The George Bush administration is already catching flak from critics for being too soft on their environmental policies, but now it appears they may also be allowing the American public to be exposed to potentially harmful chemicals. According to a new report by the Government Accountability Office, the White House actually dictates which chemicals the Environmental Protection Agency is permitted to assess for health risks. Meaning if they don't want to know the possible risks in a chemical that very may well cause cancer, they can quash the EPA's attempt to analyze it.

The report claims that the EPA is struggling to produce timely results of the assessments of chemicals because of involvement from the White House, and now (get ready for this big shocker), Democrat senators are pretty choked and accusing the Bush administration of allowing their political agenda to interfere with the assessment process. The report findings were revealed to a Senate committee by a congressional investigator earlier today.

"By placing politics before science, the Bush administration is putting the public in harm's way," committee chairwoman Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said at the hearing. "By law the EPA must protect our families from dangerous chemicals," added Boxer. "Instead, they're protecting the chemical companies."

The EPA's risk assessment process "never was perfect," Boxer said in an interview Monday. "But at least it put the scientists up front. Now the scientists are being shunted aside."

Representatives from the EPA and the White House fired back, claiming third-party involvement is beneficial to the assessment process and claiming the EPA still have full control over the work they are doing.

"Only EPA has the authority to finalize an EPA assessment," Kevin Neyland, deputy administrator of the White House budget office's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, wrote in response to the GAO. He called the interagency process "a dialogue that helps to ensure the quality" of the reviews.

Evidence seems to indicate otherwise. Currently the Pentagon, the Energy Department, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration are among the groups involved in the assessment process. If it turns out the EPA discovers certain chemicals are toxic or provide a risk to the public, those groups, as well as the chemical producers and private contractors could face the arduous task of a major clean-up, as well as restrictions on the use of the chemicals in question.

The chemicals still being assessed for carcinogen risks include naphthalene, trichloroethylene (TCE), perchloroethylene (perc), formaldehyde and Royal Demolition Explose (RDX).

So when we're told not to panic about bisphenol A in plastic water bottles potentially causing cancer, we have to assume the government isn't interfering and protecting their own interests? Right, that's completely, 100 per cent reassuring. So much so, that if you weren't convinced to find alternative uses for your plastic bottles until the U.S. government finally admits they are a hazard, you may want to consider it more carefully in light of this.

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