Last week, Trump’s EPA decided to roll back regulations of a chemical that causes brain damage in infants. This chemical, perchlorate, is found in rocket fuel and can also be found in public drinking water.
Environmental experts and Health professionals have been fighting this deregulation that was created during the Obama Administration.
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler claims this move “fulfills President Trump’s promise to pare back burdensome ‘one-size-fits-all’ overregulation for the American people.”
According to Associated Press, perchlorate from runoff contaminates the drinking water of as many as 16 million Americans, the Obama administration said in 2011 when it announced the EPA would act to set maximum limits for perchlorate for the first time.
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) senior strategic director for Health Erik D. Olson says this decision is “illegal, unscientific, and unconscionable. The Environmental Protection Agency is threatening the health of pregnant moms and young children with toxic chemicals in their drinking water at levels that literally can cause loss of IQ points. Is this what the Environmental Protection Agency has come to?”
According to Common Dreams, the NRDC plans to challenge the order in court, claiming the consent decree did not allow for deregulating the chemical.
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