{"id":30653,"date":"2022-02-18T00:01:23","date_gmt":"2022-02-18T04:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/?p=30653"},"modified":"2022-02-17T19:41:34","modified_gmt":"2022-02-17T23:41:34","slug":"pfas-adds-to-the-legacy-of-persistent-toxics-hurting-generations-of-people-and-the-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2022\/02\/pfas-adds-to-the-legacy-of-persistent-toxics-hurting-generations-of-people-and-the-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"PFAS Adds to the Legacy of Persistent Toxics Hurting Generations of People and the Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

(Beyond Pesticides<\/em>, February 18, 2022)\u00a0A new analysis conducted by Safer States<\/a>, and reported on by Environmental Health News<\/em><\/a> (EHN), concludes that in 2022, at least 32 states will consider 210 potential laws to ban or restrict one category of so-called \u201clegacy\u201d chemicals \u2014 the PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) family of compounds<\/a>. \u201cLegacy\u201d or \u201cforever\u201d chemicals<\/a> are those whose historical use, including many decades ago in some instances, has led to their toxic persistence in the environment and in organisms. In recent years, scientists, health and environment advocates, and policy makers have begun to recognize these as very serious contaminants, and to call attention to their ubiquity and impacts. Beyond Pesticides has identified multiple instances of such \u201clegacies\u201d (including those related to the production of pesticides<\/a> and particularly, the infamous DDT<\/a>), and will here discuss both PFAS, and concerns about such legacy chemicals as they may impact food producers.<\/p>\r\n

The term \u201clegacy\u201d often connotes the ongoing influence or impact \u2014 generally salutary \u2014 of an individual\u2019s activity, or a set of principles or activity inherited from one\u2019s forebears. It is an apt description, minus the \u201csalutary\u201d part, for legacy chemicals \u2014 toxic \u201cgifts that keep on giving\u201d via persistent contamination of environments and bodies (human and other). In recent years, PFAS chemicals are increasingly being found in soil samples, in foods, in various kinds of water bodies and waterways, and in many drinking water sources. The environmental persistence of these compounds stems from the fact that they do not break down readily in the environment; hence, the \u201cforever\u201d moniker. Indeed, they accumulate in the human body<\/a> (and no doubt in the bodies of other organisms, though that is less well studied) and are showing up many decades later in natural resources.<\/p>\r\n

The highly toxic, fluorinated PFAS family of chemicals includes more than 9,000 compounds and two high-profile subcategories: PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate) and\u00a0PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid). PFAS compounds are associated, in humans, with occurrences of cancer (testicular, kidney, liver, and pancreatic), thyroid disease, high cholesterol, reproductive problems (pregnancy-induced hypertension, low birth weights, and decreased fertility), immune compromise, asthma, ulcerative colitis, developmental delays, and disruption of the endocrine system<\/a>, which can have myriad systemic impacts.<\/p>\r\n

PFAS are found in many industrial (aerospace, automotive, construction, electronics, and military) and consumer products, including personal care products and cosmetics, cleaning products, carpeting, cookware, stain- and water-resistant products (clothing, textiles, and furniture), firefighting foam, and food packaging, among others. Despite Congressional attempts to ban these compounds in consumer goods, their inclusion in food packaging and processing equipment, electronics, some cookware, cosmetics, and other goods continues to be legal federally. (See more on states\u2019 responses, below.)<\/p>\r\n

Historically, some of these compounds ended up as part of waste that was dumped after industrial and military uses. Perhaps not all misbehavior is historical: The Guardian<\/em> has reported<\/a> that the U.S. military very recently (2016\u20132020) incinerated more than 20 million pounds of PFAS foam next to environmental justice communities. This occurred despite the lack of any evidence that incineration destroys the PFAS compounds; indeed, burning it discharges these toxic chemicals \u201cinto the air and onto nearby communities, farms, and waterways.\u201d These legacy industrial and consumer chemicals are currently released into the environment via such products and the waste stream. Human exposure to them happens primarily through personal use of PFAS-contaminated products, through consumption of contaminated water or food, or via occupational exposures.<\/p>\r\n

Estimates put the number of people in the U.S. exposed to these chemicals<\/a> via drinking water between 110 and 200 million. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) offers a PFAS map<\/a> of the U.S. that shows just how pervasive the problem is. Areas with widespread PFAS contamination of drinking water include large swaths of the Northeast (especially Massachusetts, Rhode Island, southeast New Hampshire, eastern Pennsylvania, Long Island, New Jersey, and Delaware), as well as significant portions of Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, North and South Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Colorado, and California. Beyond those, the map represents military (and other) sites of PFAS contamination unrelated to drinking water.<\/p>\r\n

There has been precious little activity at the federal level to deal with PFAS (and some other legacy chemicals.) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced in 2019 that a \u201cComprehensive Nationwide PFAS Action Plan\u201d would be forthcoming. Since 1998, EWG notes<\/a>, \u201cdespite mounting evidence of PFAS\u2019 toxicity and contamination, EPA has inexcusably dragged its feet. The [agency] has failed to set a legal limit for any PFAS in tap water, and its non-enforceable health advisory level for PFOA and PFOS is\u00a070 times higher<\/a> than what independent studies show is needed. In 2019, EPA announced a toothless \u2018action plan\u2019\u00a0<\/a>that would do nothing to reduce ongoing PFAS releases or clean up legacy PFAS pollution.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

One small example<\/a> of such negligence: at the very end of the Trump administration, the agency issued confirmation that high-density polyethylene (HDPE) containers used to store and transport pesticides are commonly treated with fluorine compounds to reduce risk of changes in chemical composition of the pesticides. Such treatment meant that the pesticide containers likely leached PFAS compounds into the pesticides, representing a potential and significant source of PFAS exposure throughout the country\u2019s conventional agriculture sector.<\/p>\r\n

Another is the 2020 discovery that an EPA registered mosquito pesticide, Anvil 10+10, contained PFAS compounds<\/a> \u2014 thus exposing the public broadly when- and wherever it was deployed. Beyond Pesticides Community Resource and Policy Director Drew Toher commented, \u201cThis is an issue that cuts to the core of what\u2019s wrong with our federal system for regulating pesticides. The finding makes it imperative that EPA review and disclose full pesticide formulations before allowing the public to be exposed to unknown hazards.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

With the advent of the Biden administration, there has been more effort to address the problem. In the Fall of 2021, EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan announced an EPA PFAS Strategic Roadmap that purports to lay out a whole-of-agency approach to addressing PFAS. The EPA website notes<\/a>, \u201cThe roadmap sets timelines by which EPA plans to take specific actions and commits to bolder new policies to safeguard public health, protect the environment, and hold polluters accountable. The actions described in the PFAS Roadmap each represent important and meaningful steps to safeguard communities from PFAS contamination. Cumulatively, these actions will build upon one another and lead to more enduring and protective solutions.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

For states and localities, who are on the front lines of PFAS contamination, this is welcome news and <\/em>significantly tardy. Absent much protective action on forever chemicals at the federal level, including on persistent pesticides, states have been stepping up, particularly in the past five years or so, to deal with a problem that permeates many aspects of people\u2019s lives.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

The Safer States analysis<\/a> sets out these particulars:<\/p>\r\n