Pollution causes more illness and early death than any other environmental threat, accounting for one in six deaths worldwide. For decades, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Research and Development (ORD) has driven many of the biggest advances for safeguarding human health and ecosystems from chemicals. Now, this scientific research office is being closed down by the US government
Earlier this year, the Trump administration began dismantling the office by terminating programmes, cutting staff, closing laboratories and moving remaining scientists into regulatory offices. Legal challenges temporarily blocked mass government layoffs.
