington University's School of Public Health. He added: "OMB is not a science agency. The ramifications of it attempting to insert itself into a time-proven system of having the most knowledgeable scientists available evaluate proposed policy or regulations is a disaster in the making."

- more . . .

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/189564E117AF585586256E17007E600A?OpenDocument&Headline=White+House+seeks+control+on+health,+safety

[cprise]

1. Doesn't belong here. It will get buried.

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