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As secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr<\/a>.<\/strong> has made it his mission to \u201cmake America healthy again.\u201d\u00a0Yet so far\u2014and you may want to sit down for this\u2014it appears that Worm Guy<\/a>\u2019s actions, and those of the Trump administration, are at odds with that goal. And by \u201cat odds\u201d we mean they\u2019ve done a whole bunch of stuff that may actually make the people of this country very sick. Sure, Kennedy is pushing to phase out<\/a> artificial food dyes, but he\u2018s also undermining life-saving vaccines<\/a> and spreading misinformation<\/a> about medications that some people require to get out of bed in the morning\u2014to say nothing of the fake studies<\/a> in his big report on children\u2019s health. Meanwhile, the Trump administration also wants to keep some forever chemicals linked to cancer in the drinking water, has refused to allow coal plants to close, and obliterated scientific research\u2014the kind that makes breakthroughs and finds cures for diseases.<\/p>\n A running list of the not-so-healthy moves by Kennedy and Trump include:<\/p>\n In June, the Environmental Protection Agency said in a court filing that it would reconsider<\/a> a Biden-era ban on chrysotile asbestos, which is known for causing numerous types of cancer<\/a>, including of the lung, larynx, and ovary. And by the way, it\u2019s not planning to be quick about it: The administration said it will take approximately 30 months to decide whether to roll back the ban (in the meantime, it will be delayed). Linda Reinstein,<\/strong> president and cofounder of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, told The New York Times<\/em> the delay will \u201cmove the nation backward, once again putting lives at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n The Trump administration is trying to keep open<\/a> two Michigan coal plants that are responsible for nearly half of the state\u2019s greenhouse gas pollution. According to The Guardian,<\/em> \u201cThe massive and ageing facilities\u2026release high levels of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter into the air,\u201d their \u201ccoal ash ponds leach arsenic, lead, lithium, radium, and sulfate into local drinking water and the Great Lakes,\u201d and one of the plants \u201cis responsible for more arsenic water pollution than any other power plant in the US.\u201d<\/p>\n So why is Team Trump trying to keep them open? Is this something the people of Michigan are clamoring for? Would it surprise you to know they are not? While the Department of Energy told The Guardian<\/em> keeping the plants operating is about grid reliability, the group that regulates public utilities in the state says that\u2019s not true at all. \u201cThe unnecessary recent order\u2026will increase the cost of power for homes and businesses in Michigan and across the Midwest,\u201d Dan Scripps,<\/strong> the chair of the Michigan Public Service Commission, said in a statement. \u201cWe currently produce more energy in Michigan than needed. As a result, there is no existing energy emergency in either Michigan or [the regional US grid].\u201d<\/p>\n And it\u2019s not just Michigan: In April, according to the Times,<\/em> Trump signed<\/a> an executive order directing his energy department to come up with a plan to use emergency authority to stop coal plants across the country from closing, despite the fact that a 2023 study published in Science<\/em><\/a> estimated that between 1999 and 2020, 460,000 deaths would not have occurred if pollution had not been emitted by coal plants.<\/p>\n This spring, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin<\/strong> announced that his agency would shrink<\/a> the number of US waterways that are protected by the Clean Water Act, after Joe Biden<\/strong> expanded the law\u2019s scope to include protecting all \u201cwaters of the United States\u201d from pollutants like construction runoff and livestock waste. (Kennedy, who took a Mother\u2019s Day dip<\/a> in a DC creek known for \u201chigh levels of bacteria and other infectious pathogens,\u201d presumably had no problem with this.) In June, the administration said<\/a> it would remove federal protections preventing road construction and development on 58 million acres of national forests, a move that, among other things, critics say could lead to wildfires and polluted drinking water.<\/p>\n In related news, the Trump administration also announced this spring that it would scrap<\/a> limits on four \u201cforever chemicals\u201d that have been found in tap water and linked to, among other things, liver damage, developmental issues, and cancer.<\/p>\n Going to the doctor is a pretty widely accepted practice when it comes to staying healthy and alive, and yet, Trump\u2019s \u201cbig, beautiful\u201d spending bill would cause<\/a> approximately 10.9 million people to lose health insurance, according to the Congressional Budget Office. As a result, voters have warned, people \u201cwill die<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2023, the Biden administration sued Denka Performance Elastomer, a chemical manufacturer, over its emissions of a toxic substance called chloroprene, which the EPA believes to be a carcinogen. In its suit, the EPA said Denka\u2019s emissions posed \u201can imminent and substantial endangerment\u201d to public health; Denka claimed the suit was \u201clacking scientific and legal merit.\u201d The area in Louisiana where Denka is located is considered so polluted that it is known as Cancer Alley. In March, the Trump administration voluntarily dropped the suit<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kennedy talks a lot about how horrible processed foods are, so presumably he would refuse to work for an administration that would make cuts to programs designed to feed children the freshest food possible, right? Right<\/em>?<\/p>\n Apparently not, because in March, the Trump administration canceled<\/a> a pair<\/a> of pandemic-era programs that allowed schools and food banks to purchase food directly from local farmers. \u201cI think everyone can say that they want kids at school to receive the healthiest meals possible,\u201d Caroline Trinder,<\/strong> food and nutrition services director for a Maine school district that took part in the program, said<\/a> at the time. \u201cIt\u2019s the least processed, and we\u2019re helping our local economy, we\u2019re helping farmers that may be the parents of our students.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to fully capture the scale of the cuts to scientific research the administration has enacted. According to The New York Times,<\/em> the National Institutes of Health have canceled<\/a> 1,389 awards and delayed funding for more than 1,000 additional studies. (To put that in perspective, between 2015 and 2024, an average of fewer than 20 grants per year were canceled, a former director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the NIH told the Times.<\/em>) In Trump\u2019s first three months in office, the agency awarded $1.6 billion less than it had during the same period the year prior. The cuts have affected research on everything from Alzheimer\u2019s to cancer. And Trump wants to cut<\/a> $18 billion from the NIH\u2019s 2026 budget.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nCancer-causing asbestos<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Dirty (and entirely unnecessary) coal plants<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Polluted drinking water<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Medicaid cuts<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Cancer Alley<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Fresh food cuts<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Cancer cures? Alzheimer\u2019s research? Not on this admin\u2019s watch<\/strong><\/h2>\n