The EPA's role in protecting Americans from environmental toxins and pollutants

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A World with no Protections The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established in 1970 with the aim of safeguarding human health and protecting the environment. For close to five decades, the agency has been involved in enforcing federal regulations on the environment (air, land, water, hazardous waste, chemicals, and endangered species). The agency is also involved in environmental research and education. Indeed, the work EPA has done in changing the relationship between humans and the environment is phenomenal. Regrettably, the existence of the agency is increasingly threatened by the new administration. In less than a year since it came to power, the Trump’s administration has proven to be hostile against the agency. In the 2018 federal budget proposal, EPA was the most affected of any federal agency, receiving a 31% budget cut (Leber). Also, EPA fines paid by polluters have declined by 60% under Trump’s government (Green). The current administration without a doubt threatens to wash down the drain the environmental gains the country has made since 1970. Can we live in a world with no protections against toxins and pollutants? This paper dwells on this important question. Destructive human activity has been on the rise over the years. Today, owing to increased economic production, there is far greater use of chemicals in agriculture and manufacturing compared to a few decades or centuries ago. In her 1962 seminal book Silent Spring, Rachel Carson highlights the negative impacts of chemicals on the environment. The toxicity of chemicals threatens the lives of wildlife, domestic animals, fish, birds, insects, and humans (Carson 328). Chemicals sprayed on crops and plants enter the soil and are then passed from one ecosystem to the other, eventually finding their way into underground and surface water bodies. When consumed, the chemicals can kill vegetation, sicken animals, and have devastating effects on humans. In essence, chemicals and other contaminants pollute the air, land, rivers, and oceans, making life unbearable for creatures that exist in these ecosystems. Carson’s book was instrumental in transforming views about chemicals and the environment. For policymakers, the book played a crucial role in underscoring the responsibility of the government in protecting the environment. Indeed, the EPA was created in large part due to Carson’s warnings. Just two years after the formation of the agency, the use of the chemical dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) was banned (Carson 328). Carson had strongly warned about the use of the chemical in pest and disease control. Her book influentially details the danger the chemical poses to humans and the environment. Research conducted after Carson’s book has also demonstrated the harmful effects of chemicals on humans and the environment. Without the EPA, there will be little or no protection against toxins and pollutants. The initiatives the agency has undertaken over the last four decades or so to protect consumers and the environment may be a thing of the past. Under Trump’s administration, there may be no regulations against the use of chemical ingredients in products, polluters may no longer be fined, chemicals banned several years ago may be resurrected, and manufacturing organisations may reduce their commitment to safer surfactants. Furthermore, regulations introduced against oil spills, chemical discharges, toxic releases, greenhouse gas emissions, as well as destructive land and water use may be disregarded. It would be disastrous given the already observed negative consequences of environmental pollution – diseases, inhabitable ecosystems, climate change, and so forth. Humans and animals will breath in air filled with toxins, animals will die as a result of feeding carcinogen-rich plants, and water bodies will become toxic. The most troubling thing is that “pollution is for the most part irrecoverable; the chain of evil it initiates not only in the world that must support life but in living tissues is for the most part irreversible” (Carson 329). In other words, once environmental pollution occurs, reinstating the environment to the state it was before the pollution can be a difficult undertaking if not impossible. Without the EPA, pollution would occur to an even greater extent, making the problem even more difficult to reverse. The only way out would for nature to adjust to chemicals. However, such an adjustment according to Carson would require several generations (330). Even if the adjustment was by any chance possible, it would be fruitless since hundreds of new chemicals are produced every year. Without the EPA, more and more chemicals would be produced, making adjustment futile. Already the use of chemicals in agriculture and manufacturing is a threat to human and animal life. The threat would be unimaginable if the current environmental regulations are not enforced as stringently as they have been before. The increased use of chemicals presents the risk of extinction. The sprays and aerosols used in farms, gardens, forests, and homes kill not only the “bad” insects and pest, but also the “good” ones (Carson 330). In fact, not every insect is bad. With greater use of chemicals, more insects will be killed, and eventually wiped out from the face of the earth. While pests and insects may hamper plant growth and crop production, they play important roles in the natural ecosystem. They help in pollination, soil aeration, insect control (some insects feed on other insects), and decomposition. Moreover, insects are a major source of food for certain animals. The significance of these processes for the health of ecosystems cannot be overemphasised. If more and more insects are eliminated, there may be nothing left to decompose matter, pollinate plants, aerate the soil, and for organisms that survive on insects to feed. Human life will be in even greater danger as activities such as agricultural production will be adversely affected. Greater use of chemicals presents the risk of extinction to not only insects, but also organisms that live on land and in water ecosystems (Carson 330-331). As more chemicals are washed into water bodies, more aquatic organisms like fish will face an existential crisis. Their habitats will become more toxic, ultimately increasing the risk of endangerment. As for land animals, the consumption of toxin-rich vegetation will increase diseases and deaths. In the end, land organisms may have nothing to feed on, increasing the threat of extermination.