The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) internal audit agency found that senior agency officials retaliated against three employees who expressed differing scientific opinions.
Employees who were victims of this retaliation believed the chemicals were more toxic, but executives believed the chemicals were safer, the report said.Report from the EPA Inspector General.
In one such case, EPA scientist Sarah Gallagher said the agency thought the chemical should be considered toxic to developing fetuses, but other officials wanted to classify it as a low-priority weight issue.
In another case documented in a report finding retaliation against scientist Martin Phillips, a senior scientific adviser allegedly changed an assessment and removed “reproductive toxicity” as a concern from safety information provided to people working with the chemical.
A third report, which found retaliation against scientist William Irwin, also said managers tried to cover up evidence of reproductive toxicity.
As a result of these incidents, Gallagher, Phillips and Irwin all received lower performance evaluations, Gallagher lost his bonus and Irwin was transferred to another department, according to the EPA Office of Inspector General.
Gallagher told The Hill that he felt he could not perform his job without facing retaliation.
“I was really scared,” she said. “I felt like there was nothing I could do to protect both people's health and my career.”
In addition to the impact on the employees' own careers, the watchdog report said such cases appeared to have a chilling effect that could affect the willingness of scientists at other institutions to stand up to management.
“Other assessors noted how those opposed to management were perceived,” the report said.
It added that one person, who asked not to be named, testified that employees could be viewed as “problematic” by management if they did not agree to resolve the backlog or delayed doing so.
While the incidents allegedly took place during President Trump's administration, the whistleblowers said problems with scientific integrity at the agency are ongoing.
The report released Tuesday also criticized how complaints filed on behalf of staff members were handled in 2021, noting that scientific integrity officers did not redact whistleblowers' names before distributing complaints.
Gallagher said a dead cockroach was placed on her desk after the complaint went public.
The inspector general's report also detailed alleged harassment employees suffered.
In particular, it detailed an incident in which a deputy director in one office allegedly instructed employees who were evaluating new chemicals composed primarily of carcinogenic solvents that they should not consider the hazards of the solvents in their evaluation.
The official then “threw a stack of solvent memoranda onto the conference table, scattering them everywhere,” according to the report.
The report doesn't name any officials, but the EPA's deputy administrator at the time was Tara Henry, who stayed on with the agency under President Biden but has since retired and declined to comment.
“I sort of naively thought that by working with almost all the PhD-level scientists and discussing it scientifically, we could solve the problem,” Phillips told The Hill.
“Instead, what we received was bullying, harassment, name calling and instructions to just ignore things without any explanation or justification,” he added.
An EPA spokesman noted that these cases occurred during the previous administration, at a time when “political leadership was exerting strong pressure on both career managers and scientists in EPA's New Chemicals Program to review and approve new chemicals more quickly.”
“From day one in office, the Biden-Harris Administration has restored scientific integrity as a cornerstone of our efforts to protect public health and the environment, including restoring important whistleblower protections that allow employees to share their own distinct scientific opinions,” the spokesperson said.
Kayla Bennett, science policy director at the Association of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, disputed that explanation.
“The situation was horrific under the Trump administration,” Bennett said, but added that “all of these same issues, both in retaliation and the underlying scientific issues, are happening under the Biden administration.”
“Things aren't getting much better,” she added. “A little bit better, but not much better.”
The report was released following a complaint filed by Bennett's organisation on behalf of scientists.
The complaints focused on instances of alleged interference with science by the agency, including removing language identifying the chemicals' potential adverse effects and other efforts to minimize concerns about the chemicals' toxicity.
The report released this week detailed specific scientific disagreements, but the inspector general's office did not say whether the accusations of interference were substantiated.
EPA Inspector General Sean O'Donnell said in a letter accompanying the report that the results indicate “further work is needed” to meet the agency's scientific integrity obligations.
