The EPA is Finally Looking to Take Action on Forever Chemicals

The EPA is Finally Looking to Take Action on Forever Chemicals

America has become widely contaminated with “forever chemicals,” per- and polyflouroalkyl substances that don’t break down and persist indefinitely in the environment. These chemicals come in a legion of varieties, a huge number of which haven’t even been studied, but they are already associated with causing a host of different diseases including kidney and testicular cancer and thyroid disease, among many others. They’re made by companies like DuPont, 3M, Honeywell, and Chemours Co. and they’re in everything from fire-fighting foam to cosmetics, to fast and processed food packaging. Nearly every American has these hazardous chemicals in our blood streams.

Finally, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to designate two types of “forever chemicals” as hazardous substances under the Superfund law – which would be a first step to expand cleanup and hold these planetary polluters responsible. The hazardous substance designation would make these polluters legally responsible for remediation of contaminated areas and authorize the EPA to recoup the cleanup costs if the polluter refused. The designation would also require the reporting of releases of the substances, which is expected to give communities information on where these chemicals are being discharged.

There are thousands of types of PFAS, only a fraction of them even studied, but the EPA’s proposal addresses two of the most notorious - PFOA and PFOS. The agency has warned that these two substances, which can be in plastic water bottles, are dangerous to drink, even in miniscule amounts. The Biden administration is expected to set enforceable drinking water limits for the substances, but has yet to propose any such limits. Nevertheless the EPA’s designation is a critical first step in trying to address a problem that impacts and threatens the health of all Americans.