I just read this article at Think Progress and it’s completely “pegged” my outrage meter. I’ve excerpted as much as I can under “fair use” but there’s more, of course, and it’s well worth reading.
The Trump administration is refusing to consider any new regulations to protect children from environmental hazards, according to Dr. Ruth Etzel, director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Children’s Health Protection, who was placed on administrative leave three weeks ago…
The Trump administration placed Etzel on administrative leave in late September. After getting no explanation from Trump officials on why she was placed on leave, Etzel chose to speak out about how the Trump EPA is neglecting to take measures to protect children from lead poisoning and other environmental hazards…
Etzel’s office did not prevail last year when then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt rejected a ban on the organophosphate pesticide chlorpyrifos, which paralyzes the nervous system of insects — and which has been linked directly to fetal brain damage. One study found that “US children born in 2010 lost 1.8 million IQ points and 7,500 children had their IQs shifted into the intellectual disability range as a result of prenatal organophosphate exposures.” (emphasis added)
… she appears prepared to find other ways to advocate for children’s health while she remains on administrative leave. “If EPA won’t let me tell about how children are being poisoned, I’ll just tell the mothers and fathers directly,” Etzel told CBS News. “I have the right, whether or not EPA wants me on their staff.”
Head of EPA’s children’s health office fears ‘kids are disposable’ under Trump
Add to this the crisis in Flint, Michigan (also mentioned in the article) where the drinking water is poisoned with lead, another source of irreversible damage to children’s brains. Children under six years of age are especially vulnerable and the effects are severe and permanent. (emphasis added)
As more and more information comes to light of the depth of cruelty that is an everyday practice in this administration, it becomes painfully obvious that Trump and his corrupt minions are going to go down in history as not just corrupt but criminally negligent in a depth of ways that rival and in some ways surpass the world’s most horrendous dictators.
Read the article!