December 8, 2016
For more information contact:
Katie Huffling – ANHE: katie@envirn.org 240-753-3729
Yesterday, President-elect Trump announced he intends to nominate Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as Environmental Protection Agency Administrator. In response to this announcement Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE) Board Chair Tom Engle, MS, RN, released the following statement:
“A central mission of the US Environmental Protection Agency is to protect public health. Since its establishment by Richard Nixon, the EPA has made significant strides in preventing disease, saving lives, and reducing pollution. In order to fulfill their mission, this agency needs a leader who believes that clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment are essential to the health of all Americans.
As nurses, we are deeply troubled by the nomination of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt for Administrator of the EPA. Pruitt has spent his career undermining the EPA’s ability to protect clean air, clean water, and the health of the American people. He is currently suing the EPA to block the Clean Power Plan – a carbon pollution reduction plan that will save thousands of lives and prevent over 90,000 asthma attacks in children every year. He has also questioned the established science of climate change. Nurses are already seeing significant health impacts from climate change – increased allergy seasons, more asthma attacks, increased risks of Lyme disease and Zika Virus, as well as disruptions of communities from flooding, wild fires and extreme weather conditions. Americans deserve an EPA Administrator who will put the health of Americans first and be guided by science. Unfortunately, Scott Pruitt is not it.”
