HEFN

The Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy (SKAPP), based at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Service, studies the use and misuse of science in public policy and organizes scientific-community support for transparent decision-making, based on the best available science, to protect the public’s health and environment.

SKAPP uncovers the strategies that polluters and manufacturers of toxic chemicals use to stall regulation of their products, and promotes policies and practices that guard against such manipulation. Through our publications (in the scientific and mainstream press alike), participation at scientific and professional meetings, media work, and online outreach, we been instrumental in exposing the stacking of federal advisory committees; White House attempts to inhibit federal agencies from issuing information that polluters and other corporate interests would rather keep buried; and industry campaigns to “manufacture uncertainty” and impede regulation of dangerous hazards.

SKAPP is currently working to eliminate the appointment of scientists with financial conflicts of interest to the federal advisory committees that advise the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies; conducting an in-depth exploration of the rights and responsibilities of government scientists in order to promote policies that will allow them to be respected and effective; and developing model policies the next administration can use to restore scientific integrity to environmental and public health policy making.