RE: Question for 21 September: Can we trust the EPA?

[Rob Lopresti <rob.lopresti@wwu.edu>]

This reminds me of something that happened in my library
a few years ago.  Two men who worked for a major business 
in my county had heard about TRI and came in, quite excited,
to read more about the chemicals they had to deal with.

As soon as they saw the name of the contact person at
the business who provided the information, they lost
all interest.  "We know him.  If he sent in the
data it's all lies."

There's a hundred-year-old quote from a British official in 
India that goes something like this: "Governments are very
fond of statistics.  They multiply them, divide them, and
come up with all sorts of conclusions.  But the statistics
were gathered in the first place by the village watchman 
and he wrote down whatever he pleased."

I have no idea whether the employees were right in 
their suspicions, but we always have to ask where even
unbiased sources get their data.