Congress to Chemical Industry: You’re Under Investigation

WASHINGTON – The powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee today launched a landmark investigation in the chemical industry lobby group, The American Chemistry Council (ACC). In a letter addressed to the President of the American Chemistry Council, committee chairman Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI/1st), chair of the committee’s Oversight and Investigations Committee, demanded answers to a long list of questions designed to determine the degree to which chemical industry money and influence has corrupted science and decision making at the Environmental Protection Agency and potentially endangered the health of all Americans.

Said Stupak in a statement accompanying the letter to the ACC, “Americans rely on sound science to ensure the safety of everyday products. If that science has been compromised by industry, then the health and safety of the public is in danger.”

The full text of the letter is at the bottom of this release:

“EWG has collected thousands of internal chemical industry documents showing that for decades the chemical industry has worked to corrupt the scientific process and deceive the American public about the health risks of their chemicals, even as they knowingly polluted the bodies of every person in the country with toxic chemicals,” said Richard Wiles, Executive Director of EWG.

“This is a landmark investigation. For the first time the public will find out exactly how the chemical industry uses their influence to corrupt government science at the expense of public health,” Wiles added.

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