According to a report in this morning's Washington Post [1], the Environmental Protection Agency is likely going to bow to extensive political pressure from the White House and Pentagon and rule that it will not set a safety standard for the amount of perchlorate allowed in drinking water. Perchlorate is a component of rocket fuel that has been shown to cause thyroid problems in pregnant women, newborn babies and young children.

For six years, career scientists at the EPA have urged regulations on the chemical and have been opposed by White House and Defense Department political forces. The Office of Management and Budget heavily edited the EPA's proposed ruling, and went as far as to ask the EPA to use a different computer modeling system to determine the allowable levels of the chemical. OMB's preferred model was developed by the Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology.

The politicization that has run rampant through the Bush Administration is a detriment to one of our government's most basic functions--protecting its citizens from harm. We have seen in it in the perversion of Justice at DOJ, and here it is again in the manipulation of scientific research at the EPA.