House Science Committee Wants to Investigate a Government Scientist for Doing Science
Linda Birnbaum
Republicans on the House Science Committee are accusing  Linda Birnbaum   director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences  of lobbying. In letters sent to the Inspector General and acting secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services  Reps. Lamar Smith and Andy Biggs wrote that they were “conducting oversight” of  Birnbaum ’s activity in response to a editorial she wrote in a scientific journal.
 Birnbaum ’s editorial  which the journal PLOS Biology published in December  addressed the gaps in the regulation of toxic chemicals. Though there are more than 85 000 chemicals approved for use in commerce  she noted in the piece  “U.S. policy has not accounted for evidence that chemicals in widespread use can cause cancer and other chronic diseases  damage reproductive systems  and harm developing brains at low levels of exposure once believed to be harmless.”
A toxicologist who has headed NIEHS and the National Toxicology Program since 2009   Birnbaum  received no funding for writing the editorial  as  she  notes in the piece  nor does  she  recommend any specific policy  piece of legislation  or action in it beyond being engaged citizens.
Smith and Bigg’s attack on  Birnbaum  seems less designed to exonerate a particular chemical. In the editorial that caused the most recent stir in the House committee   Birnbaum  introduced an issue of the journal that covered a broad range of environmental science problems from the challenges of setting drinking water limits for PFOA to the need clarify the relationship between the dose and response of certain chemicals.
Republicans on the House Science Committee are accusing  [TGT]   director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences  of lobbying. In letters sent to the Inspector General and acting secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services  Reps. Lamar Smith and Andy Biggs wrote that they were “conducting oversight” of  Birnbaum ’s activity in response to a editorial she wrote in a scientific journal.
 Birnbaum ’s editorial  which the journal PLOS Biology published in December  addressed the gaps in the regulation of toxic chemicals. Though there are more than 85 000 chemicals approved for use in commerce  she noted in the piece  “U.S. policy has not accounted for evidence that chemicals in widespread use can cause cancer and other chronic diseases  damage reproductive systems  and harm developing brains at low levels of exposure once believed to be harmless.”
A toxicologist who has headed NIEHS and the National Toxicology Program since 2009   Birnbaum  received no funding for writing the editorial  as  she  notes in the piece  nor does  she  recommend any specific policy  piece of legislation  or action in it beyond being engaged citizens.
Smith and Bigg’s attack on  Birnbaum  seems less designed to exonerate a particular chemical. In the editorial that caused the most recent stir in the House committee   Birnbaum  introduced an issue of the journal that covered a broad range of environmental science problems from the challenges of setting drinking water limits for PFOA to the need clarify the relationship between the dose and response of certain chemicals.