Head of Office of Children’s Health Protection placed on 'administrative leave' for no given reason

The Environmental Protection Agency has placed the head of Children’s Health Protection on “administrative leave.” This appears to be a first step toward either getting rid of the whole office or sidelining its function.

As the New York Times reports, Dr. Ruth Etzel “was placed on administrative leave late Tuesday and asked to hand over her badge, keys and cellphone.” The EPA has not explained or offered any excuse for the action and declined to provide a comment on Etzel’s dismissal.

The Office of Children’s Health Protection was added to the EPA in 1997 as part of an executive order signed by President Bill Clinton. The office is charged with seeing that environmental programs consider the effects of environmental factors on children when making decisions. That includes issues such as how pollution triggers asthma, and how lead in the environment affects brain development—both issues that might be overlooked if the EPA based its decisions only on studies of adults.

With only 15 people and a budget of $15 million, it’s a small office—but its mission of seeing that children are considered in EPA policy has made the office an outsize target both under current EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler and former administrator Scott Pruitt. In the past year, the EPA has refused to tighten restrictions on pesticides known to have substantial effects on children and blocked the release of a long-term survey of the effects of lead. The Hill reports that an EPA spokesperson denies the office is being closed. But health officials looking at what is happening at the EPA suspect that this is a “sneaky” way to get rid of the EPA’s child health office without officially getting rid of it. Previously, the EPA merged several offices to effectively end the process of providing fellowships to study effects of chemicals on children’s health.

The EPA has seen major staff cuts under President Trump. Since he took office, the agency has reportedly lost 8 percent of its total staff, totaling nearly 1,600 workers, in an 18-month period.