Environmental t News Triclocarban seems to defy wastewater treatment
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ROLF HALDEN
esearchers looking for Despite triclocarban’s widetion, levels remained as high as 51 emerging contaminants in spread usage—and its chemical mg/kg. According to Snyder, the wastewater treatment plants similarity to triclosan, another concentration of triclocarban in (WWTPs) face a formidable chalcommon antiseptic additive that treated sludge is higher than he lenge—to “find the needle in the has come under scrutiny—relativewould have expected. The authors haystack,” says Rolf Halden, an asly little is known about the compropose that triclocarban’s chemisistant professor of environmenpound’s fate during wastewater cal structure may explain its resistal health sciences at the tance to degradation. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg In a previous study, School of Public Health. In Halden and his colleagues a study published in this documented the presence issue of ES&T (pp 3634– of triclocarban in streams, 3639), Halden and his cogroundwater, wastewater, authors report that ~75% and drinking water around of the mass of a popular Baltimore, Md. (Environ. antiseptic called tricloSci. Technol. 2005, 39, carban that enters a typi1420–1426). They found cal WWTP persists in the concentrations ranging treated sludge. from 3 ng/L in treated Their work is the first drinking water to >5 μg/L peer-reviewed field study in streams with significant of triclocarban in sewage raw sewage contaminasludge and one of the few tion. While doing so, they reports of the compound’s developed a technique fate during wastewater that uses liquid chromatotreatment. The findings graphic separation, an isosuggest that—given the topically labeled standard, high rate of sewage sludge and mass spectrometric reuse as fertilizer—a single detection to selectively WWTP can return >1 metidentify and quantify tri ric t of triclocarban to the clocarban against the comenvironment. The authors plex background of sewage agree that their findings sludge. Researchers sampling sludge in a wastewater treatment also raise the question The presence of tricloplant have discovered that a common antiseptic additive, of whether triclocarban carban in sewage sludge triclocarban, is present at elevated levels. could be promoting antiraises questions about its biotic resistance in bacteria in the treatment. “I think it’s surprising fate when the sludge is reused as sludge or elsewhere in the environthat no one has looked at it before,” biosolids. Federal regulations clasment. says Shane Snyder, R&D project sify treated sludge as biosolids on Triclocarban, commercially manager at the Southern Nevada the basis of levels of pathogens and known as TCC, is a trichlorinated Water Authority. other contaminants. According to phenyl urea pesticide used extenHalden and his coauthors found EPA statistics, ~50% of the biosolsively as an antimicrobial addithat triclocarban was almost enids generated from WWTPs are retive in soaps and body washes; one tirely removed from the WWTP’s cycled to land. survey of commercial products effluent after activated sludge Hans Sanderson, director of enfound it in 30% of bar soaps. With treatment—with an average effivironmental safety at the Soap and annual production estimated at ≥1 ciency of 97%—as expected for the Detergent Association, comments million lb, triclocarban is classihydrophobic compound. It ends that the research is technically fied as a high-production-volume up in the finished sludge, where, sound and provides helpful inforchemical by the U.S. EPA. even after 19 d of anaerobic digesmation about triclocarban’s fate. 3444 n Environmental Science & Technology / june 1, 2006
© 2006 American Chemical Society
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show that triclocarban can withstand additional treatment steps and remains detectable at mg/kg levels in Class A biosolids.” Halden suggests that triclocarban’s antimicrobial properties give additional cause for concern, noting that the related compound triclosan has faced scrutiny since the late 1990s, when researchers first found that it could promote growth of resistant strains of bacteria. The authors plan to continue their investigations into triclocarban, and they emphasize that many unanswered questions remain. “It’s kind of a detective story,” Halden says. —LIZZ THRALL
Infant pesticide exposure
Some infants may be far more vulnerable to organophosphate pesticides than previously believed, according to a paper published in Pharmacogenetics and Genomics (2006, 16, 183–190). The new study “raises the question of whether current standards for safe levels of pesticide exposure are sufficiently protective. Current U.S. EPA standards require an extra 10-fold safety factor to protect children. But the new study shows that some newborns may be 65–130× more sensitive to these pesticides than some adults, a level of susceptibility 26– 50× higher than previously believed. Of the 130 Latina women who participated in the study with their newborns, >40% worked in agriculture during their pregnancies.
