Jennifer Lowry
Dr. Jennifer Lowry is a pediatrician and toxicologist who works closely with Environmental Protection (EPA) staff to protect children from environmental toxins. She worries about how the proposed severe budget cuts to EPA - projected to be anywhere from 31 to 43 percent cuts - will affect children’s health.
“The education that EPA provides and the expertise of the staff are invaluable to my work and the lives of the children I care for,” said Lowry, the medical director of clinical pharmacology, toxicology, and therapeutic innovations at Children’s Mercy hospital in Kansas City. “I am involved with many children that have elevated blood lead levels - and exposures to other sources regulated by the EPA - that require home investigations and remediation by trained staff. I use the staff of the EPA to help in these investigations and as resources for communities.”
The EPA, added Lowry, can prevent harm from chemical and environmental exposures by regulating those chemicals and ensuring that they are safe for human exposure.
“The drastic budget cuts will affect the health of children, as there will be less oversight on the chemicals used in commerce and exposed to children,” said Lowry, who also directs the Mid-America Pediatric Environmental Health Speciality Unit at Children’s Mercy. “Thus, their health will be affected and will require more health resources.
If the budget cuts for EPA are implemented, Lowry says she and many others will lack the necessary funding to research exposures and to alleviate the sources of environmental exposures. While Lowry says her hospital would not cut her off from that work she provides to children in regard to toxic exposures, others may not be as lucky.
In her role as chair to the Council on Environmental Health for the American Academy of Pediatrics, Lowry has been busy writing editorials opposing the budget cuts and arranging meetings with legislators.
She’s been calling her own legislators as well, and encouraged others who are outraged to do the same. “Congress can allocate more funding to the EPA, but it won’t be enough,” said Lowry. “Congress will also need to mandate that children’s health issues such as lead, climate change and children’s health need to be covered in the budget. It is an uphill battle, but worth the fight.”
Congress needs to hear from those who want to protect the EPA and its mission - protecting public health and the environment. “Without the EPA, chemicals would be used that would result in harm to humans, wildlife, and the environment,” said Lowry.
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