NCER Nat Ctr Env Res

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">omfg defunct</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ssoooo many lnx, how did i miss?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/06/16/this-epa-research-program-just-got-a-rave-scientific-review-trump-wants-to-eliminate-it/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/06/16/this-epa-research-program-just-got-a-rave-scientific-review-trump-wants-to-eliminate-it/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Energy and Environment</font></font></font></font></div><div>This EPA research program just got a rave scientific review. Trump wants to eliminate it.</div><div>By Chelsea Harvey June 16, 2017</div><div> </div><div>The headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post)</div><div>As Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt defended massive proposed budget cuts to a House subcommittee Thursday, experts from the nation’s top science organization voiced their support for one of the programs slated for elimination.</div><div>
</div><div>A report released Thursday by the National Academy of Sciences — and prepared at the request of the EPA — argues that the agency’s Science to Achieve Results, or STAR, program, which provides millions of dollars in funding for scientific research each year, has contributed to important benefits for the environment and the public health. And it recommends that the agency continue to use it.</div><div>
</div><div>“This report shows that through STAR, EPA has created a vehicle that fosters collaboration and knowledge-sharing, which have produced research that has supported interventions that may reduce the cost of regulations, protect public health, and save lives,” the document states.</div><div>
</div><div><b>STAR is just one of dozens of EPA programs that would be defunded under the Trump administration’s proposed 2018 budget, which has sparked outrage among scientists and environmentalists alike. Total cuts would amount to about $2.4 billion annually, or nearly a third of the agency’s budget. On Thursday, testifying before a House appropriations subcommittee, Pruitt spoke in favor of the proposed cuts, highlighting his support for the elimination of “redundancies and inefficiencies.”</b></div><div>
</div><div>[EPA head defends White House’s plan for massive cuts to his agency]</div><div>
</div><div>In justifying the proposed STAR program cut, the EPA’s proposed 2018 budget document explains that the program “funds research grants and graduate fellowships in environmental science and engineering disciplines through a competitive solicitation process and independent peer review. EPA will prioritize activities that support decision-making related to core environmental statutory requirements, as opposed to extramural activities.”</div><div>
</div><div>But according to the National Academy of Sciences review, the STAR program is no redundancy. Defunding it could harm the future of environmental and health-related research in the United States, said Harold Mooney, an environmental biologist at Stanford University and one of the National Academy of Sciences committee members who helped prepare the report. The program fills “a very important niche, and that is doing solution-based research in environmental biology and public health,” he told The Washington Post.</div><div>
</div><div>The STAR program was first established in 1995, and has since been serving as the EPA’s “primary competitive extramural grants program,” according to the new report. Each year, it issues requests for applications and selectively funds independent research projects proposed either by individual investigators or groups of institutions. It also funded projects proposed by graduate students until 2016, when that leg of the program was discontinued.</div><div>
</div><div>The program’s budget allocation has varied substantially over the years, peaking at around $138 million in 2001 and 2002 and reaching its lowest point in 2016 at about $39 million. It has been prolific in that time. Between 2001 and 2015, the report notes, it awarded nearly 1,500 grants and fellowships in total.</div><div>
</div><div>And according to the review, its benefits speak for themselves. STAR funding has supported several major initiatives addressing the health effects of air pollution, helps fund critical research on child health and development and has contributed to multiple projects involving environmental management, such as research on incentives to reduce pollutants.</div><div>
</div><div>One of the program’s major successes was its implementation of several large pollution-focused initiatives, including the Particulate Matter Centers, Clean Air Research Centers and Air, Climate and Energy Centers, a series of focused research centers housed at institutions around the country. Research produced by these centers demonstrated that air pollution can decrease human life expectancy — and these findings helped support the establishment of more stringent nationwide air quality standards, which the report notes “may have saved lives and reduced healthcare costs nationwide.”</div><div>
</div><div>“Understanding of health effects as a consequence of exposure to particulate matter is very different today than it was in 1990, and much of that has been the result of the STAR program,” said Mark Utell, a physician and professor at the University of Rochester Medical Center, and chair of the committee that conducted the review.</div><div>
</div><div>In fact, according to Mooney, the STAR program’s major value is that it supports applied projects — research that aims to solve real-life, practical problems.</div><div>
</div><div>“There are other foundations which support more generic work,” he said. The National Science Foundation, for instance, provides funding for all kinds of research endeavors. But the STAR program “was really targeted at building the capacity of our nation to address environmental problems,” Mooney said.</div><div>
</div><div>That’s not to say it couldn’t be improved. The review suggests that the STAR program’s major shortcoming is its difficulty in tracking the benefits of the research it supports. This is not necessarily an issue limited to STAR — as the report notes, “all research programs struggle with tracking public benefits and attributing them to single research projects.” Even so, the review suggests that the EPA could invest in better-maintained databases of the projects it supports and the final reports that they produce. And it also recommends improving efforts to publicly communicate these research results.</div><div>
</div><div>Overall, though, the review finds that the program works — it supports important research and it produces tangible and even lifesaving benefits. The review includes no suggestion that there’s any reason for the program to be eliminated.</div><div>
</div><div>The review is the second National Academy of Sciences report released this week alone that offers support for an EPA program slated for the chopping block. Another congressionally mandated report, released Tuesday, found that the Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy — or ARPA-E — program also works and is “not in need of reform.” ARPA-E, which funds energy research and innovation, would be eliminated under the Trump administration’s 2018 budget proposal.</div><div>
</div><div>Despite Pruitt’s support for the cuts, however, it appears increasingly likely that the budget will fail to make it through Congress in its current form. The EPA cuts, in particular, have met with resistance on both sides of the political aisle, with Democrats and Republicans alike arguing in support of the agency’s work.</div><div>
</div><div>This means that the STAR program, and others like it, may still have a shot at making it to 2018 alive. And that would be for the best, according to the National Academy of Sciences committee.</div><div>
</div><div>“It has a different focus than virtually any other program,” Utell said. “The idea of not having or eliminating the EPA’s extramural program — it would be unfortunate, the committee would think.”</div><div>
