the fallacy of alturism under capitalism.

Per the EPAs mission statement of protecting human health and the environment, one would think that a policy change to ignore the costs of human health to be contradictory. 

However, given the history of the EPA, there has always been the underlying issue of business and capitalism. Defining the costs of human health is complex - Do you only include health issues that can be directly, inextricably tied to PM 2.5? Do you include only those that go to the doctor? There are many Americans that are uninsured and will avoid doctor visits as long and as frequently as possible. How do you calculate the cost of treatment and care? Do you include the lost wages of said person, their lost potential to earn wages or make profit for a company? How exactly do you calculate the potential of someone who may be at least partially disabled by poor air quality? 

There are a lot of questions that go into answering what the human cost is, and all of them open a door for debate. 

Living in Salt Lake City, this has been an issue on my radar for my whole life it seems. We often have the worst air in the nation, even the world, due to our proclivity for winter inversions. We also have one of the highest rates of lung cancer despite also being one of the fittest cities in the nation. While there are other links to lung cancer for Utahns (Radon is one that comes to mind), the air quality concerns should not be ignored.

Reading this article feels like just another failure, though less obscured, of the EPAs mission. I think we often want to think that agencies like the EPA, BLM (Bureau of Land Management), Parks Services, Forest Service, ect, are these pure organizations that are held only to the land, environment, and the people. However, all of these agencies also exist in the political climate of the day. They are beholden to where the money comes from - research, paying salaries, and any project they undertake, costs money. Much of this is funded through income taxes, and some through collaborative efforts with other agencies, grants, fees and fines which are appropriated by Congress.