Tag: PFAS

Chemical Industry Executive Nominated to Lead Consumer Watchdog Agency

The NY Times discusses how trump has nominated a chemical industry executive to lead the consumer watchdog agency.

President Trump has tapped Nancy B. Beck, a former chemical industry executive, to lead the Consumer Product Safety Commission, an independent federal agency charged with protecting the public against dangers like toxic substances in products.

Dr. Beck previously led the Environmental Protection Agency’s office of chemical safety, a position she came to after serving as the senior director of regulatory science policy at the American Chemistry Council, a lobbying group for the chemical industry.

Democrats and environmental groups on Tuesday criticized Dr. Beck’s nomination as chair of the commission and accused her of using her previous government positions to advance the agenda of the chemical industry.

During her time at the E.P.A., Dr. Beck oversaw the rewriting of an Obama-era rule in 2017 on a class of chemicals known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, that are linked to birth defects, in a way that would make them harder to regulate. She also helped scale back proposed bans on other substances like asbestos and methylene chloride, a deadly chemical found in paint thinners, in favor of limited restrictions.

EPA Closer to Regulating PFAS in Drinking Water (2)

Bloomberg Environment discusses EPA Closer to Regulating PFAS in Drinking Water (2).

  • Agency initial determination points to eventual limits to PFOS and PFOA
  • Agency accepting comment on other chemicals in same class

The EPA has made an initial determination that it will eventually set legal limits for levels of two key PFAS chemicals in drinking water, the agency announced Thursday.

Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the “preliminary regulatory determination” announced Thursday is the last step before the Environmental Protection Agency proposes limits on the releases of the two chemicals in drinking water and groundwater supplies. That announcement could still be months away.

EPA moves to limit financial pressure on ‘forever chemical’ manufacturers under cleanup law

The Hill discusses how EPA is moving to limit financial pressure on ‘forever chemical’ manufacturers under cleanup law.

A proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would absolve the nation’s manufacturers of cancer-linked “forever chemicals” from broad financial responsibility for cleaning up their product as it leaches into the water supply across the country.

The class of chemicals known as PFAS, which are noted for their persistence in both the environment and the human body, are used in a variety of nonstick products.

As PFAS contamination spreads into city water supplies in every state but Hawaii, there has been growing pressure from lawmakers to have manufacturers help fund cleanup efforts.

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE ILLEGALLY BURNING STOCKPILES OF TOXIC “FOREVER CHEMICALS”

Earthjustice discusses a lawsuit they filed along with the Sierra Club against the DoD for illegally burning toxic “Forever chemicals” – PFAS.

PFAS resist incineration and do not break down under temperatures and conditions that are sufficient to destroy other toxic chemicals. Incomplete incineration may result in PFAS emissions, as well as other toxic chemicals like hydrogen fluoride, which is poisonous, corrosive and flammable.

Today, environmental and community groups sued the Department of Defense (DOD) over its contracts to burn millions of gallons of unused firefighting foam containing PFAS in incinerators across the country. The DOD is the nation’s largest user of firefighting foam containing PFAS, a class of highly persistent and toxic chemicals that are known to cause cancer, liver disease, infertility, and other serious health effects.

According to government documents Earthjustice obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests, PFAS burning already took place, or is taking place, in the towns of East Liverpool, Ohio; Arkadelphia and El Dorado, Arkansas; and Cohoes, New York. The contracts also authorize PFAS incineration in other locations, including Port Arthur, Texas, and Sauget, Illinois. Incineration may already be underway in those and other locations, too, but DOD has not fully responded to FOIA requests seeking a full list of incineration locations.

Creating ‘Forever Chemicals’: A Guide to PFAS Companies (2)

Bloomberg Environment discusses companies that create ‘Forever Chemicals’: A Guide to PFAS Companies (part 2).

  • 3M focusing on lesser-known PFAS chemicals
  • Chemours, DuPont face off over liabilities

The billion-dollar companies that made and used chemicals now popping up in water supplies around the country are switching to newer alternatives, but they haven’t escaped liabilities for historic environmental contamination.

