PFAS

March 19, 2025

US baby formulas often contain contaminants, study finds

By Douglas Main

A new investigation that tested 41 types of powdered baby formula sold in the US found that about half of the products contained concerning levels of contaminants, including lead, arsenic, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), bisphenol A (BPA) and acrylamide.

“Millions of parents rely on infant formula during the first important months of their babies’ lives and deserve access to safe, healthy and nutritious products,” said James Rogers, director of product safety testing at Consumer Reports, the nonprofit organization that performed the investigation, in a statement.

Apparently in response to the report, the FDA announced Tuesday that the agency would be “taking steps to enhance its efforts to ensure the ongoing quality, safety, nutritional adequacy, and resilience of the domestic infant formula supply.”

“The FDA will use all resources and authorities at its disposal to make sure infant formula products are safe and wholesome for the families and children who rely on them,” said Health and Human Services secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., in the statement.

That announcement follows the Trump administration’s recent decision to disband two food safety advisory committees that provided scientific advice and recommendations to the FDA and other federal agencies. One of the committees, the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF), had been preparing to release a report prompted by a bacterial outbreak in powdered infant formula from September 2021 to February 2022, with recommendations on how to avoid future outbreaks.

Arsenic, a carcinogen, was one of the contaminants most commonly found in the products tested by Consumer Reports. The investigation found the highest inorganic arsenic level in Abbott Nutrition’s EleCare Hypoallergenic, at 19.7 parts per billion (ppb), and the second highest in Similac Alimentum at 15.1 ppb, also made by Abbott, one of the top companies in the infant formula market.

March 4, 2025

Unregulated flame retardants can break down into toxic byproducts, study shows

By Douglas Main

New research shows that two unregulated and widely used flame retardants found in many electronic devices and touted by industry as non-toxic break down into harmful molecules that can pose a health risk to fish and potentially other creatures, including humans.

The chemicals in question, large molecules called polymers, have largely escaped regulation as industry has argued that the materials are unlikely to degrade or make their way into living creatures. Many are even marketed as non-hazardous or environmentally friendly.

But a study published Monday in the journal Nature Sustainability found evidence suggesting that is not true. Researchers reported finding dozens of smaller molecules caused by the breakdown of polymeric flame retardants in soil, dust, and air outside electronic waste recycling facilities in southern China. The scientists exposed zebrafish — commonly used in initial toxicity tests — to the chemicals and found that they caused metabolic dysfunction and showed the potential for development harm.

“Our study suggests polymers can act as a trojan horse for toxic chemicals,” Da Chen, senior author and scientist at Jinan University in China. “They are added to products as inert large molecules, but over time they can degrade, exposing us to their harmful breakdown products.”

In recent years, polymeric flame retardants have been used to replace smaller, toxic molecules, such as chemicals called HBCD and PBDE, which have been partially phased out due to safety concerns.

Most polymers, including all such flame retardants, are considered exempt from major regulations meant to protect humans. But the new research shows regulation is needed, said Arlene Blum, co-author of the study and a research associate at the University of California, Berkeley. Blum also serves as executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute.

February 26, 2025

New data show widespread chemical contamination of drinking water

By Douglas Main

A newly released trove of data reveals widespread pollution of US tap water with more than 320 chemical contaminants, including industrial chemicals and farm-related pollutants.

The latest information is part of a tap water database, created by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), and incorporates information from nearly 50,000 water systems collected between 2021 and 2023.

Though few chemicals were found exceeding the federal government’s legally mandated maximum contaminant level (or MCL), almost all US water systems nation-wide contained at least one contaminant at levels that surpassed the health guidelines developed by EWG that are based on scientific research of the harms associated with the various contaminants.

“This is a wake-up call,” said Tasha Stoiber, an EWG senior scientist. “Outdated federal regulations continue to leave millions of people at risk of exposure to harmful substances.”

Among the chemicals commonly detected were per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as forever chemicals, which were found in the water of at least 143 million Americans. Nitrates, a common waste product from farming operations linked to colorectal cancer and thyroid disease, were also commonly detected as well as disinfection byproducts caused by using chlorine.

Many of these disinfection byproducts — including chemicals called trihalomethanes, chloroform, haloacetic acids, and more — showed up in tens of thousands of water systems at concentrations far above what many health scientists consider safe.

February 21, 2025

States move to cement PFAS protections amid fears of federal rollbacks

By Shannon Kelleher

Concerns are growing about the fate of a Biden-era rule to limit toxic PFAS chemicals in drinking water, with some states moving to introduce laws that would lock in place PFAS protections that could survive any potential rollback by the Trump Administration.

California introduced legislation on Wednesday that would direct the State Water Resources Control Board to adopt regulations at least as protective as those in the federal rule. If California’s bill passes, it will require state regulators to set new regulations by January 1, 2026 that would mirror the Biden Administration rule that set a limit on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water.

