News Releases from Headquarters›Air and Radiation (OAR)

Associated Press Issues Correction To False Reporting

Yesterday, the Associated Press (AP) falsely reported that the Trump EPA was proposing a new rule to “weaken U.S. radiation regulations.” The headline of the story, “EPA says a little radiation may be healthy,” was not only wrong, but contrary to information provided to the reporter by the EPA press office in response to her inquiries.

EPA immediately requested a retraction of the story as it used a regulation unrelated to radiation as the foundation of its reporting. The AP finally provided a correction to their article over 20 hours later and after numerous outlets used their false wire report.

EPA’s press office provided numerous statements to the AP reporter regarding her inquiries on the subject and made abundantly clear that the regulation she was referencing did not even include the word “radiation” in its almost 5,000 words. Provided below are statements EPA provided AP.

If you used AP’s inaccurate reporting from October 2nd on EPA’s radiation standards you should want to immediately correct your stories to stop the spread of alarming misinformation.