{"id":22828,"date":"2025-02-26T09:02:21","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T10:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=22828"},"modified":"2025-02-26T10:23:11","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T10:23:11","slug":"she-lobbied-for-formaldehyde-now-shes-at-e-p-a-approving-new-chemicals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=22828","title":{"rendered":"She Lobbied for Formaldehyde. Now She\u2019s at E.P.A. Approving New Chemicals."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lynn Dekleva, who recently took a senior role at the agency, once led an aggressive effort by industry to block regulations on formaldehyde.<\/p>\n

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Formaldehyde, the chemical of choice for undertakers and embalmers, is also used in products like furniture and clothes. But it can also cause cancer and severe respiratory problems. So, in 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency began a new effort to regulate it.<\/p>\n

The chemicals industry fought back with an intensity that astonished even seasoned agency officials. Its campaign was led by Lynn Dekleva, then a lobbyist at the American Chemistry Council, an industry group that spends millions of dollars on government lobbying.<\/p>\n

Dr. Dekleva is now at the E.P.A. in a crucial job: She runs an office that has the authority to approve new chemicals for use. Earlier she spent 32 years at Dupont, the chemical maker, before joining the E.P.A. in the first Trump administration.<\/p>\n

Her most recent employer, the chemicals lobbying group, has made reversing the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s course on formaldehyde a priority and is pushing to abolish a program under which the agency assess the risks of chemicals to human health. In recent weeks it has urged the agency to discard its work on formaldehyde entirely and start from scratch in assessing the risks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The American Chemistry Council is also seeking to change the agency\u2019s approval process for new chemicals and speed up E.P.A.\u2019s safety reviews. That review process is a key part of Dr. Dekelva\u2019s purview at the agency.<\/p>\n

Another former chemistry council lobbyist, Nancy Beck, is back alongside Dr. Dekleva at the E.P.A. in a role regulating existing chemicals. The council\u2019s president, Chris Jahn, told a Senate hearing shortly after the Trump inauguration that his group intended to tackle the \u201cunnecessary regulation\u201d of chemicals in the United States. \u201cA healthy nation, a secure nation, an economically vibrant nation relies on chemistry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Lynn Dekleva, who recently took a senior role at the agency, once led an aggressive effort by industry to block regulations on formaldehyde.Formaldehyde, the chemical of choice for undertakers and embalmers, is also used in products like furniture and clothes. But it can also cause cancer and severe respiratory problems. So, in 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency began a new effort to regulate it.The chemicals industry fought back with an intensity that astonished even seasoned agency officials. Its campaign was led by Lynn Dekleva, then a lobbyist at the American Chemistry Council, an industry group that spends millions of dollars on government lobbying.Dr. Dekleva is now at the E.P.A. in a crucial job: She runs an office that has the authority to approve new chemicals for use. Earlier she spent 32 years at Dupont, the chemical maker, before joining the E.P.A. in the first Trump administration.Her most recent employer, the chemicals lobbying group, has made reversing the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s course on formaldehyde a priority and is pushing to abolish a program under which the agency assess the risks of chemicals to human health. In recent weeks it has urged the agency to discard its work on formaldehyde entirely and start from scratch in assessing the risks.The American Chemistry Council is also seeking to change the agency\u2019s approval process for new chemicals and speed up E.P.A.\u2019s safety reviews. That review process is a key part of Dr. Dekelva\u2019s purview at the agency.Another former chemistry council lobbyist, Nancy Beck, is back alongside Dr. Dekleva at the E.P.A. in a role regulating existing chemicals. The council\u2019s president, Chris Jahn, told a Senate hearing shortly after the Trump inauguration that his group intended to tackle the \u201cunnecessary regulation\u201d of chemicals in the United States. \u201cA healthy nation, a secure nation, an economically vibrant nation relies on chemistry,\u201d he said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22830,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22828"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22831,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22828\/revisions\/22831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}