Trump administration efforts to roll back Obama-era environmental regulations aimed at reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions could result in nearly 14,000 premature deaths per year, according to public health experts who cited data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
According to an October 2, 2018 article in E&E News, much of the back-and-forth about the rollbacks has focused on their impact on climate change versus their economic cost. But experts say that reducing CO2 is important not only for the health of the planet but for that of its people, because it is linked with a reduction in fine particulate air pollution, which kills millions each year.
Joel Schwartz, professor of environmental epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told E&E News that there is no level of air pollution that doesn’t negatively affect humans, and that the higher the concentration, the greater the risk of premature death.
“The climate-related rules have air pollution co-benefits, so that hasn’t gotten enough attention,” said Schwartz. “They’re missing that they’re breathing the air, so they’re going to be breathing the air tomorrow, and there is this strong anti-regulatory agenda that is proceeding on many different fronts that is going to make the air dirtier.”
Read the E&E article: 3 environmental rollbacks could result in 13,900 deaths
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