Ruth Etzel, “Viewpoint: EPA Needs to Return to Its Public Health Roots"

Employees of the EPA have been demoralized, and the American people no longer have faith in the EPA’s leadership. Etzel, a former EPA leader, argues that the solution to this crisis of faith is to refocus the EPA towards the protection of public health. To do so, the EPA should explicitly affirm its commitment to public health in both word and action. Second, the EPA should rescind the “Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science'' regulation to reintegrate private epidemiological studies into environmental protection. Third, the EPA should establish a hiring program to require at least 5% of the EPA’s workforce to be trained in epidemiology (currently, this number sits at below 1%) and establish a Center of Epidemiology to ensure public health experts are involved in agency decision making.