Rollbacks of environmental policies and regulations proposed by President Trump and Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt could lead to an additional 80,000 U.S. deaths per decade and respiratory problems in more than 1 million people, according to two Harvard experts.
In a May 10, 2018 JAMA Forum article, Francesca Dominici, professor of biostatistics at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and co-director of the Harvard Data Science Initiative, and David Cutler, Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics in the Department of Economics and Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, wrote that their estimate of potential death and illness resulting from Trump administration policies is “extremely conservative.”
Changes proposed by the Trump administration are likely to cause serious environmental damage, the authors wrote, “making the air dirtier and exposing people to more toxic chemicals. The beneficiaries, in contrast, will be a relatively few well-connected companies.”
Read the JAMA Forum article: JAMA Forum: A Breath of Bad Air: Trump Environmental Agenda May Lead to 80,000 Extra Deaths per Decade
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Fundamental environmental protections ‘up in the air’ under Trump Administration (Harvard Chan School news)