As the class moves on , yet another of the ( potential ) appointees to the Trump administration has been rule to have some pretty insane scene . This clock time around it is Robert Phalen , an aviation pollution investigator who is expected to bechosen as a skill advisorfor the Environmental Protection Agency .
On paper , this sound great . A scientist , who spent his academic career meditate the impacts of pollution on wellness , advise the EPA as it adjudicate to gut restrictions on industry could only be a good affair , right ? faulty .
“ The relative risk associated with modern [ particulate matter ] are very modest and confounded by many agent , ” Robert Phalen indite in a2004 field . “ Neither toxicology studies nor human clinical investigating have place the constituent and/or characteristic of [ particulate topic ] that might be causing the health - effect associations . ”
Oh . We ’re not sure that it really needs to be pointed out , but there are many , many such studies that attest to the fact that the jeopardy from air pollution are anything but “ very small ” . Only last calendar month , a major report revealed that up to9 million people die every yeardue to health problems link up to dirty zephyr . And it ’s not just physical health that is affected , as other studies suggest it could be hittingour genial wellness too .
In candor , Phalen did make those claims back in 2004 , when perhaps he was unaware of the millions of mass expire from air pollution every unmarried twelvemonth . That excuse , however , is operose to live with when in 2012he is reported to have saidthat “ modern air is a slight too uninfected for optimum health , ” and that children need to breathe in irritants to ground their resistant system of rules ( yep , you read that right ) .
Phalen imagine that “ modern air ” is “ too clear ” for children , and that they need to breath in air befoulment . Just believe about that for a mo .
While it ’s true that there issome evidence to suggestthat exposing shaver to certain irritants early in life can slim their chances of spring up sure allergic reaction , there ’s minimal evidence to suggest this holds on-key for air pollution . In fact , it ’s consistently been evidence that children who inhale air pollution havehigher rates of asthma .
Another subject field on young children growing up in London found that their lung were a full10 percent small in volumecompared to children growing up in the countryside . This does not seem to show that the air is “ too clean " .
But sound news bozo , because if Scott Pruitt has his way , Phalen will be advising the EPA on how to tackle the growing trouble of air pollution across the United States . But first , mayhap someone should warn him that air pollutioncan also make people transgender , plainly .
