The Trump Administration Is Deregulating Forever Chemicals
The Trump administration is taking steps to further deregulate dangerous “forever chemicals,” or PFAS, increasingly ubiquitous chemicals that don’t easily break down and are linked to a wide range of health risks, including cancer and birth defects.
While the Department of Health and Human Services’ Make America Healthy Again commission, headed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr, previously sounded the alarm about the dangers of pesticides, their recent “Make Our Children Healthy Again” plan doesn’t list pesticide reduction as one of its proposed public health solutions. (Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images)
Amid industry lobbying, the Trump administration is taking steps to further deregulate dangerous “forever chemicals” — increasingly ubiquitous per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFAS) that don’t easily break down and are linked to a wide range of health risks, including cancer and birth defects.
This move comes after President Donald Trump’s choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), former representative Lee Zeldin, recommended firing thousands of EPA scientists, tried to repeal dozens of pollution regulations, and filled the agency’s leadership with industry lobbyists and lawyers.
Just this month, the EPA moved to approve two PFAS-based pesticides for use on crops, including tomatoes, peas, and lettuce. Despite the chemicals’ known dangers, the EPA created a new web page to assure the public of the “robust, chemical-specific process” that the agency uses to approve any pesticide.
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