</div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/donald-trump-accused-of-waging-a-war-on-children-through-epa-regulatory-rollbacks-293fe0edc2e9/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://thinkprogress.org/donald-trump-accused-of-waging-a-war-on-children-through-epa-regulatory-rollbacks-293fe0edc2e9/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Child Health Day, celebrated on Monday, was meant to highlight efforts taken by the nation to protect children’s health. As it turned out, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-child-health-day-2018/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">Child Health Day</a>, which kicked off <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/childrens-health-month-epa-offers-nearly-30-million-support-cleaner-water-and-air" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">Children’s Health Month</a>, served as a moment for the nation to come to terms with how the <b>Trump administration has prioritized the removal of industry regulations over health protections for children.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, his Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has taken numerous actions that do not bode well for the future health of American children.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">And in the past week alone, the administration has introduce plans to rollback back key pollution rules,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> removed the head of the EPA’s <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">children’s health office</a>, and was shown to have scrubbed any mention of the impact of climate change on children from a draft document.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Monday<span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> </span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">it was revealed that the Trump administration is </span><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-rollback-mercury-rule-trump-obama-health-coal-e66b43ec1501/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">moving forward</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> with a proposal to <b>rollback limits on lead, mercury, and other dangerous air pollution from the nation’s coal-fired power plants, putting children at risk from known brain poisons and toxic pollutants.</b></span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, finalized in 2011, were <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/media/2018/181001" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">projected to prevent</a>up to 11,000 premature deaths, 4,700 heart attacks, and 130,000 asthma attacks yearly, while delivering annual health benefits totaling up to $90 billion.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“What the Trump EPA is pursuing — the fraudulent denial of real-world benefits from clean air and climate safeguards — is the unholy grail of the polluting industry and its lobbyists,” John Walke, clean air director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said Monday in a <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/media/2018/181001" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">statement</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Then on Tuesday, E&E News <a href="https://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2018/10/02/stories/1060100339" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">reported</a> that the <b>Trump administration removed language about how climate change affects children’s health from a <a href="https://www.eenews.net/assets/2018/10/02/document_pm_02.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">draft</a> EPA proposal on heat-trapping chemicals.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">An earlier draft of an EPA proposal on hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">contained language about how children are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. That language was removed during a review by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), according to E&E News.</span></font></p><div class="related-contentwrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 2rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><div class="related-contentbody" style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 513px;"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; 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text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><h3 class="related-contenttitle" style="box-sizing: inherit; 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text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Trump’s EPA makes ‘sneaky’ move to hamstring its children’s health office</font></a></h3></div></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Every day we see more evidence that this administration is actively working against the health and safety of the most vulnerable Americans — our children,” Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, said Wednesday in a <a href="https://www.ewg.org/release/white-house-strikes-discussion-impacts-climate-change-children-s-health-draft-epa-rule#.W7TwS3tKgdU" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">statement</a>. “Tragically, it’s not an exaggeration to say that the Trump administration is waging a war on children.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HFCs are used in refrigeration and air-conditioning appliances and are a significant contributor to the depletion of the ozone layer. Their atmospheric concentrations and contribution to greenhouse gas emissions <a href="http://time.com/4673826/greenhouse-gas-emissions-epa-hfcs/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">are known</a> to be rapidly increasing.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scientists are concerned about the rise in HFC use because they are thousands of times more potent on a pound-per-pound basis than carbon dioxide. The Obama administration, as part of its climate action plan, <a href="https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1060043743/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">issued</a> a rule aimed at reducing the amount of HFCs released from appliances that use them as coolants.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The news of the administration deleting language from the chemical rule came just days after the head of EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection was <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">placed on administrative leave</a> with no explanation, fueling speculation that the office itself may be eliminated.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nidhisubbaraman/ruth-etzel-epa-childrens-health-office" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">letter</a> written by Ruth Etzel, the head of the office, she said: “I appear to be the ‘fall guy’ for their plan to ‘disappear’ the office of children’s health.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meanwhile, the EPA is also fighting a federal court ruling ordering the agency to ban of the pesticide chlorpyrifos, which can cause brain damage and development disabilities in children at even low doses. In 2017, former EPA chief Scott Pruitt reversed an earlier decision to ban of the pesticide only weeks after <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/pruitt-dow-chlorpyrifos-2449662128.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">meeting with the head of Dow Chemical</a>, which manufactures the chemical.</font></p><div class="related-contentwrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 2rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><div class="related-contentbody" style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 513px;"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><h3 class="related-contenttitle" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 2rem; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Trump’s EPA to close research center that protects public health</font></a></h3></div></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit </b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/09/us/politics/chlorpyrifos-pesticide-ban-epa-court.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">ordered</a> the EPA in early August to bar the widely used chlorpyrifos <span style="box-sizing: inherit;">within 60 days</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">. The court decided the EPA had been ignoring its own science that allegedly showed chlorpyrifos is a danger to children.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The EPA, however, <a href="https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/news/crops/article/2018/09/25/doj-attorneys-make-case-ninth-unable-2" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">filed a petition</a> with the court last month asking for a hearing on the decision before all the judges on the Ninth Circuit. If the court order stands, chlorpyrifos would be officially banned as of next Tuesday.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>The White House’s OIRA has removed references to climate change from other EPA proposals</b>, including its proposed Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, E&E News <a href="https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1060095807/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">reported</a>. The ACE rule would <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/clean-air-climate-advocates-denounce-trumps-proposed-repeal-of-clean-power-plan-1fb7d98ad332/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">replace</a> the Clean Power Plan, the Obama administration’s signature climate rule that would cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The new plan could result in up to 1,400 more premature deaths and up to 120,000 more asthma attacks every year, according to the EPA’s own analysis.