Scientists are criticizing the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to only consider research if the underlying raw data can be made public for other scientists and industry. Many key studies of the links of air pollution to premature deaths or impact of pesticides use would then be off record owing to privacy agreements with persons in the studies who want confidentiality in exchange for their participation. (The New York Times, March 27, 2018, by Lisa Friedman)
Basing policy only on studies with public, reproducible data would have several unfortunate fall outs, among them placing scientists in jeopardy from attacks by industry lobbyists and preventing important research from informing policy. The EPA would be making policy on a limited and narrow body of research. (Futurism, March 19, 2018, by Lou Del Bello)
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