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.

The agency’s chemical regulation office is currently headed by two former lobbyists who worked for the American Chemistry Council, which represents the chemical industry, and one former lobbyist for the American Soybean Association, which has openly advocated for pro-pesticide policies.

“To approve more PFAS pesticides amid the growing awareness of the serious, long-term dangers from these forever chemicals is absurdly shortsighted,” said Nathan Donely, environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group.

Decades of research have shown that PFAS exposure can lead to cancer, heart damage, hormone disruption, liver and thyroid problems, immune system suppression, reproductive issues, and abnormal fetal development. Over the years, law firms have filed more than 9,500 suits alleging PFAS harms, resulting in almost $17 billion in settlement payouts across 140 industries as of 2023.

The EPA also recently proposed relaxing a Biden-era rule that requires companies to report data on all products containing PFAS. If enacted, companies would no longer have to disclose information on PFAS that were used as a minor ingredient or were created for research or development purposes. The goal, the agency claims, is to make reporting regulations “more practical and implementable and reduce unnecessary, or potentially duplicative, reporting requirements for businesses.”

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, which seeks to address the rising rate of childhood chronic diseases, doesn’t list pesticide reduction as one of its proposed public health solutions.

The EPA is already facing pushback for some of its recent PFAS decisions. On Tuesday, an environmental organization representing public employees appealed a federal-court decision that allows the EPA to avoid regulating PFAS in sewage sludge that’s sold to farmers as fertilizers.

Meanwhile, disclosures reveal several polluters and toxic chemical manufacturers have lobbied the EPA on forever chemicals in recent years. That includes the American Chemistry Council, which spent $600,000 last year lobbying the government on PFAS, among other issues.