Scientists Demand Answers as EPA Stops Publishing Cancer Risk Estimates & Removes Other Health Information

The Environmental Protection Network & Union of Concerned Scientists call on EPA to restore missing taxpayer-funded research and tools that help Americans understand pollution health risks.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Environmental Protection Agency has stopped telling Americans how much cancer risk they may face from toxic air pollution by stripping that information from a federal database the public has relied on for more than 20 years.

EPA’s latest Air Toxics Screening Assessment (AirToxScreen) still reports emissions of toxic air pollutants but leaves out the cancer risk estimates that help residents understand what those pollutants could mean for their health. The agency has offered no public explanation for the change.

On October 27 the Environmental Protection Network (EPN) and the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) sent a joint letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and Acting Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation Abigale Tardif, demanding an explanation and urging the immediate restoration of the missing health data. The groups also asked whether EPA is still calculating and using the risk estimates internally while withholding them from the public.

While EPA released 2021 emissions and concentration figures for its AirToxScreen, it omitted the critical cancer risk translations that allow communities to understand what those numbers mean for their health. When asked about the omission, EPA acknowledged it would keep publishing raw emissions numbers but did not explain why the cancer risk estimates were missing.

“There’s a big difference between making pollution data available and making it useful. For decades, EPA did the hard scientific work of turning complex pollution data into cancer risk estimates that communities could understand and use. Now, people who want to understand the risks in their own neighborhoods are left to analyze data on nearly 200 toxic pollutants across more than eight million locations. That’s not meaningful public access to health information.” said Tai Lung, former leader of EPA’s EJScreen environmental justice mapping tool.

The missing air toxics data is part of a broader pattern of taxpayer-funded information on pollution and health going dark across the agency.

EPA has taken down its public chemical facility risk management data tool and proposed eliminating its mapping functionality.
A PFNA, a “forever chemical” toxicity assessment that EPA scientists reportedly completed in 2025 remains unpublished.
EPA plans to retire its longstanding online archive on December 31, raising additional questions about continued public access to historical environmental records.

These tools and scientific assessments represent years of public research and analysis. Without these estimates, communities lose an important tool for understanding potential long-term health risks from toxic air pollution and identifying areas where further investigation may be needed.

The letter also notes that suppressing health data directly contradicts the administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” pledge to examine children’s exposure to environmental chemicals using “rigorous and transparent data.”

EPN and UCS are calling on EPA to explain who made the decision to omit the risk estimates and why, disclose whether the agency is still calculating or using them internally, and restore the cancer risk and non-cancer hazard information historically available through AirToxScreen. The organizations have requested a response within 30 days.

The full letter is available on the EPN website and is linked here.

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ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION NETWORK
The Environmental Protection Network is a nonpartisan organization comprising more than 800 former EPA scientists, toxicologists, chemists, biologists, engineers, and policy analysts, many of whom spent decades as career experts inside the agency. They assessed cancer and developmental risks, studied links between pollution and fertility and chronic disease, investigated contaminated communities, and brought enforcement actions to hold corporate polluters accountable. EPN was founded in 2017 to serve as an independent voice promoting science-based policies that protect families’ health.

ABOUT THE UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS
The Union of Concerned Scientists puts rigorous, independent science to work to solve our planet’s most pressing problems. Joining with people across the country, we combine technical analysis and effective advocacy to create innovative, practical solutions for a healthy, safe and sustainable future. For more information, go to www.ucs.org. 