It is a vile calumny to call the current administration* "anti-science." A low slander, it is—a naked libel and an outright asparagus, as Louie Gohmert would put it. This administration* is all about science, especially when that science can be cited to make a case for deregulating something that the administration* wants to deregulate. Then, it's all about science. Of course, the science it is all about is not considered valid by, you know, scientists, but, hey, how do you think The Most Awesome Man Of Television makes a living, anyway?

The AP, via CBS News, brings us the latest example of Science Marching On, to the rhythm of a hundred Geiger counters.

The Trump administration is quietly moving to weaken U.S. radiation regulations, turning to scientific outliers who argue that a bit of radiation damage is actually good for you — like a little bit of sunlight.

Science!

The government's current, decades-old guidance says that any exposure to harmful radiation is a cancer risk. And critics say the proposed change could lead to higher levels of exposure for workers at nuclear installations and oil and gas drilling sites, medical workers doing X-rays and CT scans, people living next to Superfund sites and any members of the public who one day might find themselves exposed to a radiation release. The Trump administration already has targeted a range of other regulations on toxins and pollutants, including coal power plant emissions and car exhaust, that it sees as costly and burdensome for businesses. Supporters of the EPA's new proposal argue the government's current no-tolerance rule for radiation damage forces unnecessary spending for handling exposure in accidents, at nuclear plants, in medical centers and at other sites.

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"This would have a positive effect on human health as well as save billions and billions and billions of dollars," said Edward Calabrese, a toxicologist at the University of Massachusetts who is to be the lead witness at a congressional hearing Wednesday on EPA's proposal. "The regulatory agencies are kind of a cult, but they don't know they're part of a cult."

Oh, there's a word you don't toss around idly in the context of this administration*.

Calabrese and his supporters argue that smaller exposures of cell-damaging radiation and other carcinogens can serve as stressors that activate the body's repair mechanisms and can make people healthier. They compare it to physical exercise or sunlight.

I'm going to need a couple hundred more sources on that one, big guy.

The radiation regulation is supported by Steven Milloy, a Trump transition team member for the EPA who is known for challenging widely accepted ideas about manmade climate change and the health risks of tobacco. He has been promoting Calabrese's theory of healthy radiation on his blog. But Jan Beyea, a physicist whose work includes research with the National Academies of Science on the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, said the EPA proposal on radiation and other health threats represents voices "generally dismissed by the great bulk of scientists." The EPA proposal would lead to "increases in chemical and radiation exposures in the workplace, home and outdoor environment, including the vicinity of Superfund sites," Beyea wrote.

CSPAN

Here's SourceWatch on Milloy, who's still fighting the tobacco wars, as well as portraying himself as yet another lonely warrior on the battlements of politically correctitude. The concept of embattled victimhood runs so deep in these people that they can't perceive the world in any other way. And, of course, it's a good way to turn a buck, especially if major corporations come to your rescue when the actual scientists have you surrounded. As DeSmog Blog reported, Milloy also notably bad-mouthed the Pope.

It's almost as though the transition team at Camp Runamuck was hired off an old CPAC program that was lying around the office somewhere. Wait a minute. It's exactly like that. All the Best People is never not going to be funny.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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