290+ Health Experts Demand EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s Removal, Warning Of Deadly Public Health Consequences

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 9, 2026

CONTACT: Gabrielle Levy, Glevy@cacampaign.org, 562-673-6974

290+ Health Experts Demand EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s Removal, Warning Of Deadly Public Health Consequences

Climate Action Campaign: Zeldin is too dangerous to ignore

WASHINGTON—Nearly 300 health experts — physicians, nurses, public health researchers, and other clinicians from across the country – today released a letter calling for the immediate removal of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin, warning that his “deregulatory agenda will result in a massive increase in health-damaging air pollution, toxic chemicals, and climate-heating greenhouse gases" that lead to more asthma attacks, more childhood lung damage, more cancer, more heart attacks and strokes, and more premature deaths.

"Lee Zeldin is too dangerous to ignore," said Margie Alt, director of the Climate Action Campaign. "When health experts — the people who see the effects of pollution on their patients every single day — say enough is enough, the rest of us need to pay attention. Zeldin is not just failing Americans. He is actively endangering us. We can not tolerate an EPA administrator who treats our families as expendable."

The letter comes in response to the Trump administration’s request to cut the EPA’s budget by more than half in 2027, and after a year of targeted efforts to dismantle lifesaving protections from the pollution that causes climate change and health-damaging air quality, eliminate grants for environmental justice, and slash staff and resources for climate science and pollution standards enforcement.

The letter, organized by the Climate Action Campaign and Physicians for Social Responsibility and signed by health experts affiliated with leading institutions, including Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins University, UCSF, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Dartmouth College, and many others, states that Administrator Zeldin is either unable or unwilling to uphold his oath of office, and must go.

“Doctors, researchers, and public health experts put the well-being of our patients above all else. Until this administration, that was a mission we shared with the EPA and its leaders, for whom protecting human health is quite literally in the job description," said Paige Knappenberger, Director of Environment and Health at Physicians for Social Responsibility. "Lee Zeldin is overseeing the destruction of everything the EPA stands for. His tenure is making climate change and air pollution more dangerous and more deadly for all Americans. He cannot be trusted with our nation’s health.”

Among the specific harms the signatories identify:

• More mercury from coal-fired power plants, a potent neurotoxin that damages the developing fetal brain.

• More soot and particle pollution, which travels from the lungs into the bloodstream, contributing to heart attacks, strokes, and cancer.

• More toxic chemicals, including PFAS and phthalates linked to cancer and hormone disruption, entering our food, water, air, and everyday products.

• More petrochemical and plastics pollution, as Zeldin’s EPA hands the nation’s largest industrial polluters "free passes" to violate hazardous air pollutant safeguards.

• More carbon and methane pollution, as Zeldin delays methane standards, moves to rescind the Endangerment Finding, and rolls back vehicle and power plant pollution limits — increasing the frequency and severity of climate disasters.

• More smog and toxic tailpipe pollution, through his proposal to eliminate more than 15 years of U.S. climate pollution limits on cars, trucks, and buses.

The letter also condemns the administration’s decision to stop counting the economic value of health benefits, including lives saved, hospital visits avoided, and lost work and school days prevented, when setting Clean Air Act standards.

"These actions put our patients’ lives in danger and will harm the health of people in the U.S. for generations," the signatories write. "Administrator Zeldin has abandoned his sworn duty and must be held accountable for his agenda."

The letter comes just weeks after more than 160 organizations released “Game Over Zeldin,” a joint statement demanding Zeldin’s removal from EPA for failure to do his job.  Last month, Senate Leader Chuck Schumer joined Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Ed Markey of Massachusetts in demanding Zeldin’s resignation.

The Climate Action Campaign is calling on Congress and the administration to act without delay. Administrator Zeldin must go.

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About the Climate Action Campaign
Climate Action Campaign (CAC) is a vibrant coalition driving ambitious, durable, equitable federal action to tackle the climate crisis. By cutting carbon pollution and accelerating the transition to clean energy, we will improve public health and create a more resilient economy and a more sustainable future for all.