(CNN) The Environmental Protection Agency has put on ice a proposal that would limit the number of health-related studies the agency can consider when drafting regulations -- a rule critics worried would loosen health protections in agency policies.

The proposal was championed by then-Administrator Scott Pruitt, who lost his job amid a lengthy list of ethics investigations. The current acting administrator, Scott Wheeler, has sounded less enthusiastic about it.

The Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science rule would block the agency from considering scientific studies where the underlying data is not made public. While publishing data is common in many branches of science, health-related scientists are subject to patient privacy restrictions and may not publish the raw data.

That concerned science advocates such as the Union of Concerned Scientists, which said the rule would require agency employees "to put on blinders and only see the science that they want them to see."

EPA spokesman Michael Abboud said on Wednesday the proposal is a "long-term action" and that the EPA does not expect to finalize it "within the next 12 months."

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