Editor’s Note: This is Part 1 of a series on the impact of rescinding the EPA’s Endangerment Finding. Stay tuned for Part 2 in the coming weeks.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration rescinded the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Endangerment Finding. Originally issued in 2009, the finding—an EPA determination under the Clean Air Act—concluded that greenhouse gases (GHGs) threaten public health and established the legal basis for federal regulation of emissions.
Oncology Advocates United for Climate and Health International (OUCH-International) Chair Joan H. Schiller, MD, said that the health impacts of climate change are preventable and that rescinding the Endangerment Finding will have devastating consequences
“Climate change and its impact on human health are beyond any doubt,” Dr. Schiller said. “Any policy that refuses to acknowledge this reality is a policy that will doom us all for generations to come.”
According to OUCH-International, the rescission removes the federal government’s formal obligation to protect public health and the environment. It also eliminates the EPA’s mandate to protect the public from pollution caused by climate change.
Oncology experts have raised concerns about the downstream effects on cancer care, with climate-related factors—such as air pollution and a warming planet—associated with increased cancer risk, treatment disruptions, worsened outcomes, and impacts on access to care.
Dr. Schiller said the decision was made without input from medical oncologists and urged clinicians, patients, and caregivers to call upon the EPA to reinstate the Endangerment Finding.
She said physicians and other healthcare professionals have a moral obligation to protect patients from preventable disease, particularly in the case of cancer.
“As cancer clinicians, we have seen the pain and suffering that so many patients go through,” Dr. Schiller said. “It is inconceivable to us that anyone who can reduce this suffering would not do anything possible to prevent it.”
