In response to the Associated Press story “Trump officials want to ban junk food from SNAP. Past efforts show it’s not easy” (Feb. 19, TribLive) about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: What is he doing about oil and gas? His efforts aimed at Big Ag and Big Pharma seem like ways to distract us from the health dangers of oil and gas production at an estimated (recent study published in May 2023 in the journal Environmental Research: Health) $77 billion in health impacts every year from U.S. production alone.
Oil and gas contribute to thousands of early deaths and health flare-ups, the study showed. Also: Nitrogen oxide, fine particulate matter and ozone from U.S. oil and gas production contributed to 7,500 excess deaths, 410,000 asthma attacks and 2,200 new cases of childhood asthma across the U.S. in 2016. No report on vaccines that he can point to comes even close. Maybe he’s quiet here because he benefits too much from oil and gas. After all, Trump has said that RFK Jr. won’t “touch oil and gas.”
It seems Sens. Dave McCormick and John Fetterman won’t help. The world burns, and these jokers are saying we can’t even eat comfort food and calm our nerves with anti-depressants in order to tolerate this absurd and horrifying landscape.
Jennifer Bannan
Bloomfield