The legislation specifically calls for adopting the requirements in place on a federal level as of the day prior to President Donald Trump’s January 20th inauguration.

“We think there’s a case here for folks to act with urgency given the developments in Washington, given the threat to public health and public safety that these chemicals pose,” Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-CA), who introduced the bill, said on a February 19 press call. “We are going to do this so we can protect our communities irrespective of what happens at the federal level.”

Lawmakers in multiple other states are making similar moves, including in Pennsylvania, Maine and Connecticut.

“It’s not unreasonable to be concerned that there would be a rollback of these policies here,” said Steve Hvozdovich, Pennsylvania Campaigns Director for the group Clean Water Action. “I think the quicker we can move the better.”

January 31, 2025

FDA must set limits on PFAS in food, lawsuit says

By Shannon Kelleher

US regulators are failing to address concerns about toxic PFAS chemicals in foods despite having the scientific tools to do so, according to a lawsuit filed by an environmental group in Tucson, Arizona.

The lawsuit, filed on Jan. 24 in the US District Court for the District of Arizona, follows the submission of a legal petition filed in November 2023 by the Tucson Environmental Justice Task Force that asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to establish limits for certain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) the agency has found in blueberries, lettuce, milk, salmon and other foods. The group wants the FDA to take action to remove products from grocery store shelves if PFAS residues are found at the minimum level of detection possible.

“We’re asking [the FDA] to do something that they are required to do under the law, that they failed to do under the law,” said Sandra Daussin, attorney for the plaintiffs and a plaintiff herself.

Under its own regulations, the FDA is required to respond to petitions within 180 days, but the agency failed to address the petition after more than a year, an “arbitrary and capricious” delay, the complaint alleges.

PFAS are a class of thousands of chemicals used for decades across many industries. The chemicals have become ubiquitous in the environment, found in water, soil and the blood of animals and people around the globe. Many types of PFAS have been found to be health hazards, linked to disease and disability. The petition cites connections between seven types of PFAS and “serious life-threatening health effects,” including kidney and liver damage, cancer, neurotoxicity, immunotoxicity, and adverse reproductive effects.

The petitioners argue that in August 2023 the FDA developed a validated method detecting up to 30 PFAS chemicals in foods, and thus has an obligation to use that knowledge to set enforceable limits. The group wants the FDA to adjust those limits to be lower if methodology improves to detect smaller concentrations.

The FDA has been testing foods for PFAS contamination since 2019 but has found very little contamination.

January 23, 2025

Amid series of rapid-fire policy reversals, Trump quietly withdraws proposed limits on PFAS

By Shannon Kelleher

Amid a flurry of actions curtailing Biden’s environmental policies, the administration of newly inaugurated President Donald Trump this week withdrew a plan to set limits on toxic PFAS chemicals in industrial wastewater.

The draft rule, which the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent to the White House for review in June, was seen as a precedent-setting move by reducing allowable discharges of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a class of chemicals that have been linked to an array of health problems.

“It is abundantly clear that this action was taken to benefit the chemical industry – and every American will suffer for it,” said Kyla Bennett, director of science policy at the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. “PFAS contamination is already a national health crisis, and this will force states to try and fill the regulatory void left by EPA’s failure. “

The decision to withdraw the draft rule came as Trump issued an executive order to freeze any new federal regulations pending review.

Though the initial rule would have applied to only about 13 facilities, almost 30,000 industrial sites have been identified as potential sources of PFAS in the environment, including drinking water sources, according to a 2021 analysis of EPA data by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG). And the EPA itself has identified more than 120,000 facility sites around the US where the agency says people may be exposed to PFAS.

The proposal’s withdrawal is a “devastating setback” that “not only delays establishing critical federal standards but also sends a dangerous message giving polluters a green light to continue poisoning our water and communities without fear of consequence,” Melanie Benesh, EWG vice president for government affairs, said in a statement. “It’s an unconscionable betrayal of the public’s health in favor of corporate interests.”

When asked about the move, an EPA spokesperson said it was “common transition procedures,” to pause major decisions, including a hold on new and pending regulations.

January 15, 2025

Millions of Americans exposed to unregulated chemicals in drinking water, study finds

By Shannon Kelleher

Almost 100 million people in the US may be exposed to unregulated industrial chemicals in their drinking water, with communities of color especially at risk, according to a new analysis of federal monitoring data for water systems across the country.

The study, published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, analyzed data gathered by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from 2013 to 2015 for four types of unregulated chemicals, finding that 27% of those nearly 5,000 public water systems had detectable levels of at least one contaminant.

Overall, more than 97 million US residents were served by a public water system with detectable levels of the contaminants examined in the study.

