The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed adding microplastics and pharmaceuticals to its Contaminant Candidate List for drinking water, marking the first time these substances have been included. This move could lead to future regulations and increased research funding.
Key Takeaways
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed adding microplastics and pharmaceuticals to its Contaminant Candidate List for drinking water, marking the first time these substances have been included. This move could lead to future regulations and increased research funding.
- EPA's Contaminant Candidate List now includes microplastics and pharmaceuticals
- 60-day public comment period begins before finalization by mid-November
- Studies show microplastics in human organs, raising health concerns
- HHS announces $144 million program to study microplastics' effects on the human body
The EPA's Contaminant Candidate List identifies contaminants in drinking water not regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act. The agency is publishing the draft of the sixth version of the list, which opens a 60-day public comment period before finalization by mid-November.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin stated that the agency is responding to Americans' concerns about plastics and pharmaceuticals in drinking water. According to The Guardian, this gesture also aims to hand a win to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s MAHA movement, which has pressured the EPA to further crack down on environmental contaminants.
Studies have looked at the prevalence of microplastics in drinking water and in people's hearts, brains, and testicles. Doctors and scientists are still assessing what this means in terms of human health threats but say there is cause for concern. There is also growing worry about pharmaceutical drugs that get into the water supply because humans excrete them and conventional wastewater treatment plants fail to remove them.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a $144 million program called STOMP (Systematic Targeting of Microplastics) to study microplastics' effects on the human body. The program will involve building tools to detect and quantify microplastics, mapping how they move through the body, and ultimately removing them from the human body.
Some environmental groups and experts have expressed cautious optimism about the announcement. Judith Enck, a former EPA regional administrator who now heads up Beyond Plastics, said that including microplastics in the list is the first step toward eventually regulating them in public water supplies. However, Erik Olson, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, noted that this process routinely ends in nothing.
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