EPA’s Use of Gene Test to Assess Chemicals Sparks Mixed Reaction

The EPA’s first effort to use an emerging type of scientific data to calculate the amount of a chemical that is hazardous drew praise from chemical manufacturers and criticism from environmental health groups, who said the agency ignored evidence of the chemicals’ harms.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Chemicals is meeting this week to evaluate draft scientific analyses the agency has completed for four chemicals. Its official critique and recommendations are expected by September.

Among the issues the committee and public commenters discussed was the EPA’s proposed first-ever quantitative use of transcriptomic, or gene expression, data to ...