Trump administration caves to strategy theorized by cigarette companies

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has implemented a new strategy limiting the studies that can be taken into account in the development of public policies. This new regulation, accused by its detractors of handicapping environmental and public health regulations, concretizes a strategy initiated by the cigarette companies 25 years earlier.[1].

From now on, when developing a regulatory decision in the United States, studies that make their raw data public will be given priority over those containing confidential data. In concrete terms, this hierarchy effectively excludes scientific studies on health or the environment. However, over the last fifty years, the latter have played an essential role in the knowledge and regulation of various toxic products and compounds (heavy metals, pesticides, etc.). The implementation of this new rule was made possible by Andrew R. Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist.[2] and EPA administrator (pictured above).

“Junk science”, an invention of cigarette manufacturers

This strategy was developed by the tobacco industry in order to block and delay any regulation on tobacco. Thus, the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, in order to discredit scientific research pointing to the dangers of passive smoking, sought to demand new scientific criteria, such as transparency. However, the existence of confidential data does not necessarily mean opacity: it is simply a guarantee of the anonymity of the results and medical confidentiality. By creating this amalgam, the tobacco industry was thus able to spread the idea that certain studies would be part of a "junk science " (junk science), and thus discredit work that could potentially threaten its interests. Very quickly, a number of so-called "junk science" industries controversial ", like hydrocarbons, have seized on this strategy to slow down certain regulations, demonstrating once again the avant-garde role of cigarette manufacturers in the implementation of lobbying techniques.