The colorless, flammable solvent 1,4-dioxane was most pervasive, showing up in 22% of the public water systems, according to the study. The researchers also found the refrigerant HCFC-22, as well as a solvent called dichloroethane used in plastics production, and toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in about 4-6% of the water systems. The EPA data accounted for six types of PFAS, a category including thousands of chemicals: perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), perfluoroheptanoic acid (PFHpA) and perfluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBS).

Hispanic and Black populations are at especially high risk for exposure to unregulated chemicals in their drinking water, the authors reported. Public water systems with detectable levels of the contaminants served counties with higher proportions of Hispanic residents than those with no detections, for example, the authors said.

January 14, 2025

PFAS in sludge spread on farmland poses health risks, EPA report says

By Shannon Kelleher and Carey Gillam

US regulators on Tuesday added to growing concerns about the long-standing practice of using sewage sludge to fertilize farmland, releasing a report warning that chemicals contaminating the sludge pose heightened human health risks for cancer and other illnesses.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said two types of hazardous per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) widely found in sewage sludge, a byproduct of wastewater treatment, can contaminate the milk, eggs and meat that come from farm animals raised on agricultural land where the sludge has been applied. Those “exposure pathways” are among multiple ways in which people can be at risk, the EPA said.

The agency focused on perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), two well-studied types of PFAS chemicals linked to testicular and kidney cancer as well as liver problems. The EPA last spring designated PFOS and PFOA as hazardous substances under the so-called Superfund law and announced the first legally enforceable limits for the two chemicals and four other types of PFAS in drinking water.

The EPA said that though the majority of US food crops are not grown with the use of sewage sludge as a soil conditioner or fertilizer, because of the “extreme persistence” of PFOA and PFOS in soils, land where sewage sludge was applied years ago may still be contaminated.

The agency’s draft risk assessment, which was made publicly available Jan. 14, said that “under certain scenarios and conditions,” land-applying or disposing of sewage sludge containing 1 part per billion (ppb) or more of PFOA or PFOS “could result in human health risks exceeding the agency’s acceptable thresholds for cancer and noncancer effects.”

January 6, 2025

Fluorinated drugs, a type of PFAS, widely contaminating US drinking water

By Douglas Main

New research suggests that fluorinated pharmaceuticals — a category that includes well-known medications such as Prozac and Flonase — are showing up in the water supply of millions of people. These drugs and their breakdown products are technically classified as being per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as “forever chemicals,” which as a chemical class is the subject of worldwide health concern.

A study published January 6 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that the bulk of PFAS entering and exiting wastewater treatment plants is made up of these fluorinated drugs. Notably, the researchers determined that the pharmaceuticals were largely not removed from the water by conventional wastewater treatment practices.

This pharmaceutical material “doesn’t get treated in the wastewater treatment plant, and it doesn’t break down,” said Bridger Ruyle, study co-author and researcher at New York University. “And we know [these chemicals] can be re-entering drinking water supplies.”

The study estimates that this material contaminates the water supply of around 23 million Americans, Ruyle said.

These drugs enter wastewater after being excreted by people. About 50% of drinking water utilities are located downstream of a wastewater outflow plant and regularly use varying amounts of this water.

A slight majority of this material was made up of only four drugs and one of their metabolites: the arthritis medication Celecoxib (Celebrex); flecainide (Tambocor), prescribed for arrhythmia; maraviroc (Selzentry), and one of its metabolites, used to treat HIV; and sitaglipt (Januvia), a diabetes drug.

“We don’t know that much about what the exposures or health risks are” for those drinking small concentrations of this material, Ruyle said.

November 15, 2024

Can anything be done to Trump-proof the environment?

By Douglas Main

As advocacy groups brace for a new administration under President-elect Donald Trump —fearing a slew of deregulation and policy changes that would undermine a range of environmental health measures —some are pondering ways to try to “Trump-proof” the planet.

Trump racked up the worst environmental record of any president during his first term, according to several advocacy organizations, and many worry his second time around will be even worse.

They expect across-the-board cuts to federal budgets and staff, including the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Interior, and other agencies that play key roles in protecting human and environmental health. And they forecast efforts to reverse environmentally friendly policies protested by powerful corporate players.

“I suspect Trump will be less restrained than last time… more aggressive and damaging,” said Brett Hartl, with the Center for Biological Diversity. “We’ll wait for the storm to hit and fight back,” he added.

These concerns come after the Biden administration has implemented of many hard-fought measures such as new standards to address widespread contamination of US drinking water with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and environmental justice initiatives to better protect marginalized communities from industrial pollution.

The current administration has, just this month alone, completed a series of steps lauded by conservationists and environmentalists that include finalizing rules to limit oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and finishing a proposal to restrict oil exploration and grazing in 65 million acres of sage grouse habitat.