Kris Thayer, director of a high-profile, endangered EPA chemical risk assessment program, has left the agency.
Thayer, who led EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) division, was appointed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, to direct the state’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, Newsom’s office announced in a news release.
Thayer’s departure comes ahead of agencywide reorganization efforts that will likely dissolve EPA’s Office of Research and Development, which houses the IRIS division, according to sources with knowledge of the draft plans. After a draft reorganization plan to reassign or fire 75 percent of the research office’s staff leaked to the press, former ORD leaders said IRIS is likely first on the chopping block.
Many public health experts consider IRIS the gold standard for comprehensive chemical risk assessments. The division was established in 1985 to be a source of “impartial toxicity information independent of its use by EPA’s program and regional offices to set national standards and clean up hazardous sites,” according to the agency’s website.
