loosen restrictions on harmful chemicals<\/a> and approve new pesticides \u2014 including two that contain what are internationally recognized as \u201cforever chemicals,\u201d linked to serious health risks.<\/p>\nKennedy, who is the political face of the MAHA movement, has also been criticized for capitulating on issues he once embraced. In February, President Trump signed an executive order to shore up production of the herbicide glyphosate, for \u201cnational security and defense reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kennedy publicly supported that decision and in a social media post said that while herbicides and pesticides were \u201ctoxic by design\u201d and \u201cput Americans at risk,\u201d the food supply depends on them. <\/p>\n
Glyphosate, known commercially as Roundup, has long been a target of the MAHA movement. Produced by Bayer, which acquired the original manufacturer, Monsanto, in 2018, the herbicide has been the subject of tens of thousands of lawsuits, many from users who claim to have developed non-Hodgkins lymphoma as a result of exposure.<\/p>\n
Antiplastic advocates applauded Thursday\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has taken an important first step to regulate microplastics in drinking water,\u201d said Judith Enck, a former regional director of the agency and founder of Beyond Plastics, an anti-waste environmental group based in Bennington, Vt. <\/p>\n
She urged the regulators to \u201cmove rapidly,\u201d not only to regulate plastic in drinking water but prevent it from getting into drinking water in the first place. So, too, did Kimberly Wise White, vice president of regulatory and scientific affairs at the American Chemistry Council, the trade group for the chemical industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe support science-driven monitoring of microplastics in drinking water and research to better understand potential impacts,\u201d White said in a statement. <\/p>\n
Others, however, received the news with caution.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe welcome any step that takes microplastics and emerging contaminants seriously,\u201d said Kelly Shannon McNeill, managing director of the nonprofit environmental group Los Angeles Waterkeeper. \u201cAmericans deserve to know what\u2019s in their tap water, but announcements aren\u2019t regulations, and regulations aren\u2019t enforcement, and this administration has a track record that gives us some serious pause.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said that along with other recent EPA actions, including steps to weaken protections against PFAS, or \u201cforever\u201d chemicals, and glyphosate, this latest step by the Trump administration \u201cfeels really disingenuous.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2022, California became the first government in the world to require that drinking water be tested for microplastics. The state has not yet begun reporting its results. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a positive to see the federal government following what has been the lead of California in terms of initiating programs to investigate the extent to which these microplastics are occurring in our drinking water supplies nationwide,\u201d said David Andrews, chief science officer for the Environmental Working Group. At the same time, he noted, the Trump administration has moved to cut funding for water infrastructure and appears to be \u201cmoving backwards\u201d in many areas of environmental regulation. <\/p>\n
A report from the State Water Resources Control Board was expected in 2025 but has not yet been issued.<\/p>\n
Micro- and nanoplastics have been found everywhere scientists have looked. They\u2019ve been found in human organs and tissue, such as brains, livers, placentas and testicles. They\u2019ve also been detected in blood, breast milk and even meconium \u2014 an infant\u2019s first stool. In addition, they are prevalent throughout the environment \u2014 in alpine snow, deep sea sediment and drinking water.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, a coalition of MAHA groups associated with Kennedy sent a letter to Zeldin requesting the Trump administration halt permitting for new plastics manufacturing plants and step up monitoring of microplastics in drinking water.<\/p>\n
In December, Zeldin told MAHA groups<\/a> he would include measures on plastics as part of the agency\u2019s agenda, after several prominent MAHA groups called for him to be fired. They said he was too close to chemical companies.<\/p>\nShannon McNeill, from Los Angeles Waterkeeper, also worries that if the source of these contaminants isn\u2019t addressed, \u201call you\u2019re doing is shifting that cost to local water utilities and wastewater treatment facilities. That ends up ultimately increasing our water bills.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, plastic manufacturers will continue making money selling more plastic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great first step if they do follow through on it, but we\u2019ve got to stop plastic pollution upstream,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[173017,24806,114084,85359,246,173015,1068,173016,173018,61,60,4883,4270,96086,3441,29293,82,16874,173014],"class_list":{"0":"post-390047","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-capital-letter","9":"tag-chemical","10":"tag-co-founder","11":"tag-drinking-water","12":"tag-environment","13":"tag-environmental-agency","14":"tag-epa","15":"tag-federal-health","16":"tag-herbicide","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-kennedy","20":"tag-maha","21":"tag-microplastic","22":"tag-movement","23":"tag-pharmaceutical","24":"tag-science","25":"tag-table","26":"tag-zeldin"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}