How Toxic Is the Air You Breathe?
5/28/202641 min
The Trump administration is rolling back restrictions on air pollution in the U.S., and some experts say this could affect the health of millions of people. And what makes air pollution especially dangerous is that we often can’t see it at all. So today, we’re going back to the story of Ella Kissi-Debrah, a little girl who suddenly got sick and landed in the hospital. In this episode, her mom, Rosamund, takes on the fight to find out what exactly happened to Ella. And the answer has BIG implications — for us all. We’ll hear from Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah and Professor Stephen Holgate. Find our transcript here: https://tinyurl.com/ScienceVsAirPollution In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Ella’s story (13:02) The campaign and investigation (21:01) Why air pollution is so dangerous (25:39) Accountability and change This episode was produced by Ekedi Fausther-Keeys with help from Rose Rimler, Wendy Zukerman, Michelle Dang, Meryl Horn, and Courtney Gilbert. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Wendy Zukerman is the Executive Producer. Extra help by Saidu Tejan-Thomas, Nicole Beemsterboer, Kendra Pierre-Louis, and Alex Blumberg. Fact checking by Erica Akiko Howard. Mix and sound design by Bumi Hidaka. Music written by Bumi Hidaka, Peter Leonard, Emma Munger, Bobby Lord and SoWylie. Thanks to all of the researchers and experts we got in touch with for this episode, including Jocelyn Cockburn, Professor Vernon Morris, Dr. George Thurston, Dr. Lauren Zajac, Dr. Jennifer Burney, Dr. Sacoby Wilson, Dr. Melissa Burroughs, Dr Wei Peng, Professor Barbara Hoffman, Dr Michael Craig, and Dr Wes Austin. Special thanks to Rachel Humphreys, BBC Motion Gallery / Getty Images, Jonah Delso, Jackie Llanos, the Zukerman Family and Joseph Lavelle Wilson. Science Vs is a Spotify Studios Original. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us and tap the bell for episode notifications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsWendy Zukerman· Host0:00
Hi, I'm Wendy Zukerman, and this is Science Vs. [upbeat music] Before we get into today's episode, I just wanna say that we're getting advertising from various companies about AI products, but we are going to be rethinking our policy on all of this. For those who have been writing to us, we are reading your comments. We totally hear you. We have to take a lot into account to try to keep this show going, and there are some balances we need to strike, but sometimes we make the wrong call. So I just wanted to say thank you for getting in touch, and now on with the show. Recently, the Trump administration has been rolling back protections that are designed to keep the air clean in the US, and he's been making it easier for certain industries to pump potentially dangerous chemicals into the air.
Speaker 2· Soundbite0:57
[tense music] They want to make pollution great again.
Speaker 3· Soundbite1:01
So in case you don't know, the EPA just announced that they're doing massive deregulation- It means pollutants from cars, trucks, and power plants will no longer be regulated at the federal level.
Donald Trump· Soundbite1:13
We canceled the EF- EPA's absurd, just totally absurd tailpipe emission standards, which was a disaster.
Wendy Zukerman· Host1:22
Trump says that he's doing this to save money for the automotive and fossil fuel industry, and to make cars cheaper for consumers.