Tuesday, selected reporters were blocked and an Associated Press reporter was forcibly removed when they tried to cover the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Leadership Summit on Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances(PFAS) — a critical drinking water issue.
But less attention has been paid to the public health threat underlying these stories.
As with many Pruitt scandals, there are real world consequences for American families.
From Hoosick Falls, New York; to the Cape Fear region of North Carolina; to Kent County, Michigan; to Meridian, Mississippi; to Bucks County, Pennsylvania, local communities and states are struggling with how to handle drinking water contaminated with PFAS — a class of chemicals for which they have insufficient information and guidance from the federal government.
Despite the troubling actions by Pruitt and his appointees, EPA career staff, state leaders, and other participants were able to hold important, substantive discussions.
PFASs are a class of chemicals widely used in consumer products, industrial and manufacturing processes, and firefighting foams — and testing has indicated widespread exposure in humans.
Most of the health research has focused on two varieties, the compounds PFOA and PFOS.
In 2016, EPA issued a drinking water health advisory of 70 parts per trillion for these two chemicals because studies demonstrated that exposure to them may result in a number of adverse health effects, including low birth weight, accelerated puberty, cancer, immune effects and thyroid effects.
This week, the Environmental Defense Fund released environmental assessments of three PFAS substances that we obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request to the Food and Drug Administration.
Administrator Pruitt’s heavy-handed tactics at the PFAS summit were, sadly, indicative of his approach to assessing the safety of chemicals.