Most Democrats and many other Americans will want to take a deep breath of relief when Donald Trump leaves the White House in a few weeks.
But that might not be such a good idea.
Thanks to a decision announced Monday, their lungs could get a dangerous coating of soot.
The Environmental Protection Agency said its Trump-appointed Administrator, Andrew Wheeler, has rejected setting tougher standards for soot — which scientists call “particle air pollution,” reports the Washington Post, citing two unnamed sources.
“The agency retained the current thresholds for fine particle pollution for another five years, despite mounting evidence linking air pollution with illness and death,” the Post says.
Wheeler, a lawyer and ex-lobbyist who has long argued that U.S. environmental regulations are too strict, formerly represented Murray Energy, the nation’s 4th-largest coal mining company, which was founded by Trump supporter Robert Murray.
Burning coal and other fossil fuels produces soot that can lead to heart and lung diseases — the sort of “underlying conditions” that make people more vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic, and to death from Covid-19.
A recent Harvard study “found that a person living for decades in a county with high levels of fine particulate matter is 15% more likely to die from the coronavirus than someone in a region with one unit less of the fine particulate pollution,” reports the New York Times.
Such soot-polluted counties are more likely than others to have minority racial and ethnic populations; EPA studies have found “strong evidence” that Black and non-White Hispanic Americans suffer higher exposures to particle pollution and the health risks that come with them.
“Particle pollution is linked to asthma attacks, bronchitis, heart disease and premature death,” Rachel Fullmer of the Environmental Defense Fund said in a statement.
“The Trump administration has a clear legal obligation to protect Americans from this dangerous pollution, but instead – and against all the best scientific data – has rushed through this effort to freeze the particle pollution standards at a level fails to protect public health,” Fullmer said.
