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ACP: Trump's order on climate change threatens public health

The ACP condemned President Donald J. Trump’s executive order on climate change, saying that the order “will have a devastating impact on public health.”

Trump’s order directs the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to roll back U.S. efforts to combat air pollution, according to an ACP press release.

“[This] executive order moves us in the wrong direction on this issue,” Nitin S. Damle, MD, MS, MACP, president of ACP, said in the release. “It signals a retreat from our nation’s efforts to curb carbon emissions and address climate change. Climate change is a problem we should be attacking aggressively on a global level.”

The executive order, which specifically directs the EPA to rewrite and loosen the standards implemented in the Clean Power Plan. Previously, ACP outlined the negative consequences that climate change will have on public and individual health such as higher rates of respiratory and heat-related illnesses, increased frequency of diseases carried by insects, water-borne diseases and behavioral health issues. In the paper, ACP noted that the Clean Power Plan could avoid 3,600 deaths, 1,700 heart attacks and 90,000 asthma attacks.

“ACP is very concerned about the harmful health effects that climate change is having on our patients,” Damle said in the release. “We need to take action now to protect the health of our community’s most vulnerable members — including our children, our seniors, people with chronic illnesses, and the poor — because our climate is already changing and people are already being harmed.” – by Savannah Demko

Disclosure: Damle is president of the ACP.