Environment

Scott Pruitt Was Very Worried About Poisoning Himself, But Not You

Written by SK Ashby

This is a chef's fingers quality illustration of rich conservative behavior.

Politico reports that former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Scott Pruitt was so worried that a desk he wanted to purchase for his office may expose him to formaldehyde, he had his staff look into the matter.

And this is my favorite part: he only knew about the possible threat because of California's Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act.

After seeing the warning, acting deputy chief of staff Reginald Allen reached out to Wendy Cleland-Hamnett, the career official then serving as acting head of EPA's toxic chemicals office, according to emails released to the group American Oversight under the Freedom of Information Act and shared with POLITICO.

"Sorry to bother you with this but we need some help. The desk the Administrator wants for his office from Amazon has a California Proposition 65 warning. What I am asking is can someone in your area tell us whether it is OK to get this desk for the Administrator related to the warning?" Allen wrote April 7 to Cleland-Hamnett and another career official in the office, referring to a California state chemicals law.

Now, just a few months after Pruitt had his staff assess the level of physical danger the formaldehyde desk may pose to him, he had his staff bury an agency assessment that said exposure to formaldehyde can be linked to various forms of cancer. That public health assessment was never released to the public.

You know, you won't find any rich conservatives living in poisonous dumps. You won't find them "rolling coal." You won't find them eating, breathing, or exposing themselves to things we know to be physically harmful. Look up any conservative socialite on Instagram and you'll find them eating arugula and enjoying spa treatments. They relax on pristine beaches that are cleaned every morning, probably by immigrant workers. They're more worried about exposing their perfect children to the chemicals in plastic containers than most working class liberals probably are.

Exposure is for the little people and it's not the government's place to protect the little people from exposure. That's their real philosophy.