The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday said it recently placed the head of its Office of Children’s Health Protection on administrative leave because of “allegations” about her leadership.
Chief of Staff Ryan Jackson issued a statement after union officials representing EPA employees complained about the EPA’s move to sideline Dr. Ruth Etzel, a pediatrician and epidemiologist who had been with the agency since 2015.
The EPA originally did not provide a reason for placing Etzel on leave when the New York Times broke a story earlier this week about her status.
“Although EPA does not customarily comment on personnel matters, due to circulating misinformation, the director of the EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection was placed on leave to give the agency the opportunity to review allegations about the director’s leadership of the office,” Jackson said Friday.
The EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection, created by President Bill Clinton in 1997, focuses on how agency regulations and programs consider the impacts on children, babies, and fetuses, who are especially vulnerable to pollution.
Critics say the move to place Etzel on leave reflects a broader act by EPA to de-emphasize the children’s office. The Times reported that Etzel clashed with EPA political appointees who sought to weaken pollution regulations.
“Clearly, this is an attempt to silence voices whether it’s in the agency’s Office of Children’s Health or the Office of the Science Advisor to kill career civil servants’ input and scientific perspectives on rule-making,” Michael Mikulka, who leads a union representing about 900 EPA employees, told the Times.
John Konkus, an EPA spokesman, denied that claim.
“Children’s health is and has always been a top priority for the Trump administration and the EPA in particular is focused on reducing lead exposure in schools, providing funds for a cleaner school bus fleet and cleaning up toxic sites so that children have safe environments to learn and play,” he said in a statement.
The change at the children’s office comes as EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler is leading a reorganization of the agency.
EPA is also looking at eliminating its Office of the Science Adviser, which, like the children’s office, reports directly to Wheeler.
EPA plans to combine the top science adviser’s post with another office.
A top EPA science official and current acting science adviser defended the plan by downplaying reports that the science post was being stripped away completely.
“The fact of the matter is that the Senate-confirmed assistant administrator for [the Office of Research and Development] has customarily served as the EPA Science Adviser which will continue to be the case,” Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, the principal deputy assistant administrator for science and acting science adviser, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
However, there hasn’t been a Senate-confirmed head of the Office of Research and Development for six years.
The science adviser is a senior position meant to advise the EPA administrator on new science affecting the agency’s public health mission. Critics say eliminating the post reflects the Trump administration’s skepticism of valuing science in its rulemaking that has focused on rolling back regulations to combat climate change.
