Is your environment healthy?

The health of the environment- that is, the world that we live in- has a direct effect on our health. There are many aspects to that environment. One important area is having clean air.

An editorial in the latest edition of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) (November 6, 2025) outlines adverse health effects of the energy-related provisions of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” act(OBBBA) that was passed by Congress earlier this year and signed by the President on July 4^th. That act further subsidizes the coal industry in our country and removes many tax incentives for clean energy. Increasing use of coal to generate more power will increase the number of people in our country who die and the number that are ill due to the exposure of particulate matter, ozone precursors, and mercury that the combustion of coal causes.

According to the above NEJM article, a study showed that nearly half a million people in the United States died between 1999 and 2020 because of exposure to particulate emissions from burning coal (the study was published in Science 2023;382:941-6).

 HALF A MILLION PEOPLE!

Multiple other studies have shown the relationship between the use of fossil fuels and worsening the health of the people in our United States.

If one was interested in Making America Health Again, you would think that one would not subsidize coal more and remove clean energy incentives. The American Lung Association has estimated that our country would save over $70 billion PER YEAR by transitioning away from fossil fuels because of the reduction in health care costs.

In the 1970s, the passage of the Clean Air Act and other laws to improve our environment had strong bipartisan support. Then the protection of the environment and its health- that we all need- gradually become political. Now generally Republicans elected to Congress vote against measures to improve the health of the environment claiming that it hurts our economy. But multiple studies show that clean energy and a clean environment will help our economy. Even if it did not help our economy, I believe we need to support the health of members of our country as a very important goal.

As the author of the NEJM article states, as time goes by “Americans are likely to regard the OBBBA as sickening, not beautiful.”