Trump's EPA refuses to regulate pair of chemicals linked to cancer and multiple illnesses

[appal_jack]

Source: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/1/30/1830891/-Trump-s-EPA-refuses-to-regulate-pair-of-chemicals-linked-to-cancer-and-multiple-illnesses?detail=emaildkre&fbclid=IwAR002EMaZOS0xpSrVsULWPIn4F7UWGv2F-9ATl1hz7v2CpyYU9Ski9rSKN0

Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are man-made compounds that do not occur naturally. They’re created during the manufacture of Teflon and in the creation of a type of fire-fighting foam mostly used by the military. Wide use over a period of decades means that they’re present in drinking-water systems in many areas of the country, particularly in regions containing military bases or chemical plants. They’re also directly linked to multiple kinds of cancer, to high blood pressure, heart disease, and a host of ailments. And ... the EPA is not going regulate them, despite requirements that such chemicals be regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Preventing the regulation of these chemicals has been a long-term project for the Trump EPA. In 2018, then-EPA administrator Scott Pruitt blocked a public study of the chemicals. Preventing that study’s release meant that, in the most technical sense, the agency wasn’t required to move, even though other studies had already demonstrated the danger, and legislators, both Democratic and Republican, were urging the EPA to take regulatory action. And it wasn’t as if the EPA study hadn’t found a problem with these chemicals. It had. But Pruitt and Trump fought to keep those results under wraps, refusing to release the report for months before finally allowing it to escape in June.

(snip)

Failure to regulate the chemicals means that water companies will not be required to test for PFOS and PFOA. There will not be a required standard to meet. And, most critically for Team Trump, it will be much more difficult to take legal action against chemical companies such as 3M, which is responsible for generating the chemicals in bulk, or the military for the health damage the chemicals have already created. Across the country, communities had been looking forward to the regulation of these chemicals as a start toward remediating the high levels that remain in the drinking water of millions. Instead, there will be neither regulations nor funds to begin that effort.

This is the family of chemicals in which "Gen X" originates. Gen X and the halogenated firefighting chemicals used on North Carolina's military bases in the eastern half of the state has rendered drinking water unsafe for too many communities.

These halogenated hydrocarbon chemicals persist, bioaccumulate, and harm health for generations. Purposely ignoring their presence and deleterious health effects is a crime against humanity.

-app

[mbusby]

1. So let's dump...

...the current head of the EPA and tRump into a 55 gallon drum of the stuff and see what happens.

[appal_jack]

5. For science! :-) nt

[Still In Wisconsin]

2. Not tooting my own horn but I am a Ph.D. chemical engineer...

and that's bad shit. Both of those things are very nasty.

For the umteenth time, fuck Trump.

[c-rational]

3. Unbelievable. I often wonder what % of Americans drink botttled water, or better yet feel

comfortable drinking local tap water. This is an example of the free market failing and another example of failure of leadership.

[appal_jack]

4. Absolutely.

To me, sound environmental policy is one of the primary reasons to have a government at all...

-app