By Meg Wilcox
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) confirmed on Friday a plan to eliminate its science research arm in a move critics say will significantly undermine protections for human and environmental health.
By Carey Gillam
Documents obtained from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicate the agency may have presented false information to the public about testing for harmful contaminants in pesticides, according to allegations being made by a watchdog group and a former EPA research fellow.
By Shannon Kelleher
Proposed revisions to a national drinking water regulation designed to reduce exposure to lead in US drinking water are drawing applause from many sectors, but also criticism as industry groups worry about how to meet the stricter standard and environmental and health advocates fear the proposed requirements don’t go far enough.
By Shannon Kelleher
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scored both wins and losses in its enforcement of environmental laws for 2023, stepping up fines for polluters and on-site inspections but cleaning up fewer pollutants than it has in a decade, according to the agency’s annual enforcement and compliance report.
By Shannon Kelleher
The average amount of waste containing toxic PFAS chemicals that is shipped around the US each month has almost quadrupled since 2018, according to an analysis of government data by a watchdog group.
A draft policy meant to curtail improper interference in federal scientific work falls far short of what is needed, according to a warning issued this month by a group of public health and science advocacy groups.
By Carey Gillam
The US should overhaul regulation of a class of insecticides tied to excessive honeybee and bird deaths, according to a citizen petition filed Wednesday with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by a coalition of more than 60 nonprofit groups.
by Shannon Kelleher
A full cleanup may not materialize for the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco, a Superfund site since 1989, according to a memo the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released on September 30th. The memo, which was directed to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and other groups, implied that the site may remain unfit for unrestricted residential use after the cleanup concludes. The radioactive waste-contaminated shipyard is located within Bayview-Hunters Point, a low-income community of color with high asthma and cancer rates.
PEER said in a press release that the memo indicates the cleanup would violate Proposition P, a voter initiative calling for the agency to fully clean the shipyard. Instead, the memo suggests the cleanup plan may entail relying on land use restrictions and covering contamination with caps.
“Regarding your recommendation that soil radiological cleanup goals be based on an unrestricted use scenario consistent with the City/County of San Francisco’s Proposition P, broadly, EPA’s policy is to achieve protective remedies consistent with reasonably anticipated future land use,” said the EPA memo. “Institutional controls, like land use restrictions, are a common component of Superfund remedies nationwide to ensure protection of human health but also to ensure the integrity of remedies in the long term.”
“They’re sort of tacitly conceding the point that what’s going to be left is well above what should be left according to EPA’s own guidance on Superfund matters,” said PEER Pacific Director Jeff Ruch. “Hunters Point was supposed to be the biggest commercial redevelopment since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. If it’s not cleared for unrestricted use, it’s not clear to what extent it’s going to be usable.”
By Shannon Kelleher
Widely used pesticides contain concerning levels of toxic “forever chemicals” called PFAS, adding to concerns about the human health risks posed by pesticides that are used in growing food, according to a study published last week.
The study found a type of PFAS called PFOS at levels hundreds of thousands of times higher than the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers safe in 6 out of 10 insecticides tested, including malathion, one of the most commonly applied insecticides in the world.
PFOS was found at levels ranging from 3,920,000 to 19,200,000 parts-per-trillion (ppt), far higher than the EPA’s health advisory for PFOS in drinking water, which is set at 0.02 ppt. PFOS is no longer manufactured in the US and has been linked to cancer, as well as problems with the liver, thyroid, and immune system.
PFAS chemicals, including PFOS, were also found in soil samples, corn kernels, string beans, and peanuts that had been sprayed with pesticides at a government research laboratory in Lubbock, Texas, where the study was conducted.
“The level of PFAS absorption by plants detected in this study suggests that this exposure pathway poses a major threat to the safety of our food supply,” Tim Whitehouse, executive director of the government watchdog group PEER, wrote in a Sept. 26 letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan.
“For this reason, it is quite possible that PFAS in our food is a bigger PFAS exposure pathway than water. This threat is not merely to the safety of U.S. agriculture but of the world’s food supply, as these pesticides are widely applied in other countries,” Whitehouse wrote in the letter.
By Shannon Kelleher
Toxic chemicals knowns as PFAS leach from the walls of shipping containers into the products they contain, potentially contaminating food, pesticides, and other products transported all over the world, according to study by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The findings provide fresh evidence backing concerns that per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances used to coat the insides of shipping containers can contaminate the contents of those containers. The EPA analysis found that 8 types of PFAS compounds leached into water and methanol samples stored in fluorinated high-density polyethylene (HDPE) containers after just one day.
The EPA said the analysis provided “a clear indication” of the migration of PFAS from container walls to the liquid solutions in the container. The agency said the amount of PFAS leached into the solutions generally increased with time during the agency’s 20-week testing period.
The levels of contamination the EPA found were higher than the health advisory threshold of about 0.004 parts per trillion (ppt) EPA recently set for PFOA, one of the PFAS chemicals identified in the barrels.
EWG
Twitter
Instagram