Scientific American, 22 April 2025

Childhood Asthma Will Worsen with Pollution Rollbacks and CDC Cuts

President Trump has ordered agencies to act “urgently” to curb asthma—a goal at odds with moves to roll back air pollution limits and with RFK, Jr., cutting CDC experts.

When EPA announced its intent to roll back more than two dozen regulations last month, Administrator Lee Zeldin said it was necessary because pollution limits were “suffocating” the nation’s economy.

But 12 of the 31 rules on the chopping block protect Americans’ ability to breathe by curtailing air pollutants like fine particulate matter and ozone. According to one review of EPA’s analyses, those rules would collectively prevent more than 100 million asthma attacks through 2050.