Biden administration moves to curtail toxic 'forever chemicals'
Source: Washington Post
The Biden administration moved Monday to regulate a group of long-lasting, human-made chemicals that pose health risks to millions of Americans, even as they continue to be used in an array of products such as cosmetics, dental floss, food packaging, clothing and cleaning supplies. The Environmental Protection Agency said it will move with urgency to set enforceable drinking water limits on certain polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, more commonly known as “forever chemicals,” which do not break down naturally and have turned up in the water supplies of communities around the country.
The agency also will require manufacturers to provide detailed data about entire classes of compounds they produce, and plans to designate some of them as hazardous chemicals under the nation’s Superfund law. An array of other agencies are also working on the problem, the White House said. The Defense Department is investigating nearly 700 installations around the country where the chemicals were or might have been released, aiming to finish initial assessments by 2023. The Agriculture and Health and Human Services Departments, as well as the Food and Drug Administration, are researching the chemicals’ health effects.
The new actions could have profound implications for public health, given that the thousands of PFAS chemicals are used in everything from specialized firefighting foams on military bases and airports to consumer products such as nonstick cookware and water-repellent fabrics. “This is a really bold set of actions for a big problem,” EPA administrator Michael Regan said in an interview. “This strategy really lays out a series of concrete and ambitious actions to protect people. There are concrete steps that we are taking that move this issue forward in a very aggressive way.”
Should the EPA ultimately classify some of these chemicals as hazardous — a move it said would “strengthen the ability to hold polluters financially accountable” — it could affect landfills and sewage operations throughout the country. The agency has never regulated a hazardous pollutant on such a broad scale. The agency will also review past actions taken on the chemicals to determine whether they “are insufficiently protective,” the EPA said in a statement. The durability of PFAS gives them tremendous commercial value, but over decades the chemicals have leached into Americans’ soil, water, food and even their blood — potentially harming health in the process.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/10/18/epa-regulate-forever-chemicals-pfas/
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The Daily Show - If You Don't Know, Now You Know: Forever Chemicals
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1017688139
Biden wants to regulate PFAs aka “Forever Chemicals.” Here’s why they’re harmful, and how they got here in the first place.