A press conference in front of the Supreme Court Building in Washington. Picture used for illustrative purposes only. Photo: Our Children's Trust

Eighteen children in the 8-17 age group have filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its administrator in the US over climate change.

The group of 18 youth from California alleged that the EPA intentionally allows "life-threatening climate pollution to be emitted by the fossil fuel sources of greenhouse gases it regulates, harming children’s health and welfare”.

Plaintiffs also claimed the EPA has discriminated against them as children by discounting the economic value of their lives and their future when it decides whether and how much climate pollution to allow.

The children filed their constitutional climate lawsuit against the EPA, its administrator, Michael Regan and the US federal government.

These 18 children filed their lawsuit because they are experiencing life-threatening climate change injuries, such as the loss of homes from wildfire, adverse health effects, displacement from floods, and being exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution, with lifelong consequences, according to Our Children's Trust, an American nonprofit public interest law firm.

The children who filed the lawsuit are asking the federal court to hear and weigh their evidence, then ultimately issue a declaratory judgment that the EPA has violated their fundamental constitutional rights to equal protection of the law and their fundamental rights to life.

The children seek to stop EPA from continuing to allow life-threatening levels of fossil fuel climate pollution.

"The plaintiffs also ask, for the first time, for the federal courts to clarify the standard of judicial review to protect the equal protection rights of children as a unique and protected class that is different from adults,” said the non-profit law firm.

The children seek to stop EPA from continuing to allow life-threatening levels of fossil fuel climate pollution and do what scientists say is necessary – phase out fossil fuel pollution no later than 2050.

In August this year, 16 youth between the ages of five and 22 who had sued the state of Montana for violating their right to a clean environment claimed a big victory.

A state court ruled in their favour, finding that the plaintiffs "have experienced past and ongoing injuries resulting from the State’s failure to consider (greenhouse gases) and climate change, including injuries to their physical and mental health, homes and property, recreational, spiritual, and aesthetic interests, tribal and cultural traditions, economic security, and happiness.”

Meanwhile, the Biden administration has initiated a formal evaluation of risks posed by vinyl chloride, the cancer-causing chemical that burned in a towering plume of toxic black smoke following a fiery train derailment earlier this year in eastern Ohio.

The Environmental Protection Agency said it will review risks posed by a handful of chemicals, including vinyl chloride, which is used to make a variety of plastic products, including pipes, wire and packaging materials. The chemical is found in polyvinyl chloride plastic, better known as PVC.

The EPA said it will study vinyl chloride to determine whether it poses an "unreasonable risk to human health or the environment,″ a process that would take at least three years.

Vinyl chloride is one of five chemicals the agency is reviewing, including four that are used to make plastics. Other chemicals set for review under the federal Toxic Substances Control Act include acetaldehyde, acrylonitrile, benzenamine, and a compound known as MBOCA.

"Under the Biden-Harris administration, EPA has made significant progress ... to strengthen our nation’s chemical safety laws after years of mismanagement and delay. Today marks an important step forward,” said Michal Freedhoff, assistant EPA administrator for chemical safety and pollution prevention.

Studying the safety of vinyl chloride and other chemicals that have been in use for decades "is key to better-protecting people from toxic exposure,” Freedhoff said in a statement.

Environmental and public health activists welcomed the announcement, calling the review long overdue.

"Vinyl chloride was classified as a human carcinogen in 1974. That same year, the federal government wisely banned the use of vinyl chloride in hair sprays, refrigerants, cosmetics and drugs,'' said Judith Enck, a former EPA regional administrator and president of the advocacy group Beyond Plastics.

Enck and other advocates had called the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, a warning that the US must ban petrochemicals such as vinyl chloride.

Jess Conard, an East Palestine resident who now works as a regional director for Beyond Plastics, said EPA was making the right decision.

"Vinyl chloride is transported by rail all over the country and is the primary chemical that has contaminated not just my home in East Palestine, Ohio, but other communities where PVC and vinyl chloride manufacturing facilities exist,'' Conard said in a statement.

"If you live along the rail line, you are at risk for the same fate (as East Palestine) with every passing train that is transporting toxic chemicals,'' she said. Conard faulted what she called "an insatiable demand” by Americans for plastic products that has "driven the need for increased transport of these hazardous substances, placing communities like mine at risk every single day.″

Vinyl chloride is found in plastic PVC pipes, as well as vinyl siding, packaging and a range of consumer goods, including furniture, car parts, shower curtains and toys used by children and pets.

Agencies