EPA deregulation puts schoolchildren at risk in petrochemical zones

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is walking back pollution enforcement, leaving children in heavily industrialized areas like Louisiana’s Cancer Alley more exposed to toxic air and water.

Terry L. Jones reports for Floodlight.

In short:

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced a rollback of federal regulations meant to protect communities near industrial sites, ending the agency’s focus on areas “already highly burdened with pollution impacts.”
Children face heightened health risks from pollution due to faster breathing and developing lungs; many attend schools located within a mile of chemical plants, especially in low-income, majority-Black neighborhoods.
Affected residents and advocates say the deregulation erases years of environmental justice progress and undermines federal obligations to safeguard public health.

Key quote:

“That is not an exaggeration; we feel like we are suffocating without the cover and the oversight of the EPA. Without that, what can we really do? How can we really save ourselves? How can we really save our communities?”

— Kaitlyn Joshua, community advocate in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley

Why this matters:

In a stark departure from recent precedent, the EPA under President Trump is stepping back from its commitment to environmental justice, a move with sweeping implications for vulnerable communities already burdened by pollution. Children living in the shadows of petrochemical plants — many attending school just a few hundred yards from flaring stacks or chemical tanks — face elevated risks of asthma, cancer, and developmental challenges. These neighborhoods have little power to hold industry accountable. Now, with the dismantling of rules aimed at curbing these emissions, decades of advocacy and incremental progress risk being unraveled, with the communities most in need of protection once again being asked to bear the heaviest cost.

Learn more:

floodlightnews.org

Credit: Pierre Lemos / Unsplash+

Toxic chemicals and climate change work together to harm fertility across species

In a recent review published in NPJ Emerging Contaminants, researchers examine how toxic chemicals can reduce fertility in both humans and wildlife, and how these effects are worsened by climate change.

In short:

Animals - including insects, fish, reptiles, birds, humans, and other mammals - are constantly simultaneously exposed to synthetic chemicals and the impacts of climate change, including rising temperatures.
Both of these stressors can harm fertility, and many of the impacts found are similar across species, such as effects on sperm and eggs.
The stress caused by these exposures also impacts overall health, harming animals’ ability to adapt to a changing environment and worsening global biodiversity loss.

Key quote:

“To build a sustainable future, we must recognize that chemicals, once released, don’t simply disappear. Instead, they contribute to the larger issue of driving humanity towards the exceedance of planetary boundaries when considered in combination with climate change and other planetary-level impacts.”

Why this matters:

While climate change and toxic endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are both individually well-established as health threats, few studies have examined the implications of the widespread simultaneous exposure experienced by humans and wildlife. Many EDCs can also impact health across multiple generations, meaning their harm continues long after the original exposure. To better tackle the issue of EDCs, the authors of this study emphasize the need for strong regulations that address chemicals by class, rather than individually.

Related EHN coverage:

Declining PFAS levels in seabird eggs reflect impact of regulatory action
Op-ed: A stalled global plastic treaty threatens our future fertility (written by two of the lead authors of the above study)

More resources:

ChemTrust: Wildlife and the environment – Endocrine disruptors
Stockholm Resilience Center: Planetary Boundaries: The safe operating space for humanity

Brander, S. et al. (2026). Impacts of environmental stressors on fertility and fecundity across taxa, with implications for planetary health. NPJ Emerging Contaminants.

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EPA deregulation puts schoolchildren at risk in petrochemical zones

Toxic chemicals and climate change work together to harm fertility across species

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