{"id":493540,"date":"2026-01-05T07:02:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T07:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/493540\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T07:02:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T07:02:36","slug":"how-the-epa-is-undermining-childrens-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/493540\/","title":{"rendered":"How the EPA is undermining children\u2019s health"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gina McCarthy is the former administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency and former White House national climate adviser.<\/p>\n

As I follow the trials and tribulations of my beloved US Environmental Protection Agency and the words of wisdom from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., I wonder: Can somebody tell me what the White House\u2019s \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d strategy is actually intended to accomplish? President Trump signed his name to it. Making our children healthy again seems like a winning proposition. But did anyone in the US government other than its authors actually read it? <\/p>\n

You would think the HHS secretary, who served as an environmental lawyer for decades, would be tracking the actions and outcomes identified in the White House MAHA report<\/a> rather than being hellbent on changing recommendations for vaccines that keep our kids safe. The EPA added its logo to the report,<\/a> so you would expect EPA administrator Lee Zeldin to do more than pay lip service <\/a>to it; instead he is focused on dismantling the EPA\u2019s ability to protect public health and the environment. <\/p>\n

Both of these so-called leaders are actively derailing any ability our country has to make America \u2014 and its children \u2014 healthy again. And yes, that ticks me off. I spent eight years leading efforts at the EPA to clean up our air and water and protect our health and natural resources. Now Zeldin is claiming to be doing his job while he rewrites the agency\u2019s mission to focus on \u201cpowering the great American comeback<\/a>,\u201d which means more burning of fossil fuels, more health impacts from increased pollution, and more climate change denial. <\/p>\n

The EPA administrator is sabotaging the MAHA strategy as he pretends his actions have no consequences for our nation\u2019s health and well-being. He\u2019s a wolf in sheep\u2019s clothing, actively spiking any attempt to improve kids\u2019 health and taking actions that could make it worse. The Environmental Protection Network, an organization of former EPA staff, estimates that Zeldin\u2019s rollbacks of air pollution protections will lead to 200,000 premature deaths<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If the MAHA movement isn\u2019t aware of what the EPA is up to, it\u2019s understandable. It\u2019s really easy to miss all the ways the EPA is making our health worse, because it hides the ball. There are so many deregulatory actions that it\u2019s hard to process them all. And it\u2019s often because officials act in cowardly ways by making controversial announcements on a Friday or right before a holiday. <\/p>\n

Limiting \u201cchemical exposure\u201d to better protect children is one of the White House\u2019s four MAHA priorities. So let\u2019s look at a small sampling of the EPA\u2019s actions this past year related to chemicals. <\/p>\n

The EPA administrator is:<\/p>\n