Connecting the dots

Government scientist Chris De Rosa is doing the rounds with even yet another tale of the Bush administration's attempts to suppress inconvenient scientific evidence: his superiors at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry nixed an important study on pollution and health problems in the Great Lakes region. I've posted details at Political Climate:

The report, produced by researchers at the government’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), studied 26 sites where lake-water was known to have been contaminated with a cocktail of toxic chemicals ranging from lead and mercury to cyanide, DDT, and dioxin. Comparing public health records for the surrounding area with those from neighboring counties and those from the country as a whole, researchers found a long list of worrying markers: Infant mortality was elevated in 21 of the 26 regions studied; breast cancer death rates were elevated in 17 of the regions. Colon and lung cancer rates were similarly high; so too were rates of fertility deficits, low birth rates, and immune system dysfunction.

Equally alarming was the sheer number of people the study found to be potentially affected by the chemical waste. Nine million people live in the so-called “areas of concern”; of those, at least 230,000 “vulnerable” people – young children, reproductive-age women, and the elderly – live within a mile of contaminated sites.

But when lead researcher Chris De Rosa – the director of the ATSDR’s toxicology division – tried to publish his findings, he hit a wall. Long after the standard peer-review process was completed, and with the report just a week away from publication, agency bigwigs caught wind of the report and halted its publication. To drive the point home, they had De Rosa demoted to a non-supervisory position.

Read the rest here.