Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
EPA Significantly Weakens Proposal For Cleaning Up Groundwater Pollution Caused By Toxic Chemicals
The New York Times: E.P.A. Proposes Weaker Standards On Chemicals Contaminating Drinking Water
After pressure from the Defense Department, the Environmental Protection Agency significantly weakened a proposed standard for cleaning up groundwater pollution caused by toxic chemicals that contaminate drinking water consumed by millions of Americans and that have been commonly used at military bases. Standards released by the agency on Thursday eliminated entirely a section that would have addressed how it would respond to what it has described as “immediate threats posed by hazardous waste sites.” Those short-term responses, known as removal actions, can include excavating contaminated soil or building a security fence around a toxic area. (Lipton and Turkewitz, 4/25)
Meanwhile, in Michigan —
Detroit Free Press: PFAS Contamination Is Michigan's Biggest Environmental Crisis In 40 Years
There are thousands of PFAS chemicals, many of them little-understood byproducts. Though the chemicals were distributed, purposefully and inadvertently, by 3M, DuPont and other chemical companies for generations, virtually nothing is known about most of them. But PFOS and PFOA — the compounds most frequently cited by regulators because they have received more scrutiny — have been linked to cancer; conditions affecting the liver, thyroid and pancreas; ulcerative colitis; hormone and immune system interference; high cholesterol; pre-eclampsia in pregnant women, and negative effects on growth, learning and behavior in infants and children. (Matheny, 4/25)
Detroit Free Press: PFAS In Michigan: What It Is, What It Stands For, Contamination Risks
PFAS is Michigan's most widespread, serious contamination problem since the PBB crisis of the 1970s. Thousands of Michigan residents' water supplies have been impacted, and the full scope of the contamination from these so-called "forever chemicals" is not yet known. Soil and surface waters are also contaminated in many places, and people's exposures may have come from consumer products in years past. Michigan has tested more than 1,700 public drinking water supplies statewide for PFAS compounds — every public water system (even down to a mobile home park with 25 users), every tribal water system, every school and day care/Headstart with its own well. Regulators also have tested residential wells in known areas of PFAS contamination. (Matheny, 4/25)
