12/09/2014 - Scientist with deep industry ties being considered for key EPA job

"A scientist with deep ties to the chemical industry is one of two finalists to lead the office at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that determines which chemicals can make people sick, and in what doses.

Michael Dourson is being considered to direct the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), whose scientific reports are used by the EPA and states to draft regulations to rid air, water or soil of toxic chemicals."

[link to whole article]

Dourson was the PALL consultant who petitioned the MDEQ to loosen the non-threshold/threshold criteria for 1,4-dioxane. This could be bad news for the Ann arbor area if Michigan's obsolete 85 ppb dioxane cleanup standard is not tightened to single digits (3 to 8 ppb) to match EPA's 2010 IRIS revised cancer slope factor for dioxane.