Maine scientist’s firing from deca panel draws ire

PORTLAND – An environmental advocacy group is charging that the removal of a scientist from Maine from an external review panel advising the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on fire retardants was an unwarranted bow to industry that illustrates an anti-consumer double standard.

The Environmental Working Group said documents it obtained show that toxicologist Deborah Rice, who formerly worked at the EPA’s National Center for Environmental Assessment and now works in Maine’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, was taken off the federal advisory panel last year amid chemical industry criticism of her role in the review.

The EPA is expected to issue a reassessment next month of the health risks from deca, an industrial fire retardant.

The Washington-based Environmental Working Group says on its Web site that Rice’s “firing came after a protest from the chemical industry, which claimed Rice had a conflict of interest as a result of her testimony before the Maine Legislature, on behalf of her agency, in favor of phasing out Deca.”

The group said the EPA also removed her comments from the panel’s final report on deca’s safety.

According to the Portland Press Herald, the American Chemistry Council sought the removal of Rice, who was appointed to chair the peer review panel, after she urged the EPA to consider health impacts that she felt were not addressed in a draft report.

The American Chemistry Council, according to the Press Herald, asserts that Rice’s statements about the chemical showed she was not objective.

“The whole point of being an independent peer-review panel is that you don’t have your mind already made up,” said Tiffany Harrington, a spokeswoman for the council.

Rice declined to comment Friday, the newspaper said.

The Press Herald reported that Tim Lyons, an EPA spokesman, provided a written statement saying that the agency screens scientists chosen for such panels to protect against conflicts of interest.

“It is a sign of the times. If you can’t fight the science, you go after the person,” Andrew Smith, Maine’s state toxicologist and Rice’s supervisor, told the newspaper. “This is not an isolated case, and I don’t think it is something that’s limited to industry. I’ve seen it both ways.”

Rice, testifying a year ago on behalf of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, recommended that Maine lawmakers phase out the use of deca in televisions and other products. The bill passed and was signed into law.