EPA does away with lead science advisor position

In its latest affront to science, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to dissolve a senior position meant to directly advise the agency’s administrator on environmental and public health research. In a statement, the EPA claims the move will eliminate departmental redundancies, but critics argue that putting more managerial layers between the science advisor and EPA acting chief Andrew Wheeler would effectively be a “a pretty big burying of the office.” Most troubling: The news comes just days after a decision to put the head of the Office of Children’s Health Protections on leave and in the midst of an administration-wide attack on science-based policy.