Fish farms harm local food supply ~6 months after mature salmon are harvested. This practice does cut down on the conditions that lead to methylmercury’s creation; however, the study determined that the metal steadily accumulated in rockfish sampled from three sites down-current from active fish farms. These fish had 2× as much mercury in their flesh as those caught in 3 reference locations without nearby salmon pens. Salmon are farmed in coastal waters, usually among islands that protect them from storms.
Water stories
Adrian deBruyn
Wild or farm-raised? Add one more bit of controversy to the debate over which type of salmon to buy next time you stop by the supermarket. Researchers in Canada have found that salmon farms can increase the amount of mercury found in wild fish that live close to the salmon pens, creating possible health problems for locals fishing in the area. The study is published in this issue of ES&T (pp 3489–3493). Raising salmon in pens can dramatically alter the local ecosystem as uneaten food and feces drop through the cages and accumulate on the sediments below. This nutrient-rich organic matter serves as a magnet for hungry invertebrates, and they in turn attract predators such as rockfish that swim in for the feast. However, the muck also creates an environment low in oxygen that is perfect for transforming mercury into methylmercury. To ensure that this muck has time to dissipate, commercial farmers allow a pen to lie fallow for
Salmon farms continue to grow in importance as a major source of seafood, but there may be local consequences.
Documentaries exploring Mexico’s struggle to bring safe water and improved sanitation services to rural populations can be viewed on a new multimedia website from the nonpartisan Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The website is part of the center’s Navigating Peace: Forging New Water Partnerships, a new initiative that seeks to reframe the “stale debate” on water issues. Users can download new research papers written by practitioners and experts describing successful and not-so-successful small-scale water and sanitation projects. Other papers analyze water’s potential to spur both conflict and cooperation and discuss how lessons from water conflict resolution can be leveraged to build dialogue and cooperation between the U.S. and China. To view the site, go to www.wilsoncenter.org/waterstories.
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He emphasizes, however, that the results do not necessarily apply to the biosolids that meet the strictest pathogen requirements—known as Class A biosolids—which are subject to fewer usage restrictions. The heat treatments designed to kill pathogens in the sludge may also change the concentration of triclocarban in the finished biosolids, he adds. The authors say that the sludge sampled in this study would meet the Class B biosolids standards, but they are in the process of measuring triclocarban levels in Class A biosolids. According to Halden, “Unpublished data from the National Biosolids Repository study
Environmentalt News “In my mind, that is a significant effect,” says Marc Trudel, a research scientist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada and one of the paper’s authors. Like the study’s lead author, Adrian deBruyn, who is an adjunct professor at Simon Fraser University (Canada), he feels that the issue should only concern those who frequently fish near salmon farms. “We didn’t know how far from the farm we might see effects to the ecosystem,” says deBruyn. Conventional wisdom, he says, holds that any impact to the environment occurs within 100 m of
fish pens. But because large predatory fish swim in and out of this zone, people may have to revise this thinking. Canada’s aboriginal peoples, who live in sovereign territories called First Nations, are particularly vulnerable to toxics that accumulate in wild fish—for some of them, fresh seafood makes up a significant part of their diet. Health Canada’s limit for total mercury concentration in fish flesh is 0.5 ppm, and the researchers found many fish that exceeded this level. Although Trudel does not feel that the results should be cause
for alarm, he says they do mean that children and pregnant women—populations considered more vulnerable to mercury—should probably consume less rockfish caught close to salmon farms. The trend, says deBruyn, is that more fish farms are being built. His group is now looking at the concentrations of PCBs, pesticides, metals, and other toxics that the wild fish living near such farms may also be concentrating as they root through the muck for food. “The data is trickling in, and we should have some results in the next year.” —PAUL D. THACKER
Pesticide mixtures ubiquitous in U.S. streams
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U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVE Y
Percentage of time or samples with equal or greater number of detectable compounds
