Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Another Rollback Of Environmental Protections: Proposal From Trump Administration Limits Important Scientific Studies On Health
The Trump administration has formally revised a proposal that would significantly restrict the type of research that can be used to draft environmental and public health regulations, a measure that experts say amounts to one of the government鈥檚 most far-reaching restrictions on science. The revisions made public Tuesday evening mean the Environmental Protection Agency would give preference to studies in which all underlying data is publicly available. That slightly relaxed restrictions in an earlier draft that would have flatly excluded any research that did not offer up its raw data, even if that data included medical information protected by privacy laws or confidentiality agreements. (Friedman, 3/4)
President Trump has tapped Nancy B. Beck, a former chemical industry executive, to lead the Consumer Product Safety Commission, an independent federal agency charged with protecting the public against dangers like toxic substances in products. Dr. Beck previously led the Environmental Protection Agency鈥檚 office of chemical safety, a position she came to after serving as the senior director of regulatory science policy at the American Chemistry Council, a lobbying group for the chemical industry. (Friedman, 3/3)