EPA’s Clean Power Plan

A statement by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius

The EPA’s proposed rule setting carbon standards for power plants will help protect public health by improving air quality and reducing exposure to particle pollution.

It’s clear that carbon pollution and global climate change are linked to health. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), exposure to particle pollution may cause breathing problems, asthma symptoms to get worse, adverse birth outcomes, lung cancer and early death.

The United States National Climate Assessment says that “climate change threatens human health and well-being in many ways, including impacts from increased extreme weather events, wildfire, decreased air quality, threats to mental health, and illnesses transmitted by food, water, and disease-carriers such as mosquitoes and ticks.”

With more than 25 million Americans, including more than 6.5 million children, living with asthma, and countless others suffering from the health effects of carbon pollution and climate change, we must act. Less carbon in the air we breathe protects the health of all Americans.

###

Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other news materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.

Like HHS on Facebook , follow HHS on Twitter @HHSgov , and sign up for HHS Email Updates.

Last revised: June 2, 2014