Contact: Sasha Tenenbaum, stenenbaum@momscleanairforce.org, 917-887-0146
Washington, DC – Today, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler has finalized national standards for deadly particulate pollution, or soot, that are too weak to protect public health. These standards leave children, older adults, pregnant women, Black and brown Americans, and those with underlying health conditions more vulnerable to serious health harms including COVID-19, asthma, heart attacks, stroke, stunted lung development, cognitive decline, preterm birth, low birth weight, and death.
In response, Molly Rauch, Public Health Policy Director of Moms Clean Air Force, released the following statement:
“Moms are bitterly disappointed that Trump’s EPA and Administrator Andrew Wheeler have refused to strengthen the national standards for deadly particulate pollution. This callous act of negligence could cause devastating health harms, including tens of thousands of avoidable deaths.
“Wheeler has systematically ignored the science on this issue — first, by dismissing the group of outside experts that traditionally advises EPA on the complex science of particle pollution, and then, by disregarding the advice of those and other medical and health experts, who urged Wheeler to strengthen the standards. If that weren’t enough, he then refused to take into account powerful new evidence linking particulate pollution to COVID illness and death.
“He has also steadfastly ignored the tens of thousands of moms, doctors, nurses, and others who have spoken out against this proposal, despite a fast-track timetable during a devastating respiratory pandemic.
“This all would be absurd if it weren’t literally deadly. Particulate pollution is a known killer. Strengthening these standards could prevent tens of thousands of deaths per year, and hundreds of thousands of asthma attacks. Instead, we have gotten a do-nothing rule, rammed through on a wildly expedited schedule, untethered from a scientific foundation. This is the last gasp of a polluter-friendly, health-crushing EPA that is willfully wiping its hands of its legal and moral obligation to protect public health.”
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