The initials EPA stand for Environmental Protection Agency. The Agency is supposed to protect the environment and the American population from harmful substances. Under the Trump administration, however, the EPA is not doing its job.
The EPA headed by Lee Zelden ruled in February 2026 that climate change did not endanger public health despite scientific evidence to the contrary. Trump agrees with this decision, his administration rescinding the 2009 endangerment finding that greenhouse gases were driving climate change, including carbon dioxide and methane. The EPA also reversed regulations that limited hazardous air pollutants from coal-fired plants, including mercury, other heavy metals and toxic substances. Under Trump’s aegis, the EPA has abandoned its obligations to protect Americans’ health and the environment. 546 polluting facilities have been given exemptions from Clean Air Act rules, permitting toxic air pollution to be uncontrolled. It is estimated that 4.6 million Americans could be exposed to higher cancer risks, some of whom already have air-pollution risks 80 times greater than EPA standards.
In addition, the EPA repealed some limits on forever chemicals in drinking water. These have been shown to cause cancer and other serious diseases. The weedkiller atrazine which poses an extinction risk to some wildlife and has been linked to cancer and hormonal diseases has also been certified as safe by the Fish and Wildlife Service. The Trump administration is easing restrictions as well on climate ‘Super Pollutants”. These include hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) used in refrigerators and air conditioners which will be phased out more slowly than was anticipated.
To go along with the new pollution regulations from the EPA, the independent chemical referee who for decades made decisions on which chemicals were hazardous to human health is being sidelined. There will no longer be a neutral chemist assessing which substances are dangerous. Current and past assessments will be subject to review within the EPA and decisions will take into consideration jobs, importance of chemicals, policy, etc, besides the substance’s hazard. All harmful chemicals will be reevaluated using more lenient criteria.
In addition to changes in place at the EPA, the ideas behind MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) have been eliminated to a large degree by other Trump government employees aligned with big business. Problems with food and pollution are not controlled by Kennedy and HHS. Dangerous substances like glyphosate, mercury, other airborne particles, forever chemicals in pesticides and drinking water are allowed by the Trump administration. The staff at HHS was cut by 25 percent last year.
For the EPA, HHS and the Trump Administration, money and business are all that counts, with health and the environment taking a back seat to profits
www.robertlevinebooks.com
Political junkie, Vietnam vet, neurologist- three books on aging and dementia. Book on health care reform in 2009- Shock Therapy for the American Health Care System. Book on the need for a centrist third party- Resurrecting Democracy- A Citizen’s Call for a Centrist Third Party published in 2011. Aging Wisely, published in August 2014 by Rowman and Littlefield. Latest book- The Uninformed Voter published May 2020