The Health Toll of Andrew Wheeler

This week the Senate is expected to vote on Andrew Wheeler’s confirmation to EPA administrator. In his short time as acting administrator, Wheeler has rolled back or attempted to roll back the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), the Clean Power Plan (CPP), the clean car standards, Waters of the U.S. and methane safeguards -- just to name a few. He’s also proposed a lackluster plan to protect 110 million Americans from contaminated drinking water. Here’s a breakdown by the numbers of what that means for public health:

By EPA’s own numbers, Wheeler’s MATS rollback could cause:

• 11,000 premature deaths

• 130,000 asthma attacks

• 4,700 heart attacks

• $90 billion annually in human health costs

By EPA’s own numbers, Wheeler’s CPP rollback could cause:

• 1,400 premature deaths a year as a result of air pollution by 2030.

• 100,000 asthma attacks

Wheeler’s proposed PFAS plan leaves millions subject to contaminated drinking water for years:

• 110 million people rely on PFAS contaminated drinking water

• 126 military bases rely on PFAS contaminated drinking water

Wheeler’s WOTUS rollback:

• Threatens drinking water for ⅓ of the people in the country

Wheeler’s Methane rollback, which fails to safeguard communities from ozone smog allows:

• Children to miss 500,000 days of school nationally each year due to ozone smog resulting from oil and gas pollution.

• 750,000 summertime asthma attacks in children under the age of 18 due to ozone smog resulting from oil and gas pollution.

• 9 million people to face a greater risk of cancer because they live in areas directly affected by emissions from nearby oil and gas facilities.

• Asthma to strike nearly one out of every 10 school children in the United States