EPA press secretary Bridget Hirsch told Wired in a statement: “By the way, President Trump made a great choice in choosing Dr. Baker, who has never had a lobbyist in his life. Hirsch said Baker and her colleagues said: “Unlike Biden EPA appointees, they remain committed to being led by science.
Zeldin’s public calendar shows that over the past seven months, he has met with chemical and plastic companies and lobby groups at least six times, including a June meeting with Bayer AG, which purchased Monsanto in 2018.
“It’s a damage to the reader, picking six of Seldin’s six meetings from his full calendar to paint inaccurate images and enhance your false narrative,” Hirsch said. “Zeldin administrators are committed to protecting human health and the environment 100% otherwise anything else is your opinion, and that’s it.”
In an email, Bayer Director of External Communications Brian Leake said the company was “thrilled to see feedback from the agricultural industry, especially farmers – the committee solicited and received the committee, which helped inform the report.
“Bayer stands behind the safety of our glyphosate-based product, which has been extensively tested, approved by regulators and used globally for 50 years,” Leake said. “The EPA has a very rigorous review process that spans years, considers thousands of studies and involves many independent risk assessment experts at the EPA.”
As of May, there were 3,000 employees Have left the institution. That month, EPA leadership announced plans to dissolve the R&D office, whose independent science department hired more than 1,000 scientists at the beginning of the year and redistributed certain areas to other areas of the agency, while laying off employees. Reorganization Begins in July. (Hirsh said the restructuring would “improve the effectiveness and efficiency of EPA operations and align core statutory requirements with its organizational structure.”)
Employees say these crises could impact the agency’s work and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), known as Forever Chemicals, another area of concern that the Maha movement has attracted. More and more research is linking these chemicals (chemicals that don’t reduce in the environment) to various health issues. The strategic paper released this week said the EPA and the National Institutes of Health will help the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “updated recommendations” about the health risks of PFA in water.
It is not clear how such a comment will be made. In 2024, the Biden Administration restricted six PFAS chemicals in drinking water. In May, the EPA announced that it would reconsider four of these restrictions.
Two EPA employees working on PFAS issues told Wired that thanks to the agency’s restructuring, they are working to buy supplies, hire lab technology and get the job done. The employees spoke online on anonymous condition because they had no right to speak with the media. (“We are confident that EPA has the resources needed to complete the core mission of the institution to protect human health and the environment, fulfill all legal obligations and to make the best decisions in accordance with the scientific gold standard.”
“I’ve been here for a few years,” one employee told Wired. “It’s the most unlikely time for me, including Covid, and it seems that everyone else is on the same boat.”
