Medical Groups Tell EPA: Don't Kill 'Main Tool' to Combat Climate Crisis

Over 120 top health and medical organizations on Monday joined the growing chorus of opposition to the Environmental Protection Agency's attempt to roll back the landmark legal opinion that greenhouse gases endanger public health and the welfare of the American people.

"The Trump administration's effort to rescind the EPA's endangerment finding is not only dangerous—it's an attack on science and on the health of the American people. Undoing the endangerment finding would remove the federal government's main tool to combat climate change," explained Katie Huffling, executive director of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments.

The alliance joined the American Thoracic Society (ATS) and Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health (MSCCH) in writing a letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. Other signatories include national organizations such as the American College of Physicians, American Medical Association, and Physicians for Social Responsibility, along with scores of state groups.

"The science is clear: Climate change is real, driven primarily by human-caused emissions, and harming both our health and the
economy today," the letter states. "The health harms of climate change caused by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are well understood and acknowledged by the American medical and scientific communities."

The letter highlights various health impacts tied to the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency, which include an increased range for mosquitoes that spread diseases, worsening mental health, rising cardiovascular deaths, higher risks for respiratory conditions, and conditions that exacerbate chronic diseases. It emphasizes risks for pregnant people, children, and the elderly.

"No matter where they live, children are uniquely vulnerable to hazardous air pollution. Children are not little adults, and their lungs are still developing, putting them at greater risk for harmful impacts to their lifelong health and development," noted American Academy of Pediatrics president Dr. Susan J. Kressly.

"The Environmental Protection Agency's proposal to repeal the endangerment finding would jeopardize the progress we’ve made to protect child health and leave children susceptible to chronic illnesses, like asthma," she warned.

Challenging the Trump administration's argument for rolling back the 2009 finding, MSCCH executive director Dr. Lisa Patel stressed that "the administration's claim that climate change is not a significant threat is contrary to what nurses, doctors, and pharmacists witness every day in our clinical practice."

"Beyond the devastating toll of wildfires, unprecedented extreme heat, and superstorms and floods that decimate entire communities, we are seeing clinics and hospitals themselves damaged or destroyed, and critical supply chains disrupted," Patel pointed out. "That means in times of crisis we cannot provide even the most basic care patients desperately need."

National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners president Felesia Bowen declared that "it is unconscionable that the agency charged with protecting Americans from environmental threats would consider rescinding policies based on years of evidence-based practice."

The signatories are calling on the administration to not only withdraw its proposed rescission of the endangerment finding but also reaffirm the EPA's obligation to regulate GHG pollution under the Clean Air Act and strengthen protections against climate-related health threats through ambitious emissions standards.

"The science is compelling—climate change is a clear and present danger for the health of our patients and communities," said Dr. Alison Lee, Chair of the ATS Environmental Health Policy Committee. "Last week's National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report confirms what the medical community already knows: Climate change is harming our patients and, absent urgent action, the harms will escalate."

"Let us be clear—the medical community is standing together in its opposition to rolling back the EPA GHG endangerment finding," she added.

Also citing the report released last week, David Arkush, who directs the climate program at the watchdog group Public Citizen, said in a Monday statement that "the EPA is proposing to move exactly opposite to the way that the law and its mission require—flouting overwhelming scientific evidence and ignoring required procedures to reach a predetermined political outcome on behalf of mass polluters."

"The agency should reverse course and drop this misguided and unlawful action," he argued. "Failing that, the courts should roundly reject it."

His statement and the medical coalition's letter come on the last day of the public comment period for the proposal, and after more than 1,000 scientists, public health experts, and economists sent another letter to Zeldin last week detailing why they "strenuously object" to his effort to repeal the legal opinion that underpins federal climate regulations.

The effort to repeal the endangerment finding is just one prong of Big Oil-backed President Donald Trump's war on climate policies, which also includes ending the collection of pollution data, clawing back $7 billion in federal grants for low- and middle-income households to install rooftop solar panels, declaring a national energy emergency, and ditching the Paris Agreement.