White House ignores scientific data

To the editor:

Making a call that resonates with a public wanting decisions to be informed by the best data and evidence available, politicians and commentators frequently urge the use of sound science in decision-making. From the Bush White House, however, the call is different. We repeatedly see the stacking of expert panels with corporate representatives at the expense of scientific expertise and the suppression of scientific evidence and conclusions if these fail to serve the Bush political agenda.

As an example, the White House stacked a panel on the health effects of lead with representatives of the lead industry rather than with health scientists. In another case, the White House insisted that a report be modified, at the request of the energy industry, to expunge current scientific understanding of climate change research.

This political interference with independent scientific inquiry has occurred at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration and the departments of Health and Human Services, Agriculture, Interior and Defense. Human health is being sacrificed for corporate profit.

Politics should not interfere with the interpretation of scientific evidence. The time for politics is after the scientific evidence has been presented.

The White House seems to view science the same way it views military intelligence. Rather than allow the experts to evaluate the data available and provide the best and most informed conclusions that an evaluation of all the available evidence indicates, they want to cherry pick the data that suits their agenda and suppress the rest.

ALAN R.P. JOURNET

Cape Girardeau