Feeling safer yet?

Your government at work.

For more than seven months, the nation’s top public health agency has blocked the publication of an exhaustive federal study of environmental hazards in the eight Great Lakes states, reportedly because it contains such potentially “alarming information” as evidence of elevated infant mortality and cancer rates.

[…]

The Center for Public Integrity has obtained the study, which warns that more than 9 million people who live in the more than two dozen “areas of concern”—including such major metropolitan areas as Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee—may face elevated health risks from being exposed to dioxin, PCBs, pesticides, lead, mercury, or six other hazardous pollutants.

In many of the geographic areas studied, researchers found low birth weights, elevated rates of infant mortality and premature births, and elevated death rates from breast cancer, colon cancer, and lung cancer.

[…]

“This research is quite important to the public health of people who reside in that area,” [retired rear admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service and former assistant administrator of ATSDR Barry] Johnson said of the study. “It was done with the full knowledge and support of IJC, and many local health departments went through this in various reviews. I don’t understand why this work has not been released; it should be and it must be released. In 37 years of public service, I’ve never run into a situation like this.”

For those of you who may have missed it, the CDC’s job has been changed. Its job now is to do everything in its power to avoid embarrassing the Bush administration or publishing information that might lead to regulations, legislation or enforcement detrimental to the financial interests of the administration’s backers. This includes keeping vital information from millions of Americans about significant health threats, making it impossible for them to make informed choices that could impact and well-being of themselves and their families.

Seriously, how the fuck do you defend this with a straight face and a clear conscience?