using the results to guide their watershed protection programs. Under NAWQA’s first decade of Across the U.S., ~1 billion lb of chemical compounds may be inadwater-quality assessments, USGS chemicals are applied annually equate, Gilliom says. Regulations scientists collected water samples in fields, gardens, and homes to should consider chemical mixfrom 51 major river basins and control weeds, insects, and other tures, he adds. aquifer systems from 1992 to 2001. pests. So it’s no surprise that traces NAWQA is the first comprehenThey analyzed the samples for 75 of them were found practically evsive, nationwide assessment of pesticides and 8 breakdown proderywhere that U.S. Geoucts, including many of logical Survey (USGS) the most heavily used 100 scientists looked as part herbicides and pestiLand use of the National Wacides. They also anaAgricultural ter Quality Assessment lyzed riverbed sediment Urban (NAWQA) program, and fish tissue samples 75 Mixed whose results were refor various organochloleased in March. rine pesticide comWhat was surprising pounds, such as DDT, 50 Streams to the scientists was the dieldrin, and chlordane, Groundwater prevalence of complex which are banned in the mixtures, and not just in U.S. but still persist in 25 agricultural streams— the environment. which meander through Overall, NAWQA’s the landscapes where findings show that >90% 0 ~75% of pesticides are of the stream samples 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 used—but also urban contained ≥2 pesticides Number of pesticide compounds streams, says Robert or degradates and that Gilliom, chief of the ~20% of the time, ≥10 Pesticides seldom occur individually; rather, they appear as national pesticide syndifferent compounds mixtures of multiple compounds, including degradates. thesis for NAWQA. The were present. “Most of chemicals measured the time, you’re dealing in the study were seldom found pesticide occurrence and concenwith five or more compounds presat concentrations likely to affect trations in streams and groundwaent, and that’s just of the ones we people, but they often occurred in ter. The program’s findings mark measured,” Gilliom explains. “That streams at levels that may impact the completion of the decade-long means the aquatic ecosystem is aquatic life or fish-eating wilddata-collection phase of the surseeing exposure to a very wide life. These findings indicate that vey. Many groups, particularly range of contaminants at any parthe current regulatory approach state and local governments and ticular time.” of setting standards for individual other federal agencies, are already The data also show that urban
Environmental Fate and Effects Division of the agency’s Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances. The model “was useful in helping to identify which watersheds in the country should be surveyed to get this additional information,” he notes. Additionally, the data show “how effective federal [and state] pesticide regulation programs have been in mitigating against pesticides that pose problems to ground and surface water,” says Dennis Howard, chief of the Florida Department of Agriculture’s pesticide bureau. For example, the USGS data document improvements in water quality after EPA actions. Most notably, organochlorine concentrations in riverbed sediments and fish tissues continue to decline, although they still exceed aquatic-health benchmarks. In the second 10-year phase of NAWQA water-quality assessments, USGS will analyze the data for long-term trends and expand its statistical modeling capability, Gilliom says. Studies are also in progress in urban streams to determine the degree of correlation between different types of urbanization and stream ecology. —KRIS CHRISTEN
Perchlorate found in produce worldwide Just one serving of some fruits can contain enough perchlorate to exceed the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) safe daily dose by >25%, and wines and beers pack a bigger perchlorate punch than waters, according to a new study that measures perchlorate concentrations in fruits, wines, and beers from around the world. The findings are further evidence that risk models for what is turning out to be a widespread contaminant need to be revised. Perchlorate is well known as a major component in rocket fuel, but the chemical also forms naturally. In
sufficient amounts, perchlorate disrupts the thyroid by inhibiting the uptake of iodide, an essential component of thyroid hormones. In the study, cantaloupe from Guatemala “topped” the perchlorate charts at 463.5 ppb. An average serving, one-quarter of a medium melon, weighs 135 g and would supply 62.5 µg of perchlorate. Fruit lovers who eat half a melon would get a 125-ppb dose. For a 70-kg adult, the NAS-recommended safe daily dose is 49 µg of perchlorate. Some of the other high concentrations that chemist Houssain El Aribi and colleagues report in their
News Briefs Fresh air problems for Europe
Air pollution rose above recommended levels in all 20 European cities sampled for a European Environment Agency survey in 2000. The survey, published in March, included Antwerp, Athens, Berlin, Brussels, Copenhagen, and Lisbon. It found that air-quality limit values were frequently exceeded, especially in streets and other urban hotspots. The report, Air Pollution at Street Level in European Cities, which is avaliable at http://reports.eea. eu.int/technical_report_2006_1/en/ technical_1_2006.pdf, concludes that traffic-related air pollution is still one of the most pressing problems in urban areas. Most of the traffic-related emissions were in the fine particulates range (below the PM2.5 scale). The authors state that improving air quality is “imperative”. EU lawmakers are currently considering new rules that would limit emissions of particulate matter by diesel cars to 5 mg/km.
