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Publisher
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www.healthyindoors.com Vol. 6 No. 2, Feb./Mar., 2018
6 | EDITORIAL— February/March 2018
I
'm a political junkie. Throw in
some history and I'm even hap-
pier. Whether you're a Democrat,
Republican, or somewhere in be-
tween, these are certainly exciting
times we're living in, right? Well,
maybe not for the U.S. Environ-
mental Protection Agency (EPA)
and especially not for indoor air
pollution research.
Last month, I was happy to see
professors/industry experts Dr. Brent
Stephens and Dr. Richard Corsi in
The Hill (www.thehill.com) with the
opinion piece, "Cutting EPA indoor
air pollution research will cost money
and lives." They discuss the White
House FY2019 budget proposal for
EPA (with no indoor environments
office) and the mega cuts in research
programs that affect our market-
place. This is also happening in en-
ergy efficiency programs as well…
cuts up to 80 percent.
President Trump actually pro-
posed the same thing in 2018, stating
that states or industry would be able
to absorb these. Lucky for us, he was
kind of disorganized and Congress
was busy with Obamacare. So a con-
tinuing budget resolution was passed
and EPA and others like Department
of Energy had money for another
year. Then I went to some industry
conferences expecting these political
developments to be discussed. Crick-
ets. Nothing. Stephens and Corsi are
right in asking where the research
money is going to come from. The
Sloan Foundation has been a nice
surprise for IAQ funding, but we need
other resources to get in the game in
case the federal funds finally run dry.
It got me thinking about where all
of our Congressional allies went?
Retirement mostly. Where's the new
Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II? Yeah, I
know he has a son, but Joseph III
doesn't pitch a lot of environmental
stuff. When I started in this busi-
ness in 1992, it was the heyday of
indoor air legislation and standards.
Not much passed into law, but many
of the ideas in these bills and stan-
dards were picked up by agency
programs with the money then to
move things forward.
So while I agree science is respon-
sible for many of the great regulatory
victories in lead, asbestos, radon and
others, there was also a lot of good
from a little Congressional advocacy.
We need to talk more about politics
and what areas industry can pick up
the ball and contribute. I'd hate to see
us one day with no science and no
advocates to champion our cause of
bringing a healthy (and energy efficient)
indoor environment to consumers.
Susan Valenti Corliss,
Publisher
Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II, circa 1992
