The entire permanent staff of the Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice was cut, according to one person who was among the approximately 200 fired from the division.
This division has worked on issues such as asthma and air pollution, climate change and health, childhood lead poisoning and cancer clusters.
The former employee noted that these divisions do crucial work to protect public health, pointing out, for example, that it helped discover lead contamination in applesauce pouches that were popular with kids.
The person also noted that the division had staffers who would be able to help respond in case there was a nuclear event, such as an attack or nuclear plant meltdown.
National Center for Environmental Health Director Ari Bernstein said in an internal email that the Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice had been “slated to be eliminated in its entirety,” E&E News previously reported.
“There was just the wholesale elimination of the division that eliminates, essentially, the program that protects children from lead, from air pollution and asthma, from emergencies like fires,” said Patrick Breysse, the former director of the National Center for Environmental Health, which houses the environmental health division.
“People are going to suffer from this for decades,” Breysse told The Hill.
Read more at TheHill.com.
