EPA Nominee Michael Dourson Withdraws
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Bloomberg is reporting that Michael Dourson, a career chemical industry scientist and Trump’s nominee to run the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Chemical Safety, has withdrawn after widespread opposition to his nomination.
Dourson built his career by accepting payments from corporate polluters in exchange for weakening critical health and environmental protections from toxic chemicals. He staked his reputation on undermining the independent science that raised concerns about the safety of chemical companies’ toxic products — from Dow’s brain-damaging chlorpyrifos to DuPont’s PFOA, linked to birth defects and cancer.
Lisa Archer, director of Friends of the Earth’s food and technology program, issued the following statement:
Dourson’s withdrawal is a victory for everyone who cares about keeping toxic chemicals out of our air, water, food and bodies. Dourson is nothing but a scientist for hire who Trump wanted to install at EPA to further his plans to dismantle the agency from within. His willingness to take payments from industry to write fiction passing as science should disqualify him from any role at the Agency.
Dourson should resign his current position at the EPA and his dubious background should disqualify him from serving anywhere else in the Trump Administration. As Pruitt moves to put industry polluters in charge of the EPA, the Senate must continue to put a stop the destruction of protections for clean air and clean water.
Dourson is proof that when we stand up to Trump’s extreme agenda, we can stop his dangerous nominees from destroying our future.
Expert contact: Lisa Archer, (510) 316-0762, [email protected]
Communications contact: Patrick Davis, (202) 222-0744, [email protected]