Trump’s pick as top consumer product watchdog? Chemical industry insider

President Trump has made it official: He intends to nominate Nancy B. Beck, a chemical industry insider and a scientist who built a record at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of scaling back safeguards against toxic substances, to lead one of the nation’s top and lately troubled consumer safety watchdogs. The ascent of Beck to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission has been anticipated and is unsurprising. It still angered consumer groups and Democrats, who pointed to her record at the EPA, saying it already shows she is ill-suited to put the public’s interest above industry concerns. “Beck joined the Trump administration in May 2017, when she was tapped to be a top deputy in the EPA’s toxic chemical unit. She previously had been an executive with the chemical industry’s main trade organization, the American Chemistry Council. At the EPA, Beck has helped scale back several policies aimed at curbing federal limits on toxic chemicals.