\n<\/p>\n
Donald Trump\u2019s aggressive rollback of environmental protections directly contradicts the promises of his \u201cmake America healthy again\u201d campaign, according to new research.<\/p>\n
Helmed by Robert F Kennedy Jr, Trump\u2019s health and human services department has touted pledges to \u201ctransform our nation\u2019s food, fitness, air, water, soil and medicine\u201d and \u201creverse the childhood chronic disease crisis\u201d. But the president\u2019s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is pushing the country in the opposite direction, says the new report from the liberal research and advocacy non-profit Center for American Progress (CAP).<\/p>\n
An EPA spokesperson called the CAP report \u201cfake news\u201d, saying that EPA is in \u201clock-step\u201d with Maha and the entire Trump administration.<\/p>\n
Under administrator Lee Zeldin, EPA is dismantling dozens of environmental regulations, weakening efforts to limit pollution and has exempted facilities from clean air regulations. These actions will make children more vulnerable to many of the same chronic diseases the Make America Healthy Again (Maha) agenda says it wants to eradicate, including cancers, heart diseases, diabetes, obesity, autism and attention deficit disorder, according to the new report.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe administration is trying to pull the wool over Americans\u2019 eyes, claiming that they care about our health, that they care about kids\u2019 health, when in reality, they are moving so aggressively to eliminate dozens of safeguards,\u201d said Cathleen Kelly, a senior fellow at CAP and report co-author. \u201cIt\u2019s really been heartbreaking to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n
The EPA spokesperson said the agency is delivering on its mandate to overturn \u201cwasteful\u201d policies \u201cwhile also protecting the environment and public health\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have banked environmental win after environmental win, and under president Trump and administrator Zeldin, children and families are safer and healthier than ever,\u201d the person said.<\/p>\n
The Guardian has also contacted the department of health and human services (HHS) for comment.<\/p>\n
In March, Zeldin announced plans to overturn dozens of the country\u2019s most significant pollution regulations, <\/strong>the report notes. The EPA has since moved to implement those rollbacks, proposing the formal repeal of regulations such as a strengthened Mercury and Air Toxic standard (MATs) \u2013 which limits mercury, acid gases and other toxic pollutants from coal and oil-fired power plants \u2013 and carbon pollution limits for power plants.<\/p>\n The EPA also finalized a rule to delay key compliance deadlines for limits on methane pollution, allowing the oil and gas industry to continue, or increase, emissions. It also proposed narrowing the risk assessment process informing standards on dozens of substances, a move critics say would constrain regulations.<\/p>\n <\/span>Lee Zeldin, administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Linda McMahon and RFK Jr.<\/span> Photograph: Bloomberg\/Getty Images<\/p>\n The EPA spokesperson said: \u201cIt\u2019s simply wrong to claim that EPA\u2019s actions will worsen air quality\u201d as \u201cAmerica\u2019s air is the cleanest it has been in decades\u201d. The person also said federal figures project CO2 emissions to decrease by 16m tons under the Trump administration amid economic growth.<\/p>\n Experts say far larger cuts are needed.<\/p>\n The MATs amendments which Trump\u2019s EPA proposed repealing have \u201cdirectly result[ed] in coal-fired power plants having to shut down\u201d, the person said, adding that the changes would revert to the 2012 standards \u201cthat have driven sharp reductions in harmful air toxic pollutants\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cEven the Biden-Harris EPA admitted in 2024 that the 2012 MATS rule provides \u2018an ample margin of safety to protect public health,\u2019 and that their proposed 2024 additions would be a net cost to the country,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cGiven the Center for American Progress is full of former Obama and Biden staffers, they should know this already.\u201d<\/p>\n In perhaps its boldest move, the EPA also announced plans to roll back the 2009 endangerment finding, the legal foundation for all federal climate regulations. The repeal has reportedly been delayed over concerns the proposal is too weak to withstand a court challenge.<\/p>\n These actions and others would expose children to more toxic pollutants, the report says, including asthma-triggering particulate matter, heavy metals linked to brain damage, toxic and hormone-disrupting chemicals such as benzene linked to increased risk of early childhood autism, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons which have been linked to attention deficit disorders.<\/p>\n \u201cThe hypocrisy of this has been stunning,\u201d said Kelly.<\/p>\n The EPA also invited polluting facilities to seek air emission exemptions \u2013 a move that will further increase exposure to pollution, the report says.