In a Single Email, Life-Saving Research on Children and Climate Change Was Shut Down
Years of critical scientific work aimed at protecting children from the growing dangers of climate change were abruptly halted with a single email.
Jane Clougherty, a professor at Drexel University and a nationally respected environmental health researcher, has spent most of her career studying how air pollution and extreme heat affect human health, especially children, whose developing bodies are far more vulnerable to environmental threats. In May, her potentially life-saving research came to an immediate stop after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cancelled her federal grant without warning.
Clougherty received the notice while sitting on her parents’ back porch in Boston, during a deeply personal moment as she cared for her father in hospice. The email, she said, offered no discussion, no explanation and no transition period, only an abrupt directive to end all research activities immediately.
“There was no conversation. No warning. Just an email saying the project was no longer within the administration’s scope and that all work must cease,” she recalled. The message, riddled with errors, added to what she described as a traumatic and unprofessional experience.
The cancelled project was in its final year and focused on analyzing emergency room visits across New York State to understand how extreme heat and air pollution impact children’s health. It also examined how community resources, such as green spaces, quality housing, access to healthcare, grocery stores and early childhood programs, could protect children from these hazards.
At a time when extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and intense, Clougherty’s research was designed not just to identify risks, but to provide practical, data-driven solutions. By pinpointing which community assets offer the strongest protective effects, the findings would have helped local leaders invest limited resources where they would have the greatest impact.
Instead, the work has been shelved.
Clougherty is one of thousands of researchers affected by widespread federal grant cancellations across agencies including the EPA, the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Among the terminated projects were studies focused on reducing wildfire smoke exposure near schools and addressing pesticide and pollution risks faced by children in rural communities.
These decisions come as climate threats intensify and disproportionately affect low-income communities and communities of color, where families already face greater exposure to pollution and fewer protective resources. Mothers, in particular, often bear the burden of balancing work while caring for children dealing with heat stress, asthma and other pollution-related illnesses.
Health and advocacy organizations say the loss of this research has immediate and long-term consequences. Groups like the Children’s Environmental Health Network rely on detailed, localized data to advocate for policy change and prevention strategies.
“We rarely get children-specific, community-level research like this,” said Kristie Trousdale, the organization’s deputy director. “These findings would have been actionable, something policymakers could use to prevent harm instead of reacting after the fact.”
Medical professionals echo those concerns. The Pediatric Environmental Health Team at Mount Sinai Health System noted that research like Clougherty’s informs how they advise families and develop clinical tools to protect children from environmental dangers.
Beyond the immediate loss of data, experts warn of broader damage to the scientific ecosystem. Abrupt grant cancellations dismantle laboratory infrastructure, eliminate jobs and erase years of specialized knowledge. They also risk discouraging the next generation of scientists.
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“Young researchers are watching this and asking whether it’s even worth pursuing a career in environmental health,” Clougherty said. “We could lose an entire generation of expertise at the very moment we need it most.”
Taxpayers, too, stand to lose. Clougherty’s grant totaled $1.35 million, nearly $1 million of which had already been spent before the cancellation. She has appealed the decision and awaits a response later this year, but the uncertainty remains.
Even more concerning, advocates say, is what these actions signal about the role of science in protecting public health. The potential rollback of long-standing EPA scientific findings, including determinations that fossil fuel emissions endanger human health, raises fears that evidence-based policymaking is being sidelined.
“If we abandon science,” Trousdale warned, “I don’t know how we expect to keep our children safe in a rapidly changing climate.”
For now, Clougherty is seeking private and foundation funding to recover the nearly $400,000 lost in federal support. But she remains realistic about the challenge.
“It’s not feasible for private funders to replace the scale of infrastructure being dismantled,” she said. “What’s being lost right now goes far beyond a single grant, it’s our collective ability to protect children’s health in the face of climate change.”
