FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 8, 2026
CONTACT:
Charissee Ridgeway, Senior Communications Advisor
(859) 771-5568 and epn-press@environmentalprotectionnetwork.org
On Children’s Environmental Health Day, New Report Warns of Rising Threats as EPA Retreats from Protecting Kids from Harmful Pollution
New EPN analysis examines changes involving air pollution, PFAS, pesticides and data centers — and whether EPA is adequately accounting for children’s heightened vulnerability
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Children’s Environmental Health Day, a new report examines a series of recent federal actions that could increase children’s exposure to harmful pollution in the air they breathe, the water they drink and the food they eat.
The report, released today by the Environmental Protection Network (EPN), focuses on three areas: more than 30 federal actions that weaken, bypass or delay pollution safeguards as AI data centers rapidly expand; EPA actions weakening protections against PFAS and other harmful pollutants; and major regulatory decisions in which the agency has failed to fully account for children’s particular vulnerability to pollution.
Children encounter pollution through the air they breathe, the water they drink, and the food they eat—exposures that can begin before birth and lead to lifelong developmental and health problems. Because children’s brains, lungs, and organs are still developing, and because they consume more air, water, and food per pound of body weight than adults do, they are especially vulnerable to toxic pollutants.
“A child doesn’t experience pollution one regulatory program at a time—they breathe the air outside school, drink the water at home, and play in their backyards,” said Jeanne Briskin, former Director of EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection. “Parents do everything they can to protect their kids, but they can’t shield developing bodies from toxic chemicals in their air, water, and food on their own. That is why federal safeguards exist, and why weakening them leaves children to pay the price.”
The report puts the federal actions in the context of pollution exposures children already face: 33.5 million children—including nearly 2.4 million children with asthma—live in counties receiving an F grade for ozone or particle pollution. Roughly 500,000 children have blood lead levels at or above CDC reference values, while approximately 96% of U.S. adolescents have four or more PFAS “forever chemicals” detected in their blood.
Key Report Findings:
AIR POLLUTION AND DATA CENTERS
Unchecked AI Energy Expansion: Federal agencies have taken more than 30 actions that weaken, bypass or delay pollution protections as energy-intensive AI data centers expand. Independent health modeling estimates that data-center-related air pollution under a high-growth scenario could contribute to roughly 600,000 asthma-symptom cases and 1,300 premature deaths annually across the population—a threat magnified by the fact that— at least 188 schools nationwide sit within three miles of proposed power plants dedicated to data-centers.
EPA repealed or rolled back standards restricting mercury, arsenic, and carbon emissions. The carbon pollution standards alone were previously projected to prevent 1,900 new asthma cases, 360,000 asthma-symptom episodes, and 48,000 missed school days by 2035. The agency is also asking the Supreme Court to overturn stronger limits on fine-particle soot pollution.
CLEAN WATER, SAFE FOOD AND TOXIC CHEMICALS
PFAS Rollbacks: EPA proposed eliminating drinking-water protections for several PFAS “forever chemicals,” gave some water systems two additional years to meet limits for others, and rescinded its 2022 guidance to states and wastewater systems for identifying and reducing industrial PFAS pollution at the source.
Sewage Sludge and Pesticides: Despite finding health risks from PFAS-contaminated sewage sludge spread on land, EPA has stopped short of enforceable national limits. The agency also approved the pesticide isocycloseram for food crops and residential lawns despite documented fetal and reproductive risks in animal studies.
HOW CHILDREN’S HEALTH IS COUNTED IN EPA DECISIONS
PFAS Drinking Water: When proposing to remove PFAS drinking-water limits, EPA said health risks, including risks that may disproportionately affect children, were outside the scope of its decision, despite its own March 2026 children’s health policy calling for consistent consideration of early-life exposures and lifelong health effects.
Uncounted Health Costs & Impacts: The agency counted financial savings from repealing power-plant safeguards, but did not quantify or monetize several health impacts including asthma symptoms and missed school days.
Vacant Advisory Committee: Children’s Health Experts: EPA’s independent Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC) has not met since August 2025 and currently lists no appointed members, leaving the agency without its longstanding source of dedicated outside children’s environmental-health expertise during major regulatory decisions.
The finding comes just over a week after EPN and other health and children’s-health organizations called on EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to restore a functioning CHPAC and ensure independent children’s-health expertise is part of major agency decisions. Read the letter.
The report urges federal decision-makers to reverse weakened protections and restore science-based safeguards designed to prevent pollution before children are exposed. EPN calls on the agency to fully account for children’s health impacts in regulatory decisions, require comprehensive pollution reviews for AI data centers, and act on the recent call from health organizations to restore a functioning Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee.
The full report, Children’s Health at Risk as the EPA Retreats on Harmful Pollution, is available here.
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ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION NETWORK
The Environmental Protection Network is a nonpartisan organization comprising more than 800 former EPA scientists, toxicologists, chemists, biologists, engineers, and policy analysts — many of whom spent decades as career experts inside the agency. They assessed cancer and developmental risks, studied links between pollution and fertility and chronic disease, investigated contaminated communities, and brought enforcement actions to hold corporate polluters accountable. EPN was founded in 2017 to serve as an independent voice promoting science-based policies that protect families’ health.