In late September, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency placed Office of Children’s Health Protection Director Ruth Etzel, a distinguished pediatrician and epidemiologist, on administrative leave. In an Oct. 2, 2018 op-ed for The New York Times, Lynn R. Goldman, MD, MS, MPH, Michael and Lori Milken Dean of Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University, argued the move is an attempt to close the Office of Children’s Health Protection and an action that must be stopped.
“But there is no question that if Dr. Etzel is pushed aside, the chemical industry will benefit and America’s children will be harmed,” Goldman wrote with co-author Philip J. Landrigan, MD, a pediatrician and epidemiologist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
“The Office of Children’s Health Protection plays a vital role in safeguarding America’s children – born and unborn - against toxic environmental hazards,” they wrote. “It is a small but highly effective program that protects the health of all Americans by protecting the most vulnerable among us.”
Read the full op-ed here.