The Environmental Protection Agency is charged with the protection of two things: the environment and public health. So it’s no surprise that the agency would use it’s social media presence to tweet about asthma, something that as of 2009, affected 1 in 10 children and 1 in 12 adults in the United States.
Asthma can be triggered by a number of irritants, from pollen and dust spores to pollution in the air. And, as the agency that regulates air pollution, it seems like an EPA concerned about asthma would draw the connection between asthma attacks and pollution such as smog, ozone, and particulate matter.
That, however, is not what the EPA has been doing. In two tweets sent from the official U.S. EPA account during the month of June, the EPA singled out just two potential triggers for asthma attacks: incense, and bonfires.
“They are just distracting from the larger issues by focusing on the really small ones,” Liz Purchia, a former EPA communications official under the Obama administration, told ThinkProgress. “I’d love to see the last time they talked about carbon pollution from power plants and the threat that they posed to public health.”
Just days before the EPA sent the first tweet, warning about the dangers of incense and scented candles, the agency announced that it would be giving states another year to develop air quality plans meant to comply with the agency’s 2015 ground-level ozone standard, which created stricter limits for ozone pollution. Ozone pollution is a known trigger for asthma, especially in children, who are at greater risk of exposure to ozone because they tend to spend more time outside than adults — something that the EPA’s own website acknowledges.
Days after sending the tweet about incense and scented candles, the EPA also announced it would seek to a two-year delay in the implementation of a rule requiring oil and gas companies to detect and repair leaks of methane and other air pollutants from oil and gas wells. In announcing the delay, the EPA acknowledged that it could have a disproportionate impact on the health of children, but argued that delay was worthwhile because it would save the oil and gas industry roughly $173 million.
“It’s pretty unbelievable,” Purchia said. “They are using smoke and mirrors to make it appear like they are trying to protect public health, and meanwhile they are doing everything that they can do rollback regulations and work with the fossil fuel industry to bend to their will. They are showing a willful blindness towards the health of the American public.”
During his confirmation hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works committee, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt was asked about the high occurrence of childhood asthma in Oklahoma, where he had served as Attorney General for six years. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) asked Pruitt why he had not brought lawsuits against polluters on behalf of any of the more than 88,000 children with asthma in the state.
“You can’t just bring lawsuits if you don’t have standing if there’s not been some injury to the state of Oklahoma,” Pruitt responded.
As attorney general, however, Pruitt actually worked against the interests of childhood asthma sufferers, suing the EPA to stop the implementation of its methane rule, which would help cut down on the amount of air pollution that can trigger asthma.
Pruitt has not, as of yet, taken any legal action against incense or scented candle manufacturers. The EPA did not immediately respond to ThinkProgress’ request for an explanation regarding how the agency chose which asthma triggers to highlight in its tweets.