Dear Jon,

Under cover of Covid-19 — a disease that may be more harmful for those exposed to dirty air — EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler has just proposed to let a deadly pollutant remain in the air our families breathe.

This proposal goes against the weight of scientific research, which shows that tiny particles in the air are killing Americans by the thousands, even at levels below the current, too-lenient standards. Once again, Wheeler has chosen to protect polluters instead of our children.

We cannot let the EPA get away with yet another failure to clean up our air. Make sure your voice gets on the record demanding our families are protected from deadly pollution!

According to science, Wheeler should strengthen the particle pollution standard to protect public health. But Wheeler isn’t paying any attention to science. In fact, his EPA disbanded its panel of scientific experts on particle pollution in 2018, laying the groundwork for ignoring science-based recommendations now.

Particle pollution is made up of tiny bits of airborne solids and liquids. This pollution is deadly. The smaller the particles, the more harmful. The invisible particles can pass directly into the bloodstream when breathed into the lungs, triggering serious health conditions, including premature death.

Lowering the limit of deadly soot in our air could save thousands of lives each year. But Wheeler has chosen not to do so. This is unforgivable.

Our families and communities are adjusting to a new normal under the coronavirus. We are staying home if we can, covering our faces when we go out, and doing everything we can to keep our families and communities healthy. Moms are doing more to protect our communities than an agency tasked with the job.

Now is the worst possible time to refuse to clean up the air we breathe. Low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately impacted by air pollution. And now, those same communities are facing the most severe impacts of this respiratory virus.

We should be doing everything possible to make our air cleaner, not maintaining a dangerous status quo. Take action today to demand the EPA protects our air.

This is just the latest in Wheeler’s willful ignorance of public health science under cover of the coronavirus. Wheeler has finalized his rollback of the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, putting our babies’ brains at risk. He’s slackened enforcement of environmental protections, gutted the Clean Car Standards, and moved to censor the types of scientific research that EPA can consider when setting pollution standards..

Every single move is a betrayal to our families. But moms won’t let him get away with this without a fight.

For clean air,