NEWS: The U.S. EPA has just announced that it is eliminating its scientific research arm and is firing hundreds of chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists. The E.P.A.’s science office provides the independent research that underpins nearly all of the agency’s policies and regulations. It has analyzed the risks of hazardous chemicals, the impact of wildfire smoke on public health and the contamination of drinking water by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

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