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But, in celebration of Children’s Health Day on Monday, acting EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler held an event at the EPA courtyard. He did not address any of the changes at the agency that could harm the health of children.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Instead, Wheeler touted the EPA’s efforts on behalf on children,</b> despite the long list of clean air and clean water rules the Trump administration has sought to undo. “Children’s health is a top priority at EPA, and we have made tremendous progress improving air and water quality and helping kids and families lead healthier lives,” he <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/childrens-health-month-epa-offers-nearly-30-million-support-cleaner-water-and-air" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">said</a> at the event. "</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The fact that Wheeler reportedly finalized a plan to repeal protections against mercury pollution just one day before he stood in front of a school bus celebrating Children’s Health Day is an insult to American families,” Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign Director Mary Anne Hitt said in a <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2018/10/wheeler-celebrates-children-s-health-day-gutting-standards-protect-children-s" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">statement</a> on Monday. “While Wheeler’s former employers reap the profits from rollback after rollback, our kids will be paying with their health.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Prior to joining the Trump EPA, Wheeler served as a top lobbyist for Murray Energy, a major U.S. coal company.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In other attacks on children’s health, the Trump EPA <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">announced</a> to staff last week that it will move forward with plans to reorganize multiple offices housed under its Office of Research and Development (ORD). The National Center for Environmental Research, an EPA office that works to test the effects of chemical exposure on adults and children, will be shuttered as part of the reorganization.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Under the reorganization, David Dunlap, a former Koch Industries chemical engineer, will </span><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/koch-epa-industry-david-dunlap-chemical-water-1f08cfa2fb01/" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">head</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> the ORD as a deputy chief, a role that will not need Senate confirmation. Prior to his eight years with Koch, Dunlap </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dunlap-david-78981834/" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">worked</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> for the C</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">hlorine Institute </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">overseeing health and environmental safety.</span></b></font></p></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref mark hand</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/">https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/</a></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to eliminate its National Center for Environmental Research (NCER), a department that funds research into environmental impacts on communities.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The center, tasked with distributing “grants to test the effects of chemical exposure on adults and children,” will be shuttered amid a reorganization at the agency as part of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s goal of creating more efficiency at the agency.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Most of the EPA’s grants come out of the NCER, a division of the agency’s Office of Research and Development. Last October, Pruitt <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/358043-epa-blocks-scientists-who-get-grants-from-advisory-boards" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">ordered</a> that scientists who have received EPA grants from the NCER and other programs at the agency won’t be allowed to serve on the<b> agency’s advisory boards. </b>Critics of the policy change denounced the move as a poorly disguised attempt to push out experts at odds with industry.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The NCER’s most prominent program is called Science to Achieve Results, or STAR, which was created in 1995. The STAR program has distributed grants to the Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Centers. The two centers have been “successful in advancing our scientific understanding and ability do address the ways that environmental chemicals can impact children’s health,” a former EPA senior scientist <a href="http://thehill.com/regulation/energy-environment/375725-major-epa-reorganization-will-end-science-research-program?twitter_impression=true&twitter_impression=true" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">told</a> The Hill.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A recent report issued by the National Academies of Sciences <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK453157/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">concluded</a> that through the STAR program, EPA has created a vehicle that fosters collaboration and knowledge-sharing in a way that “may reduce the cost of regulations, protect public health, and save lives.” About eight years after STAR’s creation, a National Research Council committee reviewed the program and strongly endorsed it as an integral part of EPA’s research program.</font></p><div class="related-contentwrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 2rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><div class="related-contentbody" style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 513px;"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><h3 class="related-contenttitle" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 2rem; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-spending-epa-programs-cuts-e3de948c552b/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Here are some EPA programs that Scott Pruitt’s $900,000 taxpayer-funded expenses could pay for]</font></a></h3></div></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Trump administration, however, has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/06/16/this-epa-research-program-just-got-a-rave-scientific-review-trump-wants-to-eliminate-it/?utm_term=.fe540b6f27dd" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">singled out</a> the STAR program for elimination in its budget proposals.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> The STAR program’s budget allocation has varied over the years, peaking at around $138 million in 2001 and 2002 and reaching its lowest point in 2016 at about $39 million. Between 2001 and 2015, the program awarded nearly 1,500 grants and fellowships in total, according to the <b>National Academies of Sciences report.</b></span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The EPA said Tuesday it will be holding numerous “town halls” with staff to discuss the proposed changes to ensure it is developing the best organization possible. Under the first phase of the reorganization, the<b> grants managed by the NCER will fall under the Office of Resource Management, a new office created through the merger of the NCER, the Office of Administrative & Research Support, and the Office of Program Accountability and Resource Management.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Freedom of Information Act requests, records management, and budget formulation functions from other EPA organizations will also be moved into the new office.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This potential reorganization would not affect anyone’s employment or status and the management of research grants will continue. [Office of Research and Development] leadership is currently holding listening sessions with staff across the country to discuss this proposal, so everyone can work together to develop the best organization possible,” EPA spokesperson Liz Bowman said Tuesday in a statement emailed to ThinkProgress.