President Joe Biden understands the devastating risks of toxic chemicals. “It’s personal,” he said in August 2022, before signing into law a bill to expand health care benefits for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits during deployments overseas.
“Toxic smoke, thick with poison, spreading through the air and into the lungs of our troops,” Biden said. “When they came home, many of the fittest and best warriors that we sent to war were not the same — headaches, numbness, dizziness, cancer. My son Beau was one of them.”
Biden’s oldest son died of brain cancer in 2015. The president has speculated that his son’s cancer was caused by exposure to toxic chemicals from burn pits during his military service in Iraq.
In the same vein, the White House has prioritized reducing chemical pollution in communities across the country, touting an “ambitious” agenda to protect public health and advance environmental justice.
Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency moved to crack …