The chemicals, known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS, have become ubiquitous in everyday consumer goods as well as in specialized industrial applications. For some of the companies, including 3M Co. and the Chemours Co., liabilities from their PFAS operations have negatively affected the value of their stock.

Here are the major players in the PFAS industry: 3M, Dupont, Chemours, and others.

 

Understanding endocrine disruptors

This Environmental Health News article discusses endocrine disruptors. New video resources from endocrinologists will make it easier for medical professionals and patients to join ongoing conversations about this important class of chemicals.

Yet, we are hit daily with news about health epidemics that affect human populations: obesity rates continue to climb; more than a million new cancer cases are diagnosed in the US each year; one in every six American children has a developmental disability, and one in 59 have autism spectrum disorder. Many of these conditions are linked to hormones and endocrine health.

This week, the Endocrine Society will roll out new materials, freely available online, to help educate physicians, other medical professionals, and patients with hormone-related diseases about chemicals that disrupt hormones in the body. These “endocrine disruptors” can mimic, block, or otherwise affect the actions of hormones that are responsible for development, reproduction, metabolism, growth, and the general coordination of cells, tissues and organs in the body.

The first video provides an introduction to endocrine disruptors and discusses how endocrine disruptors interfere with hormone biology. The second video examines how endocrine disruptors contribute to metabolic diseases including obesity, and discusses why action is needed to reduce disparities in exposures to endocrine disruptors. Finally, the third video provides straight-forward and cost-effective tips to reduce exposures to endocrine disruptors.

New educational resources on endocrine disruptors are available from the Endocrine Society at: https://www.endocrine.org/topics/edc/talking-edcs.

Report: Toxic chemicals that never break down were found in the drinking water in several major US cities

This CNN article discusses how toxic chemicals that never break down were found in the drinking water in several major US cities.

Potentially toxic chemicals are in the drinking water supplies of several major metropolitan areas in the US, including Miami, New Orleans and Washington, DC, according to a new report from the Environmental Working Group (EWG).

The findings, published by the environmental advocacy group this week, suggested that PFAS, manmade chemicals that are extremely persistent in the environment and in human bodies, could be found in major water supplies in the US.

Study: PFAS – A Poison Killing Us

This Karlstad University study evaluated the association between early pregnancy exposure to eight PFAS compounds respectively and birth weight in 1,533 mother child pairs in the Swedish Environmental Longitudinal, Mother and child, Asthma and allergy (SELMA) study, specifically focusing on differences according to sex of the child.

Study: Articles on PFAS Chemicals

This The Guardian article discusses how rainwater in parts of US contains high levels of PFAS chemical, says study. Levels high enough to potentially impact human health and trigger regulatory action, which only targets two of 4,700 variants. This isn’t the only recent such study of rainwater in the US. Last year, the North Carolina division of air quality began testing near the Chemours facility, which produces the PFAS GenX, and in February of this year, detected levels of GenX in rainwater higher than 500 ng/l. The state subsequently gave the plant the go-ahead to install equipment to significantly reduce air emissions. More than a localized problem, PFAS compounds “are transported significant distances”, explains Brooks Avery, a professor of chemistry at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, which is conducting its own study of PFAS in air and rainwater. Indeed, these compounds have appeared in the Arctic and in populations of Alaska natives.

This The Intercept article discusses how EUROPEAN COUNTRIES ANNOUNCE PLAN TO PHASE OUT TOXIC PFAS CHEMICALS BY 2030. The 21-page document calls for Europe to eliminate all uses of PFAS that are not “essential” and to approach the chemicals as a group rather than individually. The report, titled “Elements for an EU-strategy for PFASs,” maps out a comprehensive attack on the chemicals that have contaminated water around the world, and conveys an urgency that has been largely lacking from the U.S. government. The document was created in response to a request from the European Commission’s Environmental Council in June and calls for “immediate action to cease the release and exposure of all PFASs as far as possible” on the grounds that there are huge health and monetary costs of not acting. It describes the chemicals that have been used to make firefighting foam, make-up, food packaging, and non-stick coatings, including Teflon, as extremely mobile in soil and water and warns that “PFASs will remain in the environment for ages.”