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">No EPA staffers will be losing their jobs, the agency said. [twit]</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">One of the NCER’s major successes was its funding of pollution-focused initiatives at the <b>Particulate Matter</b> Centers, Clean Air Research Centers, and Air, Climate, and Energy Centers, The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/06/16/this-epa-research-program-just-got-a-rave-scientific-review-trump-wants-to-eliminate-it/?utm_term=.fe540b6f27dd" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">reported</a> last June. Research produced by these centers demonstrated that air pollution can decrease human life expectancy, helping to support the establishment of more stringent nationwide air quality standards.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Environmental and public health groups <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-employees-leaving-under-pruitt-11b36a220062/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">worry</a> about the impacts of the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since Pruitt took over the top job at the agency in March, more than 700 employees have either retired, taken voluntary buyouts, or quit, signaling the second-highest exodus of employees from the agency in nearly a decade. According to agency documents and <a href="https://www.fedscope.opm.gov/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">federal employment statistics</a>, 770 EPA employees departed the agency between April and December, leaving employment levels close to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-epa/epa-workforce-shrinking-to-reagan-era-levels-agency-official-idUSKCN1BH1LY" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">Reagan-era</a> levels of staffing.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Environmental groups are interpreting the elimination of the center as another example of the Trump administration siding with the chemical industry<b>. Last year, Pruitt also <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/farmworkers-california-chlorpyrifos-35a15557905d/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">rejected</a> a ban on chlorpyrifos, a pesticide linked to reduced IQ, developmental delay, and increased risk of learning disabilities in children.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“By shutting the door on the research operation that keeps our kids safe from toxic chemicals all while making dangerous policy decisions that pump more chemicals into our air and water, Scott Pruitt is taking the health and safety of our families as seriously as playground games,” Melinda Pierce, federal lobby and advocacy director for the Sierra Club, said Tuesday in a <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2018/02/epa-close-toxics-research-center-protects-children-s-health" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">statement</a>.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/">https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/</a></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Acting Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Andrew Wheeler isn’t going to end <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">Trump’s war on children’s health</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But the former coal lobbyist does have sneakier tactics than his much-investigated  predecessor Scott Pruitt.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Wheeler has put the Director of the Office of Children’s Health Protection (OCHP), Dr. Ruth Etzel, on <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/408475-epa-puts-top-childrens-health-official-on-leave" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">administrative leave without explanation</a>. Etzel, as the EPA’s website notes, is an award-winning pediatrician and public health expert whose career “<a href="https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/about-director-epas-office-childrens-health-protection" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">to protect children from hazards in the environment</a>” spans three decades.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This seems like a sneaky way for the E.P.A. to get rid of this program and not be upfront about it,” as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/26/climate/epa-etzel-children-health-program.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha told the New York Times</a>. Dr. Hanna-Attisha is<span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> the pediatrician whose <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Hanna-Attisha" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">tests of children’s blood revealed elevated lead levels</a> in Flint Michigan’s water. </span>And a former EPA official called the move “highly unusual.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Trump EPA has been working to undermine the children’s health office for a while, according to several people in and out of the agency who spoke to the Times. For instance, the paper reports that since July, the EPA has stalled a year-long effort by the OCHP to develop an inter-agency strategy to cut children’s lead exposure.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What’s especially worrisome with this is that children are much more vulnerable to  pollution and toxins than adults because key organs are still developing, they put things in their mouth (like lead paint), and “they eat more, drink more, and breathe more in proportion to their body size,” as the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/about-office-childrens-health-protection-ochp" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">OCHP website explains</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This special vulnerability is why President Bill Clinton and then EPA-Chief Carol Browner created the office in the first place in 1997. It was given an explicit mission “<a href="http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/children/national.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">to make the protection of children’s health</a> a fundamental goal of public health and environmental protection in the United States.”</font></p><div class="related-contentwrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 2rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><div class="related-contentbody" style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 513px;"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><h3 class="related-contenttitle" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 2rem; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Trump’s border policies aren’t the only ones ‘cruel’ and ‘toxic ‘ to children</font></a></h3></div></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But under Trump, this goal appears to no longer be a priority.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2017, for example, <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">Pruitt rejected a ban on the organophospate pesticide</a> chlorpyrifos, which paralyzes the nervous system of insects — and which has been linked directly to fetal brain damage. Indeed, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2003671#pbio.2003671.ref031" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">one study found</a> that “US children born in 2010 lost 1.8 million IQ points and 7,500 children had their IQs shifted into the intellectual disability range as a result of prenatal organophosphate exposures.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And in August, Trumps’ own EPA conceded that replacing President Obama’s climate plan for electric utilities with his new plan would lead to as many as 120,000 more cases of worsened asthma a year. Sicker kids also mean up to 140,000 more school absence days each year.</font></p><div class="related-contentwrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 2rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><div class="related-contentbody" style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 513px;"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><h3 class="related-content__title" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 2rem; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">EPA admits Trump would sacrifice thousands of U.S. lives to save a few coal plants]</font></a></h3></div></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Let’s remember that Trump’s efforts to undermine global climate action is <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/governmental-climate-report-forecasts-catastrophe-under-trump-policies-77197b4a8301/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">literally stealing our children’s future livable climate</a> to enrich fossil fuel companies.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But it’s not just climate policy he’s targeting. As ThinkProgress reported in June, Trump also wants to fix the deficit, caused by his tax cuts, by <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-quietly-proposes-slashing-billions-from-childrens-health-care-86300b9989c6/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">cutting billions from children’s health care</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So, that’s what makes the Trump administration’s war on children’s health so dangerous. And putting the head of the program on leave is simply the latest example.