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Monday, April 24th, 2017

EPA Considers Gutting Regulations on Lead Contamination

Author:     Mike Ludwig
Source:     truthout
Publication Date:     Friday, April 21, 2017
Link: EPA Considers Gutting Regulations on Lead Contamination
Stephan:   The toxic effects of lead, particularly the effect on the developing brains of children, have been known for decades now. But there are strong corporate interests that find the regulation of lead onerous, and costly. Limiting lead limits their profits. So it should surprise no one that the Trump administration, through one of its lead zombies EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, is only too willing to support the profits of the few against the wellbeing of the many. Here's the evidence.

Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Scott Pruitt speaks at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, February 25, 2017.
Credit: Gage Skidmore

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent out a notice on Wednesday announcing a series of upcoming public meetings in which it will consider gutting rules and regulations meant to protect the public from lead and hazardous chemicals, including training programs designed to prevent children from being exposed to lead paint.

The notice went out at 2:39 p.m., just as EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt was meeting with residents of a neighborhood in East Chicago, Indiana, that has been contaminated with lead for decades. Six weeks after beleaguered residents petitioned his agency to take emergency action to protect them from lead contamination in their drinking water, Scott Pruitt was visiting East Chicago as part of the kick-off tour for his term as administrator of the EPA.

“That timing is discouraging, obviously,” said Debbie Chizewer, an attorney at an environmental law clinic at Northwestern University […]

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1 Comment

  1. MjS on Wednesday, April 26, 2017 at 7:49 pm

    Lead’s toxicity was recognized and recorded as early as 2000 BC, has decimated entire civilizations for generations, cost modern societies untold fortunes in developmentally handicapped children and their lost futures (not to mention the violent behavioral issues), and these lunatic rightists are ‘not sure’ about the relevancy of such regulations, with their sole overriding concern being corporate profitability before public health.

    I’m almost tired of repeating this question about modern-day conservatives, but here goes…again:
    What. In. Hell. Is. Wrong. With. These. People?!