When Global Warming Is a Health Risk, But Not CO2

Yes, global warming will pose a substantial public health risk to the American people, in the form of everything from heat stroke to tropical disease outbreaks, in the coming years and decades, according to testimony by an expert from the nation's top health agency. And, yes, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases contribute to global warming.

But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, via senior official Howard Frumkin, assured Congress that it would not meddle with another agency's bureaucracy.

"The CDC doesn't have a position on ... EPA's regulatory decisions," Frumkin said, according to MSNBC.

This is the same logic that allowed the CDC to recognize dangerous levels of formaldehyde in the emergency housing given to Hurricane Katrina victims without directing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to correct the problem.

But, hey, it isn't the CDC's turf.

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