Quebec bans 2,4-D
Residents of the province of Quebec (Canada) may no longer smite their dandelions with 2,4-D, the herbicide found in popular lawn and garden products such as Green Cross Killex. The ban results as Quebec enacts the third and final phase of its Pesticides Management Code. The code is considered the toughest in North America and bans 20 active ingredients found in more than 200 products sold for cosmetic use in lawns and gardens. Commercial enterprises such as golf courses and farms are exempted from the law. With the banning of 2,4-D, Quebec joins Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, which have already prohibited the herbicide because of concerns that it is linked to childhood cancer. No other provinces in Canada have banned the herbicide.
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stream concentrations exceeded at least one aquatic-life benchmark at 83% of sites, mostly for the insecticides diazinon, chlorpyrifos, and malathion. Concentrations in agricultural streams exceeded aquatic benchmarks at 57% of the sites, most frequently for chlorpyrifos, azinphos-methyl, and alachlor. Detections were much less common in groundwater. However, most of the toxicity information and water-quality benchmarks used in the study were developed for individual chemicals, Gilliom points out. The total combined toxicity may often be greater than that of any single compound present, so realworld exposures are what eventually need to be assessed, Gilliom notes. Scientists know very little about what could result from these exposures. NAWQA’s data are now sufficiently extensive to support national statistical models to estimate concentrations of pesticides in groundwater and streams that haven’t been monitored, according to USGS. The U.S. EPA has used one such model to design a monitoring program to support a decision concerning the potential ecological effects of atrazine, says Steven Bradbury, director of the
paper include 145.6 ppb in Chilean apricots, 62.8 ppb in Mexican red tomatoes, 22 ppb in Chilean green grapes, and 39.9 ppb in raw Mexican asparagus. Other studies have found low levels of perchlorate in rainwater and common foods produced in the U.S., such as milk and lettuce. The chemical has also been found in prenatal vitamins and seaweed. This is the first survey of foods from many parts of the world, says Pur nendu “Sandy” Dasgupta at Texas Tech University. He adds that this study shows that perchlorate can be found all over the globe. El Aribi and his colleagues from analytical instrument companies Applied Biosystems–MDS Sciex and Dionex conducted the survey to demonstrate the power of a new analytical method—ion chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry, which they developed in cooperation with the U.S. EPA. The survey was published online April 18 (Anal. Chim. Acta, 10.1016/j.aca.2006.03.012). El Aribi is quick to note that the survey is just a rough snapshot and not a representative picture, but other scientists say that it covers important ground. “This is a really interesting paper; at least it may explain where all the perchlorate is coming from,” says thyroid endocrinologist Thomas Zoeller at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Zoeller also notes that preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
SABRINA EMMS
Environmentalt News
High levels of perchlorate were found in cantaloupe and grapes from Central and South America.
show that the amount of perchlorate in urine is too high to be from drinking water alone. Overall, fresh fruits and vegetables from California and Central and South America had the highest levels, whereas produce from Canada and China had the lowest. European levels also appeared to be low. “It is interesting to note that only certain agricultural areas are associated with a strong presence of perchlorate,” the authors write. El Aribi purchased most of the food samples from Toronto-area stores between January 2005 and February 2006, but some were sent to him by colleagues overseas, he says. The scientists analyzed 77 wines and 144 beers. In light of the relatively high perchlorate concentrations in grapes, it is not sur-
NIEHS faces opposition to journal privatization plan The U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is facing strong domestic and international objections to its plan to privatize Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP), an openaccess environmental science journal that it publishes. After a budgetary review last
September, NIEHS Director David Schwartz proposed privatizing the multidisciplinary journal. As NIEHS’s new director, Schwartz suggested that the journal’s funding, which is ~0.5% of the institute’s budget, could be better directed toward biomedical research through establishing a re-
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prising that wines contain higher concentrations of perchlorate than beers. Wines from Chile generally had the highest concentrations, which ranged from 7.2 to 38.8 ppb. But some large variations occur in wines from the same country. For example, the levels of perchlorate in a selection of 8 Canadian wines were as high as 20.76 ppb and as low as 0.055 ppb. Levels in beers also varied widely. Although most contained 4.16 ng/m3 ) scored 6.3% lower on mental development tests and had a 2.9× greater risk of being developmentally delayed than children with low exposure. The women in the study carried personal air monitors that measured ambient pollutant levels for 48 consecutive hours during their third trimester of pregnancy.
