Quote of the Day: Lead? What Lead?

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Well, we’ve now officially gone from this:

Clinton proposes goal of ending lead exposure in 5 years

— Ben Adler (@badler) April 13, 2016

To this:

Pruitt on lead exposure’s dangers in children: “I don’t know. I’ve not looked at the scientific research on that.”

— Rebecca Leber (@rebleber) January 18, 2017

If Pruitt had been asked about the effects of zirconium dioxide on Alzheimer’s disease or something, then sure. Nobody knows everything, after all. But lead paint has been in the news for something like 50 years now and Flint’s water pipes have been in big, bold headlines for the past two. You’d have to work pretty hard not to be aware of what lead does.

Still, if you’re bound and determined never to regulate anything, no matter how dangerous, then I suppose it pays to aggressively shut your eyes to environmental dangers of all kinds. Welcome to the New Model EPA, folks.