<\/p>\n \u201cThat basically give these companies a free pass to avoid compliance with toxic air pollution standards that were designed specifically to protect kids, families and communities from pollution that causes serious harm to human health,\u201d said Kelly.<\/p>\n The agency offered these two-year regulation waivers to 170 power plants, chemical and petrochemical manufacturers, and other industrial facilities, the authors found in consultation with the green group Environmental Defense Fund. More than 565,000 children under the age of 18 live within 3 miles of a polluting facility that received an exemption, the report found, while over 2 million live within 3 miles of facilities still eligible for waivers.<\/p>\n The EPA spokesperson said the president had the authority to issue Clean Air Act exemptions \u201cfor national security reasons\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAny claims that EPA is weakening enforcement are flatly false,\u201d the spokesperson said, adding that the agency is \u201ccommitted to protecting children\u2019s health and making America healthy again\u201d and is \u201ccarrying out our core mission of protecting human health and the environment\u201d.<\/p>\n The Trump administration is also \u201cgutting\u201d public health programs that support asthma prevention and pediatric care, Kelly said. \u201cAs kids get sicker, they will have less access to treatments and essential health care services,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Maha leaders have also promoted increasing US birth rates as a goal, but EPA\u2019s actions could undermine that effort, the report says, by abandoning soot pollution limits and rescinding restrictions on certain PFAS \u2014 \u201cforever chemicals\u201d linked to fertility problems.<\/p>\n Adam Finkel, a former EPA science advisory board member and former senior executive at the Occupational Safety and Health administration who did not work on the CAP report, said he is \u201csympathetic\u201d to Maha supporters\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n \u201cMaha have got their finger on a real problem: we do have a dysfunctional health system, we have the worst life expectancy among the richest countries, and so something is clearly wrong that Americans can see,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The problem, he said, is that the administration\u2019s actions are \u201ccompletely inconsistent\u201d with efforts to improve health outcomes, including for children,<\/p>\n \u201cMaha has glommed onto things like red dye No 3 \u2026 but since we\u2019ve already gotten rid of some of the most dangerous dyes in the US, that was just not on the high priority list on a progressive science agenda,\u201d he said. \u201cFor whatever reason, they\u2019ve glommed onto the these idiosyncratic things while they are just looking the other way with respect environmental concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n In some cases, the deregulatory push may not even save companies money, Finkel noted, since certain environmental standards have historically reduced costs.<\/p>\n The report comes as some Maha supporters have voiced disappointment with EPA\u2019s actions. Some well-known leaders from the movement last month issued a petition calling for Zeldin to be fired over his environmental rollbacks. In the weeks since, Zeldin reportedly attended a Maha-focused holiday party, invited movement supporters for a meeting at EPA\u2019s headquarters, and said EPA will adopt a \u201cMaha agenda\u201d. He also called the agency\u2019s decision to regulate some chemicals used in plastic production as a \u201cmassive Maha win\u201d.<\/p>\n But more Maha-contradicting efforts could be on the way from EPA, as the agency is reportedly planning to stop estimating the health benefits of curbing certain air pollutants, Kelly noted.<\/p>\n The Maha agenda also states aims to take on corporate capture. But EPA\u2019s moves have raised concerns about former chemical industry executives leading agency chemical safety efforts, and record donations made by oil and petrochemical companies to Trump\u2019s campaign, said Kelly.<\/p>\n \u201cAdministrator Zeldin could lead a master class on corporate capture and how to rig the system to benefit the oil and gas industry, chemical companies, gas and coal power plants and other industry interests,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Donald Trump\u2019s aggressive rollback of environmental protections directly contradicts the promises of his \u201cmake America healthy again\u201d campaign, according to new research. Helmed by Robert F Kennedy Jr, Trump\u2019s health and human services department has touted pledges to \u201ctransform our nation\u2019s food, fitness, air, water, soil and medicine\u201d and \u201creverse the childhood chronic disease crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[794,574,21901,2599,189,2021,8847,293,22805,21121,81,71],"class_list":{"0":"post-43705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-administration","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-contradict","11":"tag-environmental","12":"tag-finds","13":"tag-healthy","14":"tag-promise","15":"tag-report","16":"tag-rfks","17":"tag-rollbacks","18":"tag-trump","19":"tag-trumps"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}