Trump’s EPA Will Shield Info on Asbestos Imports and Use From Public
Federal data shows a large increase in asbestos imports to the U.S. Environmental groups have called for better reporting of asbestos products by U.S. manufacturers. The petition requested the EPA to require importers and users of asbestos and asbestos-containing products to report asbestos content to the public. The EPA has this authority under the Toxic Substances Control Act, or TSCA. Chemical Watch reported that the EPA will not implement additional reporting of asbestos usage.
In October, the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, or ADAO, and EWG analyzed import data that showed asbestos imports soared by nearly 2,000 percent between July and August 2018.
President Trump’s EPA not only refused to ban asbestos, which kills tens of thousands each year, it won’t even take a closer look at how much is imported and where and how it’s being used by companies. The hundreds of thousands of deaths caused from asbestos in the U.S. alone should be reason enough for the Trump administration to better inform the public about potential routes of exposure.” – ADAO President and Co-Founder Linda Reinstein
Trump Administration Putting Chocolate Milk Back In School Lunches
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is rolling back the Hunger-Free Kids Act championed by Former First Lady Michelle Obama.
The plan to deregulate the school lunch program was first brought up in a press conference in May of 2017. Sonny Perdue, the Agriculture Secretary at that time, said the decision was not an attempt to reduce nutritional standards.
We’re not winding back any standards at all. We are just slowing down the process.”
“This is not reducing the nutritional standards whatsoever.”
Perdue said that children would be more likely to avoid nutritious foods altogether if they weren’t given more options. And if that’s not dumb enough for you, he also said:
I wouldn’t be as big as I am today without chocolate milk.”
The former Georgia governor was joined by Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts at an elementary school in Leesburg, VA. who also gave us a ridiculous quote:
Try eating a biscuit made with whole grains. It just doesn’t work!”
The Trump administration says they are trying to reduce “unnecessary regulatory burdens” across the federal government.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama initiated the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act as part of her campaign against obesity. The program made some minor improvements in school lunches but it also had some misguided rules as well, and while overall it was not making school lunches healthy, it was a pretty big step in the right direction. Now we are taking a step back to give more control to big business to dictate what our kids eat. But if any of these people knew what they were doing they would know that the fat is not the problem with chocolate milk, it’s the sugar, and the milk itself.
The Trump administration is putting politics before children’s health in ways worse than were expected.” – The Center for Science in the Public Interest
Trump Big Pharma Tax Cut Instead of Lowering Drug Prices After Sketchy $2.5M Payout
One of Trump’s campaign promises was to lower drug prices. Trump said they were “getting away with murder.” He has not accomplished his pledge, and new tax filings may reveal why he instead gave the pharmaceutical companies a tax break. In 2017 Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America gave $2.5 million to a pro-Trump advocacy group called America First Policies Inc.
Topping America First Policies’ known donor list for its first year of operation is the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), a trade group representing the drug company industry’s lobbying interests, which disclosed giving $2.5 million to America First Policies in a new tax return obtained by the Center for Responsive Politics and first identified by Maplight.” – Open Secrets
Drug prices have not come down and are in fact on a steep rise, but Trump has falsely taken credit for lowering drug costs.
There were fewer price increases this year from January through July than in comparable prior-year periods, but companies still hiked prices far more often than they cut them. This year through the end of July, there were 4,412 brand-name drug price increases and 46 price cuts. To put it another way: For every price decrease over those seven months, there were 96 price hikes.” – Associated Press
While Trump has moved to allow limited negotiation in some parts of Medicare, he has rejected the larger policy he campaigned on, leaving it out of his prescription drug proposal released earlier this year.” – Captian & Main
Trump Picks Ex-Monsanto Executive To Lead U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
President Donald Trump says he wants Aurelia Skipwith to head the Fish and Wildlife Service. Skipwith is a former executive at Monsanto, now owned by Bayer. Skipwith is a biologist and lawyer who spent more than six years at Monsanto who is currently the deputy assistant Interior secretary for fish, wildlife and parks. If confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first African-American to head the wildlife agency. The Fish and Wildlife Service has 9,000 employees with a $2.8 billion annual budget.
Duties of leading the Fish and Wildlife Service include “…enforcing federal wildlife laws, protecting endangered species, managing migratory birds, restoring nationally significant fisheries, conserving and restoring wildlife habitat (such as wetlands), helping foreign governments with their international conservation efforts, and distributing money to states’ fish and wildlife agencies through the Wildlife Sport Fish and Restoration program,” according to Wikipedia.
Skipwith, as deputy assistant secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks at the Interior Department, has been responsible for the protecting national parks and the wildlife refuge system. Environmental and conservation groups are condemning the nomination in large part because Skipwith has been helping to dismantle wildlife and national monument protections.
Ms. Skipwith’s nomination is business as usual for an administration that has sought to reward its allies at the expense of public lands and wildlife.” – Chris Saeger, executive director of the Western Values Project
The White House Has Been Spreading Negative Information On Marijuana
Memos and emails obtained by Buzzfeed News show the current administration attempting to reverse positive public support of cannabis. In August BuzzFeed News reported on a secretive marijuana committee operated by the White House with the purpose of spreading negative attitudes toward marijuana and portraying the plant as dangerous. Buzzfeed says the Trump administration was evasive when BuzzFeed News attempted to confirm reports on the secretive marijuana committee. But Buzzfeed News now reports that:
…the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has acknowledged the committee’s existence in a letter to a Democratic senator seeking information in light of BuzzFeed News’ report.”
