Suspended EPA Official: Trump Admin Stalling On Child Lead Rules

A suspended U.S. EPA official is calling out the Trump administration for what she sees as negligence on rules protecting children from lead.

Ruth Etzel, the director of the Children's Health Protection office, was suspended last month, according to CBS News. She says she does not know why she was suspended.

She portrayed the administration as dropping the ball on child lead issues.

“She says a national strategy to remove lead from children's environments – launched after the Flint, Michigan water crisis – stalled, with one official brought in by the new administration telling her that anything involving new regulation ‘wouldn't fly,’” CBS News reported.

Etzel stated: "My sense is that the government has absolutely no intention of taking any action toward seriously changing lead in children's environments. It basically means that our kids will continue to be poisoned. It basically means that kids are disposable, they don't matter."

EPA Chief of Staff Ryan Jackson said Etzel was placed on leave “to give the agency the opportunity to review allegations about the Director's leadership of the office."

An EPA official also accused Etzel of using the press to try to distract from the allegations against her, according to The Hill.

A spokesperson for the Children’s Health Protection office also issued a statement: "Children's health is and has always been a top priority for the Trump Administration and the EPA in particular is focused on reducing lead exposure in schools, providing funds for a cleaner school bus fleet, and cleaning up toxic sites so that children have safe environments to learn and play. These are just a few of the dozens of objectives the EPA's Office of Children's Health will continue work on during this administration."

Former U.S. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt had called for a “war on lead,” The Hill reported. He resigned amid various scandals. Andrew Wheeler, who is currently helming the agency, is “a former EPA bureaucrat, an influential Capitol Hill staffer, and an energy lobbyist,” USA Today reported.