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TOP: ANDREW HARNIK/ASSOCIATED PRESS. BOTTOM: BRADLEY PETERSON VIA PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCESWhat Remains
After Pruitt Resigns
Embattled Environmental Protection Agency
Administrator Scott Pruitt resigned from ofice
in July. He faces numerous ethical investigations
into excessive spending on travel, security staff
and ofice furnishings. (Remember that $43,000
phone booth?) He also leaves a considerable
legacy after his 16 months in ofice. Pruitt
openly rejected the scientiic consensus that
humans’ greenhouse gas emissions are the
main contributor to climate change, and he
frequently ignored the advice of the EPA’s own
scientiic experts in his decision-making. He
also instituted rollbacks on regulations designed
to protect the environment and public health,
which will likely have lasting consequences
for years to come.Hazardous Substances
Pruitt rejected a petition
to ban all uses of the
hazardous chemical
chlorpyrifos, commonly
used in insecticides;
the decision went
against the Obama-era
recommendations of the
EPA’s own chemical safety
experts. A federal appeals
court overturned Pruitt’s
decision, ordering the EPA
to move forward with
the ban.
The EPA had previously
banned the use of
chlorpyrifos near homes
and schools in 2000, but
epidemiologist Virginia
Rauh of ColumbiaUniversity found in 2012
that exposure to the
chemical while in the womb
still affected children years
later. “The typical brains
of the highly exposed
children look significantly
different than the brains of
the low-exposed children,”
Rauh says. According to
Rauh, the brain regions
affected play a role in social
functions, such as attention
and social cognition, and
may impact children’s
behavior. There’s also
evidence that chlorpyrifos
exposure might be linked
to movement disorders,
such as hand tremor.POLICY
From the EPA’s Pruitt to a burgeoning Space Force, policy inuenced
science in a big way in 2018. BY ERIKA K. CARLSON
Former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, who testified in May before a
Senate committee, faced several ethical investigations. By July he’d
resigned, but his policy decisions likely will be felt longer than the 16
months he held office.A 2012 study found that abnormalities in children’s
brains after exposure to high levels of the insecticide
chlorpyrifos are linked to deficits in attention,
language, social function and control.