The US House’s decision today to pass a bill that blocks vital public health safeguards to protect Americans from mercury, toxic, soot and smog pollution from power plants has a body count: as many as 139,500 Americans.
No kidding. Preventing the US EPA from reducing dangerous pollution from power plants means that millions of Americans – including those most vulnerable to air pollution, children and the elderly- are at greater risk for everything from asthma attacks to respiratory disease to early death.
What started as an attempt to make the EPA jump through hostile hoops before issuing public health protections turned into a savage attack on Americans’ health. By delaying power plant cleanup until 2018 at the earliest the bill will cause:
- as many as 139,500 premature deaths;
- more than 58,000 heart attacks;
- more than 1 million asthma attacks;
- more than 66,000 more hospital and emergency room visits; and
- more than 1 million more days of missed work or school.
Who would vote to inflict this on their own constituents?
Find out if your elected representatives are protecting your children and families, or the big polluters who don’t want to clean up, at http://www.dirtysecrets.org/train-act/.