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK453157/">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK453157/</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">S</font><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">ummary</span></p><div class="main-content lit-style" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/CreativeWork" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.375; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="jig-ncbiinpagenav body-content whole_rhythm" data-jigconfig="allHeadingLevels: ['h2'],smoothScroll: false" itemprop="text" id="ui-ncbiinpagenav-6" style="margin: 1.3846em 0px;"><p style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Environmental research has driven landmark improvements that led to the protection of human and ecosystem health. Recognizing the value of knowledge generated by environmental research and the ingenuity within academic and nonprofit institutions, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created a program known as Science to Achieve Results, or STAR, in 1995. STAR is EPA's primary competitive extramural grants program. This report shows that through STAR, EPA has created a vehicle that fosters collaboration and knowledge-sharing, which have produced research that has supported interventions that may reduce the cost of regulations, protect public health, and save lives.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">STAR is managed by EPA's National Center for Environmental Research and integrated into the Officer of Research and Development's (ORD's) overall research program through planning and coordination with EPA's laboratories, offices, and centers. STAR research support consists of three main types: grants to individual investigators; larger multidisciplinary center grants, usually to groups of institutions; and a recently discontinued fellowship program, which supported master's and doctoral students.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2003, a National Research Council committee reviewed STAR and strongly endorsed it as an integral part of EPA's research program. That committee believed that STAR provided the agency access to external and independent information, analyses, and perspectives. However, the STAR program was too young to fully evaluate its effects.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since that review, there have been changes in the program. For example, funding has fluctuated, with a peak of around $138 million (2016 dollars) in 2001 and 2002, which represented 18% of ORD's total budget; a median of $75 million (2016 dollars) in 2007, which represented 12% of ORD's total budget; and a minimum of $39 million in 2016, which represented 8% of ORD's total budget. Funding for the STAR fellowship program was eliminated for FY2016 to centralize graduate fellowships in the National Science Foundation (NSF).</font></p><div id="sec_000018"><div class="goto jig-ncbiinpagenav-goto-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><span role="menubar"><a class="tgt_dark page-toc-label jig-ncbiinpagenav-goto-heading" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK453157/#" title="Go to other sections in this page" role="menuitem" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" style="background: url(" static.pubmed.gov="static.pubmed.gov" portal="portal" portal3rc.fcgi="portal3rc.fcgi" img="img" no-repeat="no-repeat" transparent="transparent" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" margin-right="margin-right" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" border="border" important="important"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Go to:</font></a></span></div><h2 id="sec_000018" class="ui-helper-clearfix" style="line-height: 1.1111em; margin: 1.125em 0px 0.5625em; min-height: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(151, 176, 200);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">THE COMMITTEE'S REVIEW</font></h2><p style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EPA asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to conduct an independent assessment of the STAR program. The committee established in response to the request was charged with assessing the program's scientific merit, public benefits, and overall contributions in the context of other relevant research and with recommending ways to enhance those aspects of the program.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The committee was also asked to consider the conclusions and recommendations of the prior National Research Council review of the STAR program (2003), the STAR program's research priorities in light of the nation's environmental challenges, and the effects of recent STAR funding trends on obtaining scientific information needed to protect public health and the environment.<span style="line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><span style="line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;"><a class="bk_pop" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK453157/#" data-bk-pop-href="#Sum1_fn1" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" style="">1</a></span></span> The committee's approach is detailed in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK453157/box/box_S-1/?report=objectonly" target="object" rid-ob="figobboxS1" style="">Box S-1</a>.</font></p><div class="iconblock whole_rhythm clearfix ten_col boxed-text" id="figboxS1" style="margin: 1.3846em 0px; zoom: 1; overflow: hidden; width: 624.016px;"><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK453157/box/box_S-1/?report=objectonly" target="object" title="BOX S-1" class="img_link icnblk_img" rid-ob="figobboxS1" style="text-decoration-line: none; float: left; margin-right: 1em; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><img class="small-thumb" src="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/corehtml/pmc/pmcgifs/bookshelf/static/box-icon.gif" alt="Box Icon" style="border: 1px solid rgb(68, 68, 68); width: 100px; max-width: 100px;" /></font></a><div class="icnblk_cntnt" style="display: table-cell; vertical-align: top;"><h4 id="box_S-1" style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6923em; line-height: 1.3888em;"><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK453157/box/box_S-1/?report=objectonly" target="object" rid-ob="figobboxS1" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">BOX S-1</font></a></h4><p class="float-caption no_bottom_margin" style="margin: 0.6923em 0px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Committee's Approach to the Evaluation.</font></p></div></div></div><div id="sec_000019"><div class="goto jig-ncbiinpagenav-goto-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><a class="tgt_dark page-toc-label jig-ncbiinpagenav-goto-heading" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK453157/#" title="Go to other sections in this page" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" style="background: url(" static.pubmed.gov="static.pubmed.gov" portal="portal" portal3rc.fcgi="portal3rc.fcgi" img="img" no-repeat="no-repeat" transparent="transparent" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" margin-right="margin-right" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" border="border" important="important"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Go to:</font></a></div><h2 id="sec_000019" class="ui-helper-clearfix" style="line-height: 1.1111em; margin: 1.125em 0px 0.5625em; min-height: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(151, 176, 200);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SCIENTIFIC MERIT</font></h2><p style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The committee compared STAR's procedures for priority setting, soliciting, awarding, and administering grants, with those of research programs of the California Air Resources Board, the Health Effects Institute, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, the US Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the NSF Division of Earth Sciences, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Division of Extramural Research and Training (<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/n/nap24757/ch2/" style="">Chapter 2</a>).</font></p><p style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The committee found no major deficiencies in STAR's procedures. STAR priority-setting procedures are integrated within four of ORD's national programs; this allows STAR to be flexible in light of the nation's changing research priorities and avoids duplication of EPA's internal research. STAR was the only research program included in this comparison that allowed neither submission of research topic ideas by the general public nor unsolicited proposals; this characteristic may limit the creativity of the program and merits consideration.