July 8 (Bloomberg) -- Vice President Dick Cheney's office sought to delete pages of testimony by a top U.S. health official to remove references to health hazards caused by climate change, a former Environmental Protection Agency employee said.

Jason Burnett, who recently resigned as associate deputy administrator of the EPA, said Cheney's office and the Council on Environmental Quality asked him to edit the congressional testimony last October of Julie Gerberding, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

``CEQ requested that I work with CDC to remove from the testimony any discussion of the human health consequences of climate change,'' Burnett wrote in a July 6 letter to Senator Barbara Boxer, chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee. Boxer released the letter today.

Burnett said the draft testimony was ``fundamentally accurate as written'' and he declined to make the changes.

Boxer released documents today alleging that Gerberding's testimony nevertheless was altered, including findings that climate change is ``likely to have a significant impact on health'' as a result of heat and allergic diseases plus food and water scarcity.

The Oct. 23 Senate testimony by Gerberding followed an April 2007 Supreme Court ruling that found greenhouse gases to be air pollutants under the Clean Air Act, requiring the EPA administrator to determine if that may ``endanger public health or welfare.''

Boxer alleged that Gerberding's testimony was changed as part of an administration plan to ensure that the EPA's response to the court ruling was ``as weak as possible.''

Boxer Plans Hearing

Gerberding said Oct. 24 that her testimony was edited by the White House as part of a routine clearance process and the gist of her remarks wasn't changed.

The ``edits had no bearing whatsoever on her oral testimony delivered to the committee,'' Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the CDC, said today in a telephone interview. Gerberding ``spoke openly and freely without constraint.''

Kristen Hellmer, a spokeswoman for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said in an e-mailed statement that the agency doesn't comment on internal deliberations.

``The interagency review process exists so that agencies and offices can comment and offer their views,'' Hellmer said. ``There's nothing unusual about that, and it's no different than in any other administration.''

Cheney's office issued the same statement as the council.

Boxer said she plans to hold a hearing on the matter July 22 in which Burnett will testify.

`Every Document'

EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson must release ``every document related to the agency's finding that global warming poses a danger to the public,'' Boxer said today, including an e- mail the White House allegedly refused to open from the EPA on a finding of danger from climate change.

``If Mr. Johnson refuses to do these two things -- if he does not have the strength to do them -- he should resign,'' Boxer said.

EPA spokesman Jonathan Shradar said the agency will issue an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking as soon as July 11 on the public health effects of climate change.

That ``is going to be a fairly complete document'' and ``there won't be much else out there to see,'' Shradar said, responding to Boxer's call for release of all documents related to the agency's deliberations.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nadine Elsibai in Washington at nelsibai@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 8, 2008 17:08 EDT