A December 7, 2005 column by Becky Fenger in the Sonoran [AZ] News notes the article "EPA to Defend Itself from ACSH; NYC Defends Itself from Bedbugs" by ACSH's Todd Seavey:
Todd Seavey is one of the more interesting minds I met at a conference put on by Reason Foundation in Las Vegas last month. He is Director of Publications for the American Council on Science and Health, for which he edits HealthFactsAndFears. This online publication mercifully separates sound science from the scare tactics of scoundrels and solid public health information from media hype over the fad of the moment. This is no small feat, since health fraud purveyors never run out of new arrows in their quiver. Seavey is more than up to the task, having honed his skills as an associate producer for John Stossel at ABC News.
"Every day brings reminders of the potential consequences of irrational regulation," Seavey wrote last week, in response to the news story that New York City is suffering a bedbug infestation. (Before we get too smug here in the Valley, remember we had our own invasion last year.) The federal Environmental Protection Agency has made things much tougher for the bedbug brigade to fight these blood-sucking little pests by vastly reducing the arsenal of pesticides that it allows to be used against them.
Why? Well, the EPA is constantly adding products to a list of forbidden chemicals by virtue of capriciously dubbing them "carcinogens"...
This behavior may come to a screeching halt, Todd Seavey now informs us. The EPA has until a new deadline of January 23, 2006, to answer a lawsuit filed by the Washington Legal Foundation on behalf of the American Council on Science and Health over the discrepancy between EPA's regulations and the scientific information available to them. ACSH is forcing the EPA to admit that they are giving the label of "carcinogen" to products the EPA knows full well are not actually so. Since I have the minimum low regard for EPA, this would make my day.