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Having reviewed the RFAs, the committee noted that the STAR program's RFAs are generally of good quality and address a wide variety of topics. STAR has strong peer-review procedures, and it is a highly competitive program, with a median grant application award rate of 16% in 2003-2014. After peer review, EPA staff review grant applications for relevance to the intent of the RFA; it is unclear whether investigators receive comments on their applications' relevance reviews.</font></p><ul><li class="half_rhythm" style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Finding 1. EPA has high-quality procedures for priority-setting that allow STAR to be integrated within EPA's research program.</font></b></div><ul class="circle"><li class="half_rhythm" style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Recommendation 1. EPA should continue to use its procedures for strategic planning and for setting priorities for STAR research. However, EPA should consider developing a mechanism to allow for public input to the STAR research agenda or the submission of unsolicited proposals.</font></b></li></ul></li><li class="half_rhythm" style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Finding 2: STAR's procedures to develop funding announcements and award grants ensure that the program sponsors research of high scientific merit.</font></b></div><ul class="circle"><li class="half_rhythm" style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Recommendation 2. The STAR program should maintain the procedures that it has in place. However, it should provide comments to applicants whose applications were not awarded because of lack of relevance so that they can improve their ability to prepare future grant proposals.</font></b></li></ul></li></ul></div><div id="sec_000020"><div class="goto jig-ncbiinpagenav-goto-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><a class="tgt_dark page-toc-label jig-ncbiinpagenav-goto-heading" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK453157/#" title="Go to other sections in this page" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" style="background: url(" static.pubmed.gov="static.pubmed.gov" portal="portal" portal3rc.fcgi="portal3rc.fcgi" img="img" no-repeat="no-repeat" transparent="transparent" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" margin-right="margin-right" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" border="border" important="important"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Go to:</font></a></div><h2 id="sec_000020" class="ui-helper-clearfix" style="line-height: 1.1111em; margin: 1.125em 0px 0.5625em; min-height: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(151, 176, 200);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PUBLIC BENEFITS</font></h2><p style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The STAR program is productive. In 2003-2015, STAR awarded 541 individual-investigator grants, 53 center grants, and 800 fellowships (<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/n/nap24757/ch1/" style="">Chapter 1</a>). In October 2002-April 2017, there were 5,760 STAR journal publications (<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/n/nap24757/ch3/" style="">Chapter 3</a>). The committee found that results of STAR-funded research are used by many different kinds of organizations, for example, in federal, state, and local government documents; in international guidelines; and in other documents of academic or nonprofit organizations, such as National Research Council reports and American Public Health Association guidelines. In 2012, at least 104 STAR-funded papers were cited in those types of documents. The committee found that those outputs and outcomes have led to numerous public benefits (<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/n/nap24757/ch3/" style="">Chapter 3</a>). Some examples are the development of an environmental-science workforce, the development of human-resources and research infrastructure across the nation, a potential reduction in the costs of compliance with environmental regulation, provision of the scientific basis of decisions required to protect public health and the environment, and the study of methods for improving environmental management.</font></p><div id="sec_000021"><h3 style="line-height: 1.25em; margin: 1.2856em 0px 0.6428em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Support of Public-Health Decisions</font></h3><p style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">STAR research has supported numerous public-health decisions. The STAR program implemented several large initiatives that address the human health effects of air pollution, such as the Particulate Matter Centers, the Clean Air Research Centers, and the Air, Climate, and Energy Centers. Studies supported by the centers showed that increased air-pollution exposure leads to a decrease in life expectancy; they include a followup of the Harvard Six Cities Study published in 2006 and a large epidemiologic study of PM<span style="line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; bottom: -0.25em; top: 0.25em;">2.5</span> exposure and mortality in 51 US cities published in 2009. Those findings supported earlier research and led to the development of a more scientifically justified PM<span style="line-height: 1.6363em; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; bottom: -0.25em; top: 0.25em;">2.5</span> national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) which may have saved lives and reduced healthcare costs nationwide.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another effective initiative is the Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Centers, which are supported by STAR center grants. The grants are funded in partnership with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and aim to evaluate the effects of environmental exposures on child health and development. In 2016, a research project partially supported by a STAR grant found that infants could be exposed to arsenic through rice cereal, and this led the Food and Drug Administration to propose regulations to protect infant health. Another example is the discovery by the University of Washington Children's Center that farmworker children had increased exposure to the pesticide ingredient azinphos-methyl which is a neurotoxin; this finding informed EPA's decision to phase out the use of the azinphos-methyl.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Examples of STAR research to improve environmental management include experiments in market-based incentives to lower emissions and studies that evaluated the potential reduction in the cost of pollution abatement and auctions in which landowners and land sellers compete to obtain part of a fixed budget allocated by the regulator to subsidize pollution abatement.</font></p></div><div id="sec_000022"><h3 style="line-height: 1.25em; margin: 1.2856em 0px 0.6428em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Potentially Reducing the Cost of Compliance with Regulation</font></h3><p style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">STAR research has led to potential reductions in the cost of complying with environmental regulations. The reductions would benefit regulated industries and states and localities that need to comply with environmental regulations. An example of STAR research that may benefit industry is the development of a tissue-based method for evaluating the thyroid effects of chemical exposures. The method may substantially reduce the costs of chemical testing compared with animal-based approaches. STAR research has also expanded the capability of climate and air-pollution models, and this may reduce the costs of compliance with NAAQSs. Another research project supported by STAR discovered a cost-effective way to remove nitrate from drinking water.</font></p></div><div id="sec_000023"><h3 style="line-height: 1.25em; margin: 1.2856em 0px 0.6428em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Workforce Development</font></h3><p style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2003-2015, STAR awarded 800 graduate fellowships. Many former STAR fellows continued in environmental and environmental health sciences careers. Among former STAR fellows who reported on their careers' trajectory to EPA, 34% were in postdoctoral positions; 21% in teaching positions; 16% in research; 12% in the federal government; 5% in consulting firms; 4% in state, local, or tribal government; 4% in private industry; and 3% in nonprofits. The committee also found evidence that STAR fellows produced high-quality science; for example, a search for frequently cited STAR publications in Google Scholar found that about one-fourth were at least partially supported by a STAR fellowship.