The Marijuana Policy Coordination Committee was reportedly directed to ignore positive health effects and societal benefits of marijuana use. But The Hill reports that the White House denies only seeking negative information on marijuana:
“I assure you that ONDCP seeks all perspectives, positive or negative, when formulating Administration policy. You have my full and firm commitment that ONDCP will be completely objective and dispassionate in collecting all relevant facts and peer-reviewed scientific research on all drugs, including marijuana.” – ONDCP acting Director James Carroll wrote in a letter sent to Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet.
BuzzFeed News reported in August on memos sent to federal agencies seeking only negative information on marijuana. The memos asked for data that shows only “the most significant negative trends” on cannabis. The committee stated in one memo it wanted to reverse the trend of increasing marijuana usage.
Staff believe that if the administration is to turn the tide on increasing marijuana use there is an urgent need to message the facts about the negative impacts of marijuana use, production, and trafficking on national health, safety, and security.” – quoted from comittee meeting summery, posted on Buzzfeed News
Trump’s FDA Is Bringing Back Asbestos and Making Russian Company Very Happy
In his continued effort to make America great again, Donald Trump is bringing back asbestos.
Asbestos is a mineral fiber with a lot of qualities desirable for manufacturing. It’s an excellent heat insulator, it dampens sound, and it is fire-resistant, strong, and inexpensive. It also causes cancer. Many studies have confirmed it.
It also causes cancer. Asbestos exposure is the only known cause of mesothelioma, a deadly form of lung cancer that is known to be extremely painful. Asbestos exposure is also linked to other lung diseases. Many studies have confirmed this. Thousands of lawsuits have been won against asbestos companies. In the last thirty years, seventy billion dollars has been spent on asbestos litigation, and more than seventy companies have been driven into bankruptcy because of said litigation. The Environmental Working Group estimates that 12,000 to 15,000 people die yearly in the U.S. from asbestos exposure, but other studies indicate that asbestos could be responsible for 40,000 deaths per year in the U.S. If you find asbestos in your home the EPA strongly recommends that you hire a professional to remove the asbestos. They come in with hazmat suits and respirators. More than 60 countries have banned the use of asbestos. In the U.S. Here, the EPA only banned some uses of the material but all uses.
Despite all of this, Trump likes asbestos.
There is no new research disputing the health effects of asbestos, but regardless, Trump’s EPA wants to expand the legal uses for Asbestos. Can you guess why? One hint. Russia.
Uralasbest, a Russian mining firm, placed a seal with Trump’s face on their asbestos products. On their Facebook page, they posted their appreciation:
The combine “Uralasbest” produced an unusual batch of chrysotile: on the packaging of pallets with a mineral there is a stamp
“Approved by Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States”. In this unusual way, the workers of the combine’s asbestos-processing plant thanked US President Donald Trump for his words in defense of chrysotile-asbestos.
He supported the head of the US Environmental Protection Agency Scott Pruitt, who stated that his agency would no longer deal with the negative effects that could potentially result from products containing asbestos. Donald Trump supported the specialist and called asbestos “100 percent safe after use.”
“We came out with the initiative to support our chrysotile industry in this way and remind that our” mountain flax “is an important mineral for the whole world. The management has approved! “, They told in the factory.
The EPA declined to ban uses of asbestos that have already been abandoned by industry. They also put forth a “significant new use rule,” or SNUR, that requires manufacturers to notify and seek approval from the EPA before resuming asbestos production and uses.
According to environmental advocates, this new rule gives chemical companies the upper hand in creating new uses for such harmful products in the United States. In May, the EPA released a report detailing its new framework for evaluating the risk of its top prioritized substances. The report states that the agency will no longer consider the effect or presence of substances in the air, ground, or water in its risk assessments.” – The Architects Newspaper
The EPA is ignoring specific exposures to asbestos in the safety assessments, which is reportedly in violation of law, and they are disregarding the safety risks from asbestos that still lingers in old schools, homes, and building materials just about everywhere in the U.S.
The EPA has also eliminated many kinds of asbestos from the FDA’s definition of asbestos.
Trump Considering Drug Testing Plan For Food Stamp Recipients
The Trump administration is considering allowing states to require drug testing for some food stamp recipients. The plan would narrowly target and affect mostly “able-bodied” people, according to an anonymous administration official, AP reports. The rule would apply to around five percent of those enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), according to AP’s source. In addition, the plan would target people without dependents who are seeking certain specialized jobs, the AP reported.
Conservatives have been pushing for mandatory drug testing for people who receive SNAP benefits for years. Federal law prevents states from implementing their own conditions for individuals to be eligible for SNAP.
Secretary Sonny Perdue wants to provide states with “greater control over SNAP.”
As a former governor, I know first-hand how important it is for states to be given flexibility to achieve the desired goal of self-sufficiency for people. We want to provide the nutrition people need, but we also want to help them transition from government programs, back to work, and into lives of independence.”
On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order calling for federal agencies to establish expand on existing work requirements for individuals on federal welfare programs.
Ed Bolen, the senior policy analyst at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities think tank thinks implementing drug testing for SNAP recipients is legally murky.
Are people losing their food assistance if they don’t take the test, and in that case, is that a condition of eligibility, which the states aren’t allowed to impose? And does drug testing fall into what’s allowable under a state training and employment program, which typically lists things like job search or education or on-the-job experience? This is kind of a different bucket.”
Utah did its own welfare drug testing on 4,730 applicants from Aug 2012 to July 2013 for their Temporary Assistance For Needy Families program. Less than one percent were found to be using illegal drugs.