U.S. greenhouse gas emissions climb
U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions—in particular, CO2 —have continued to increase over the past decade, but the U.S. EPA says the situation could be worse. The volume of GHGs emitted by the U.S. increased from 2003 to 2004, according to the EPA study Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990–2004. Released in April, the report found that U.S. emissions rose by 15.8% from 1990 to 2004 and spiked almost 2% in 2004. CO2 makes up the bulk of GHGs, and most is released by energy producers, followed by transportation and industrial sources. However, EPA calculates that the country’s “global warming potential” decreased because the economy grew. Critics note that the U.S. is nowhere near reaching its promised 18% reduction in GHG emissions by 2012.
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and public-health constituencies NIEHS considers its key stakeholders. An analysis of the responses showed that ~94% of the 330 public comments expressed opposition to the privatization plan. EHP publishes some of its material in Chinese and distributes free print subscriptions to developing countries. More than 5% of the comments came from environmental-health specialists in China and Taiwan, who said that the journal provides scientific and teaching resources that are crucial to addressing environmentalhealth crises and training needs. Shih-Hsiang Lo, a physician and occupational medicine expert in Taiwan, said, “All the people in Taiwan need it, and we can’t get improvements without it. . . . Don’t let the world fall down into black fog.”
Environmentalt News PERSPECTIVE EPA’s Science for You campaign 2004 by former EPA science adviser Paul Gilman (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2004, 38, 181A–184A) to spearhead a strategy that would bring the work of ORD scientists, published in almost 500 papers a year, to Congress and the public. Ideas on how to improve ORD’s efforts at communicating with other EPA offices, agencies, and the public had been brewing at EPA for several years before Roa’s arrival, says Gilman. Several boards convened by the National Research Council had suggested improvements; so, too, had ORD’s Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC). Roa launched what became known as the Science for You campaign. It has been praised by some who think the plan is sorely needed, while others note that the program has misfired badly. Some ask why EPA is spending money on ORD public affairs research, rather than providing journalists with ideas and better access to its
U.S. EPA
“Public Relations Campaign for Research Office at EPA May Include Ghostwritten Articles”, screamed a July 18, 2005, headline in the New York Times. Scientists were left scratching their heads after reading this, wondering why the U.S. EPA is funding public relations projects to polish its image as a science agency. The answer can be found on the desk of Public Affairs Director Donna Vincent Roa in EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD). Roa says that the public is seriously misinformed about her efforts. She is bent on getting the word out that EPA science is timely and can improve the quality of almost everyone’s life. In fact, “most people don’t even know that ORD has labs,” Roa tells ES&T. “And if they don’t know that we have labs, they don’t know we have scientists.” An award-winning public relations specialist, Roa was hired in
scientists. The program is also being developed as ORD’s budget is shrinking dramatically: The office has lost 14% of its funding over the past 3 years (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2006, 40, 2078–2079). And it’s being rolled out during a time of suspicion by scientists and journalists over the government’s alleged misuse of science. In an interview with Roa, ES&T takes a look at the roots and direction of ORD’s controversial new science communication strategy. Roa began her campaign with benchmarking research—an unfamiliar term for government employees and an underused practice for most public affairs experts. “Our benchmarking is not common throughout the government,” Roa stresses. The need to demonstrate that projects are getting results is more important today than ever, says Chris Tollefson, chief of public affairs for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. As a result of the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, federal agencies are being
An online story about an ORD project in the New Bedford Harbor, Mass., (above) typifies one avenue that EPA’s Donna Roa is using to reach nonscientists. The article explains in simple terms that research can be linked with a community’s history to help residents devise cleanup plans for contaminated sites in any neighborhood. 3450 n Environmental Science & Technology / June 1, 2006