</font></p></div><div id="sec_000024"><h3 style="line-height: 1.25em; margin: 1.2856em 0px 0.6428em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Infrastructure Development</font></h3><p style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In FY 2014, the STAR program had grantees or fellows in all but two states (Vermont and South Dakota) (<a class="figpopup" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK453157/figure/fig_S-1/?report=objectonly" target="object" rid-figpopup="figfigS1" rid-ob="figobfigS1" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline !important; zoom: 1 !important;">Figure S-1</a>). Engagement with EPA in institutions throughout the United States has created communities of scientists and engineers working in the human health and environmental sciences that might not have existed without support from STAR grants. In addition, research grants help to improve facilities for data collection and analysis within the supported grantees' institutions.</font></p><div class="iconblock whole_rhythm clearfix ten_col fig" id="figfigS1" co-legend-rid="figlgndfigS1" style="margin: 1.3846em 0px; zoom: 1; overflow: hidden; width: 624.016px;"><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK453157/figure/fig_S-1/?report=objectonly" target="object" title="FIGURE S-1" class="img_link icnblk_img figpopup" rid-figpopup="figfigS1" rid-ob="figobfigS1" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none; float: left; margin-right: 1em; display: inline-block !important; zoom: 1 !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><img class="small-thumb" src="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK453157/bin/img-18.gif" src-large="/books/NBK453157/bin/img-18.jpg" alt="FIGURE S-1. Geographic distribution of STAR grants, centers, and fellowships in FY 2014." style="border: 1px solid rgb(68, 68, 68); width: 100px; max-width: 100px;" /></font></a><div class="icnblk_cntnt" id="figlgndfigS1" style="display: table-cell; vertical-align: top;"><h4 id="fig_S-1" style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6923em; line-height: 1.3888em;"><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK453157/figure/fig_S-1/?report=objectonly" target="object" rid-ob="figobfigS1" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">FIGURE S-1</font></a></h4><p class="float-caption no_bottom_margin" style="margin: 0.6923em 0px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Geographic distribution of STAR grants, centers, and fellowships in FY 2014. Yellow indicates 1-5, green 6-10, purple 11-15, blue 16-20, and red over 20 active grantees in a state in 2014. In FY 2014, there were a total of 506 active STAR individual-researcher <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK453157/figure/fig_S-1/?report=objectonly" target="object" rid-ob="figobfigS1" style="">(more...)</a></font></p></div></div></div><div id="sec_000025"><h3 style="line-height: 1.25em; margin: 1.2856em 0px 0.6428em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tracking of Public Benefits of STAR Research</font></h3><p style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tracking of the public benefits of research is difficult; all research programs struggle with tracking public benefits and attributing them to single research projects. One issue that made it difficult for STAR is that the EPA grantee project-results Web site was not up to date. There were many examples of grants long completed or at least in operation for a number of years on which annual or final reports were unavailable (see <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/n/nap24757/ch2/" style="">Chapter 2</a>).</font></p><p style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">STAR has made efforts to translate research to a broader audience and synthesize information on a given RFA topic by having investigators from different grantee institutions collaborate on summary reports, but the efforts have been inconsistent (see <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/n/nap24757/ch3/" style="">Chapter 3</a>). The overall benefits of the science could be strengthened if grantees consistently created synthesis reports and held more public webinars to discuss research.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The committee acknowledges that many other research programs struggle with such challenges (see <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/n/nap24757/ch3/" style="">Chapter 3</a>). Evaluations like the present one would be improved if there were more robust electronic databases that could be easily searched to detect linkages between grants, fellowships, and public benefits. There have been advances throughout the federal government to mine existing data in reports, academic literature, administrative records, and so forth, to identify intermediate outcomes more effectively, to link federally funded projects to long-term effects, and to track career outcomes of graduate students supported by fellowships or graduate research assistantships. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), for example, has created the High Impacts Tracking System. The system loads progress reports and program officers' notes about grants into a searchable system and allows structured tagging of outputs and effects. Another NIH example is RePARS, which permits automatic retrieval of sources of NIH funding of publications in any list, such as the bibliography of a National Academies report. Those efforts have recently been used to evaluate the National Toxicology Program's effects on a water-quality standard for hexavalent chromium in California. EPA could make strides in this regard by collaborating with other organizations that are linking public benefits to research.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EPA would benefit from working with other federal agencies that are advancing ways in which such benefits are communicated to the public. NIH has found that the links between research studies and benefits to human health are described best in stories or case studies that resonate with those outside the research community. EPA should consider reporting stories more prominently on its Web site and blogs. STAR should also consider requiring grantees to report the potential influence and public benefits of their awards as part of their final reports and even 5-10 years after their research has been completed.</font></p></div><div id="sec_000026"><h3 style="line-height: 1.25em; margin: 1.2856em 0px 0.6428em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Fellowship Program</font></h3><p style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As discussed previously, the STAR fellowship program supported students who continued careers in environmental and environmental health sciences. The STAR fellowship program was distinctive in that it covered both environmental and environmental health research. The two other agencies that support predoctoral fellows will not fill this gap: NSF training programs do not cover environmental health effects, and NIH training programs are geared toward overall health sciences. In addition, it appears that the move to centralize graduate fellowships in NSF has led to a large reduction in the support of students interested in environmental research. In 2015, there were 168 NSF fellows in environmental sciences and ecologic research and 51 STAR fellows. In 2017, after the STAR fellowship program was terminated, there were 176 NSF fellows in environmental sciences and ecologic research; thus, there are indeed fewer fellowships in environmental and environmental health sciences. The need for federally supported fellowship programs in the environmental arena is important in that the United States is projected to have considerable human-resources needs in the science and engineering policy fields.</font></p><ul><li class="half_rhythm" style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Finding 3. The STAR program has generated research that has many public benefits. However, these public benefits are not consistently tracked and synthesized.</font></b></div><ul class="circle"><li class="half_rhythm" style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Recommendation 3. The STAR program should partner with other federal agency efforts to improve communication of the benefits of its research to the public. In addition, EPA should update the grantee project results Web site.</font></b></li></ul></li><li class="half_rhythm" style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Finding 4. The STAR fellowship program was critical for training future generations of scientists who pursue environmental careers.</font></b></div><ul class="circle"><li class="half_rhythm" style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Recommendation 4. The STAR fellowship program should be restored to EPA given the continued and growing need for scientists in environmental research and management.