Any time you hear “Texas” and “science” in the same sentence, you know something ridiculously stupid is about to follow. This time, it involves the state’s top toxicologist, Salon reported.
Dr. Michael Honeycutt, in an article on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s website, seriously made the argument that smog levels don’t need to be reduced because we spend most of our time inside.
“Ozone is an outdoor air pollutant, because systems such as air conditioning remove it from indoor air,” wrote Honeycutt. “Since most people spend more than 90 percent of their time indoors, [Honeycutt, along with other Texas ‘scientists’] are rarely exposed to significant levels of ozone.”
Honeycutt also pointed out that those “near death” and more vulnerable to ozone spent more than 90 percent of their time inside, as though that means that we don’t have to do anything about air pollution.
One of Honeycutt’s arguments against fixing climate change is that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) predicts an increase in death immediately following the lowering of any ozone standards.
“Paradoxically, lowering levels of nitrogen oxide can temporarily increase ozone levels, because nitrogen oxide also helps dissipate fully formed ozone,” reported the Texas Tribune. “That’s why the EPA predicts a slight increase in premature deaths of ozone standards are lower. In Houston, for instance, the agency says a few dozen more deaths could occur – a point Honeycutt said is buried in hundreds of pages of reports.”
According to the Tribune,
“Models do predict a slight increase in premature deaths at first, said Elena Craft, a senior health scientist at the advocacy group Environmental Defense Fund. She likens it to research suggesting that smokers have a heightened risk of lung cancer immediately after quitting, but then the risk drops off significantly.”
One of the top scientists in Texas has taken one aspect of a report “hundreds of pages” long and used it as a means to scare people out of doing anything about air pollution. Not a surprise that this false flag is from Texas, and not surprised that the GOP is using fear mongering as a tactic. Ignorance and fear are pretty much the only tricks left in their bag.
