In a significant development reported this summer, all the medical research scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were dismissed by the current administration. The termination meant a huge blow to the hundreds of researchers diligently working to comprehend the effects of harmful pollutants on the human body. This move didn’t come as a shock, given the recent behaviors seen by the EPA, primarily focused on deconstructing vital guidelines established for environmental protection and public well-being.
The EPA is reported to be in the process of drafting a scheme that would nullify its acknowledgment of global warming as a human health threat. This measure might restrict the government’s capability to control greenhouse emissions. Furthermore, EPA’s chief, Lee Zeldin, has eased pre-existing norms for controlling mercury and lead contamination — two toxins known for causing developmental anomalies in children.
Simultaneously, the EPA has deferred the enforcement of novel Biden-era decrees aimed to lessen the quantities of harmful chemicals to which the American population is exposed. Parallelly, Republican members of the House are striving to confer comprehensive liability relief to pesticide manufacturers and curb EPA’s regulation of PFAS, perennial chemicals, through clauses subtly integrated into the spending bills being examined by the Congress.
The combined onslaught on the country’s environmental regulations doesn’t only threaten the environment but significantly endangers human health. However, Kennedy has maintained a conspicuous silence regarding these contradictions, which hasn’t gone unnoticed by his supporters. The pro-pesticide proposals in Congress elicited a respond from MAHA leaders, who penned a letter to Kennedy and Zeldin expressing their dissent.
The correspondence objected to a legislative proposal they deem as advantageous to ‘denying Americans the ability to avoid pesticide exposure, and providing no recourse for justice post-exposure.’ Within the letter, they also admonished the EPA to prohibit two pesticides — atrazine and glyphosate — associated with birth abnormalities and liver and kidney disorders.
MAHA’s efforts are channeled towards two main objectives — enhancing the US food supply and eradicating environmental contamination. Highlighting not just the existence of toxic substances in our food, precipitation, air, and water, but alarmingly, even within our children’s physiological systems.
A recently penned letter by the MAHA movement laments, despite reassurances from the administration aligning with their objectives, their growing discontent with persistent dilution of environmental safeguards is palpable. The antagonism between the two agencies is evident: While Zeldin leads the EPA in concordance with the industries it regulates with a deregulation agenda, the HHS is fixated on environmental safety to boost public health.
The health improvement goal would inevitably mandate stringent regulations compelling businesses to limit their employment of specific compounds harmful to human health. Disconcertingly, the federal health authority holds negligible regulatory power over unsafe substances classified as chemical toxins.
The prevalent industry perception of Kennedy as trivial and ineffective accords Zeldin with robust backing within the Republican Party. The powerful EPA has an extensive discretion in moderating the quantity and type of substances industries can release into the environment — or choose not to.
The pesticide liability relief legislation in Congress, which triggered MAHA’s letter to Kennedy and Zeldin, reveals that House and Senate Republicans align more closely with corporate interests than public health initiatives. This dominance of corporate forces and a lag in managing them adequately is observed as the probable reason for the escalating chronic disease crisis.
Times are challenging for MAHA as they grapple with a decision of either increasingly engaging in politics or holding on to their independent political influence. The present confronts them with a choice to morph into a more politically engaged entity or sustain their independent political status.
The post EPA Medical Researchers Dismissed by Administration Amid Regulatory Changes appeared first on Real News Now.
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