</font></b></li></ul></li></ul></div></div><div id="sec_000027"><div class="goto jig-ncbiinpagenav-goto-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><a class="tgt_dark page-toc-label jig-ncbiinpagenav-goto-heading" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK453157/#" title="Go to other sections in this page" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" style="background: url(" static.pubmed.gov="static.pubmed.gov" portal="portal" portal3rc.fcgi="portal3rc.fcgi" img="img" no-repeat="no-repeat" transparent="transparent" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" margin-right="margin-right" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" border="border" important="important"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Go to:</font></a></div><h2 id="sec_000027" class="ui-helper-clearfix" style="line-height: 1.1111em; margin: 1.125em 0px 0.5625em; min-height: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(151, 176, 200);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ADDRESSING EPA'S PRIORITY SCIENTIFIC QUESTIONS</font></h2><p style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Does the STAR program contribute to fields that will help to improve human health and the environment? To answer that question, the committee first considered what scientific disciplines and fields of study are needed to produce knowledge and capacity to protect human health and the environment. It then considered how STAR has engaged the various disciplines, which range from basic sciences—such as the earth sciences, atmospheric sciences, life sciences, ecology, and toxicology—to applied domains, such as environmental engineering, sustainable energy, human exposure and health effects, and human behavioral studies. The committee categorized the RFAs released by STAR in 2003-2015 and the STAR research papers that it identified as having been cited more than 100 times in a Google Scholar search according to the fields of knowledge that will help to improve human health and the environment.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Through its assessment, the committee found that STAR supports work in almost every field identified that contributes to environmental knowledge and capacity. The most common fields identified were the atmospheric sciences, climate sciences, ecology, environmental economics, environmental engineering, human exposure and health effects, risk analysis, systems modeling and decision support, and innovative risk management. Many other federal research programs support scientific study in those fields. What distinguishes STAR from the other programs is not specifically the research topics that it supports but that its RFAs cover subjects that are important to EPA's mission and that it addresses knowledge gaps which will protect human health and the environment. Examples of how EPA has used STAR to address knowledge gaps or to respond strategically to emerging challenges are numerous (<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/n/nap24757/ch4/" style="">Chapter 4</a>). The committee found that STAR has been called on to address human health and environmental concerns related to new technology, to address knowledge gaps identified in connection with environmental disasters, and to evaluate potential consequences of resource-conservation technologies. Some recent examples are the release of RFAs that cover the health effects of engineered nanoparticles, the environmental effects and mitigation of oil spills after the Deepwater Horizon incident, and human and ecologic effects associated with water reuse and conservation practice (<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/n/nap24757/ch4/" style="">Chapter 4</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/n/nap24757/appC/" style="">Appendix C</a>).</font></p><p style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The ability of EPA to use STAR to strategically address knowledge gaps has weakened in recent years; STAR has not had the ability to release as many RFAs. In 2003, it released 12 individual-investigator grant RFAs and one center RFA. In 2013 and 2014, it released five individual-investigator RFAs and two center RFAs a year. In 2015, it released only one individual-investigator RFA. The change limits the number of topics in which the STAR program is investing.</font></p><ul><li class="half_rhythm" style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Finding 5. STAR plays a distinctive role in the nation's overall environmental-research portfolio.</font></b></div><ul class="circle"><li class="half_rhythm" style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Recommendation 5. The committee recommends that EPA continue to use STAR to respond to the nation's emerging environmental challenges.</font></b></li></ul></li></ul></div><div id="sec_000028"><div class="goto jig-ncbiinpagenav-goto-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><a class="tgt_dark page-toc-label jig-ncbiinpagenav-goto-heading" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK453157/#" title="Go to other sections in this page" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" style="background: url(" static.pubmed.gov="static.pubmed.gov" portal="portal" portal3rc.fcgi="portal3rc.fcgi" img="img" no-repeat="no-repeat" transparent="transparent" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" margin-right="margin-right" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" border="border" important="important"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Go to:</font></a></div><h2 id="sec_000028" class="ui-helper-clearfix" style="line-height: 1.1111em; margin: 1.125em 0px 0.5625em; min-height: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(151, 176, 200);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CONCLUSIONS</font></h2><p style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Environmental research has led to technologic advances and to policies that have resulted in enormous improvements in human health and the environment. However, many persistent environmental challenges remain, and complex challenges with unknown effects on human health and the environment are emerging. For example, increased energy demands have led to advanced approaches to oil and gas extraction that have unknown environmental effects. Increasing urbanization has led to changes in land-use patterns, which may have adverse effects on the quality of air, land, and water and on human health. Agriculture and food production change as technology advances. Environmental research supplies the critical knowledge needed to address such challenges. The committee found that STAR has been integral to EPA's efforts to address evolving environmental research priorities and that these efforts have benefited the public. The committee recommends that EPA continue to use the STAR program to address our nation's evolving environmental research priorities.</font></p></div><div class="goto jig-ncbiinpagenav-goto-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><a class="tgt_dark page-toc-label jig-ncbiinpagenav-goto-heading" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK453157/#" title="Go to other sections in this page" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" style="background: url(" static.pubmed.gov="static.pubmed.gov" portal="portal" portal3rc.fcgi="portal3rc.fcgi" img="img" no-repeat="no-repeat" transparent="transparent" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" margin-right="margin-right" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" border="border" important="important"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Go to:</font></a></div><h2 id="NBK453157_footnotes" class="ui-helper-clearfix" style="line-height: 1.1111em; margin: 1.125em 0px 0.5625em; min-height: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(151, 176, 200);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Footnotes</font></h2><dl class="temp-labeled-list small" style="margin: 0.6923em 0px; line-height: 1.6363em;"><dt style="float: left; margin-right: 0.8em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1</font></dt><dd style="margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: top; display: table-cell;"><div id="Sum1_fn1"><p class="no_top_margin" style="margin: 0px 0px 0.6923em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to the president's budget blueprint submitted to Congress on March 16, 2017, “ORD would prioritize activities that support decision-making related to core environmental statutory requirements, as opposed to extramural activities, such as providing STAR grants.”</font></p></div></dd></dl><div id="bk_toc_contnr" style="width: 600px; max-width: 600px; max-height: 500px; overflow: auto; padding: 0px 2em 0px 0px;"><div class="post-content" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="half_rhythm" style="margin: 0.6923em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/about/copyright/" style="">Copyright</a> 2017 by the National Academy of Sciences</font></div></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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