The Trump administration's environmental policies are likely to increase rates of disease and death over the next decade, according to Harvard scientists David Cutler, PhD, and Francesca Dominici, PhD.
"A central feature of [President Donald Trump's] agenda is environmental damage: making the air dirtier and exposing people to more toxic chemicals," wrote Drs. Cutler and Dominici in a commentary for JAMA. "The beneficiaries, in contrast, will be a relatively few well-connected companies."
The commentary details some of the largest health consequences from the more than 60 environmental rules the administration has reversed or proposed to reverse. The changes with the most profound projected effects are the repeal of the Clean Power Plan, which assigns each state an emissions goal for power plants, and the repeal of emission requirements for rebuilt trucks. Respectively, these changes would lead to 36,000 and 41,000 more deaths per decade, the authors wrote.
The entire environmental agenda taken together will increase deaths per decade by 80,000 — an "extremely conservative estimate," according to the authors. For physicians, this means they are likely to see a greater incidence of respiratory and cardiovascular issues as well as more deaths. The authors expect certain populations, such as low-income, black or elderly people, to be affected most, in addition to people working in industrial settings and residents living in areas with a high concentration of power plants.
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