President Donald Trump backed newly confirmed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s goals to tackle chemicals with a broader scope than the department’s purview.
At issue is an executive order Trump signed on the heels of Kennedy’s swearing-in for his new job. That order appears to nullify sentiments that Kennedy’s influence would be limited to HHS, isolated from policy decisions at EPA, the agency with the authority to ban pesticides or restrict uses of dangerous chemicals found in the environment.
The executive order establishes the “Make America Healthy Again” commission and its goal of “ending childhood chronic disease” in part by addressing toxic chemicals in the environment, foods and medicines. Kennedy, a former environmental attorney, would chair the commission, whose members will be officials from at least a dozen agencies, including EPA.
That could be a good thing for environmentalists who sympathize with some of Kennedy’s positions on the long-term health risks from pollutants and separating federal research from industry influence.
