Texas Toxicologist Who Rejects Basic Science Named to EPA Science Board

"The Trump administration continues to scout Texas officials who’ve repeatedly attacked the very policies that they’re now charged with implementing."

"For years Texas’ chief toxicologist, Michael Honeycutt, has accused the EPA of scaring the public about the health risks of toxic chemicals. The EPA, he has said, 'ignores good science which demonstrates that a chemical is not as toxic as they think it is,' uses '‘chicken little’ toxicity values' and doesn’t 'do common-sense groundtruthing.' Honeycutt has repeatedly put himself outside the scientific mainstream by arguing that pollutants are not nearly as harmful as the evidence suggests.

Mercury? EPA is 'overstating' the risks of exposure and ignoring the fact that the Japanese eat 10 times as much fish as Americans.

Arsenic? It couldn’t be unsafe because we’re not seeing increases in cancer rates that would be true if EPA’s assessment is 'realistic.'"

Naveena Sadasivam reports for the Texas Observer October 31, 2017.