asked to demonstrate the results of their activities, including their research results, rather than just enumerate for Congress what they are doing, he adds. “If you want federal money, you have to show Congress that you are effective,” Tollefson says. Roa began by interviewing 350 scientists and program staff. She compared ORD’s presence in print and on the web with those of its “sister” agencies: NASA, NIH, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). NIH and NASA were mentioned most often, Roa says, whereas EPA and CDC were cited less. And on sites where everyone expected EPA to be highly cited, it wasn’t. “The purpose of all of this was to build an evaluation . . . to make a ‘to do’ list for the future of what our goals would be and of where we can improve on our ways to communicate,” she says. One of the priorities, Roa concluded, was to write articles about ORD science in less technical language for the general public. For example, Roa posted an article she wrote on how scientific analysis can provide a history of a local waterfront. And, for the past 14 months, ORD has had an agreement with the Air & Waste Management Association to provide a monthly column by an ORD writer on a research topic to its EM magazine. Roa provides a brief note indicating that the author is an EPA employee; the decision whether to use the statement is made by the magazine, Roa says. Roa plans to offer other EPAwritten articles to editors in the popular press—an unusual step for a government public affairs effort. She plans to target Reader’s Digest and Parade, mainstream publications with circulations in the millions. These articles will be on noncontroversial topics, at least for now. “We are not the experts on dioxin and mercury as far as the agency’s public policy decisions [go],” she says. Roa’s multiyear strategic plan to improve EPA’s communication of
science won the “Best of the Best” award in 2005 from the Washington, D.C., chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators, a membership organization that supports communications and public affairs experts. Ann Bostrom, chair of the BOSC subcommittee that suggested that ORD find better ways to get out its scientific results, says Roa has taken up several ideas. For example, BOSC suggested that ORD identify the audiences for its research, develop systematic methods of tracking the influence of its science on policy, and undertake strategic planning. (ES&T Editor Jerry Schnoor was the BOSC chair when the communications subcommittee was writing its report.) Despite the campaign’s noble intentions, many EPA watchers note that it has stumbled badly with just about every activity it has launched. Foremost is the May 2005 Sources Sought Notice published by EPA. This initiative announced the availability of $6 million for public relations firms to undertake various tasks, including providing the agency with professional guidance in communications strategies to “enhance ORD’s corporate image.” The notice asked for help to “provide research, writing, and editing of Office of Research and Development articles for publication in scholarly journals and magazines.” This notice led the New York Times to write about “ghostwritten articles”, something Donald Kennedy, the editor of Science magazine, said would be “appalling”. When asked, ORD officials say they never intended to have others write science papers that later would be peer-reviewed and published. The next knock came in November 2005, when the editors of top science publications, including ES&T, were emailed a survey from JDG Communications, Inc., a public relations group hired by ORD. The 15-question survey asked the editors, among other things, to rate
their opinion of EPA’s science. The survey is an unusual project for a federal agency, and it ignited a discussion among media watchers and journalists. Roa notes that the survey was just one piece of the strategy and that it helped build the foundation for the benchmarking project. “This is not public affairs, and that is the message we have to keep on driving,” Roa adds. “I have science, and what I am trying to do is take science that is peer-reviewed and probably published and move that in a different form to a broader audience.” Before anything can be published about a scientist’s work, “it must be ‘blessed’ by the scientist,” she adds. Bud Ward, the editor of environmentwriter.org and the lead public investigator for NIH on a project aimed at improving science communications, says that EPA’s initial efforts have been “hamhanded” and “kind of embarrassing,” he says. “No mainstream publication is going to run an article written by an EPA staff person, unless it [is] published on the editorial page,” Ward says. And he warns editors to be careful when they handle these stories: The Bush Administration has hired journalists, who didn’t disclose their affiliation when they pitched stories to editors, to write articles that simply reflect the administration’s viewpoints. Science’s Kennedy agrees. EPA has “got to stop bottling up their scientists,” adds Kennedy, referring to barriers reporters face on interviewing researchers. He voices an opinion expressed by other media experts contacted by ES&T. Bostrom says that she relies heavily on the summaries of published papers written by science journalists to keep her abreast of cutting-edge research. “This is a fairly recent phenomenon, that EPA is trying to get the message out. But I don’t think that public affairs is the be-all and end-all of this. There is a role for science journalists,” Bostrom says. —CATHERINE M. COONEY
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