Scientists Completed a Damning Toxicity Report on This Forever Chemical. The EPA Hasn’t Released It.

The report also calculates the amount of PFNA that people can express without harming – a critical measure that can be used to clean PFNA contamination on superfund sites and to determine the restrictions for chemical removal from drinking water.

For months, the report has been sitting in Limbo, raising anxiety among some scientists and environmentalists that the Trump administration may change it or not express it at all.

The EPA told the prophet that the report would be published after it was finalized, though the press office did not answer the question about what it needs to be done or when it will happen.

According to an internal document reviewed by Propabolika, the final version of the report was “complete and ready to post” in mid -April. And two scientists, familiar with the assessment, confirmed that the report was finalized and was prepared for publication from April.

“Scientifically, it was done,” one of the two scientists said that both of who worked in the research and development office of the EPA and those who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not approved to speak publicly about unpublished reports.

The scientist said, “All that was left to do was shorten up the report and post it,” the scientist added that this national delay was unusual. “In recent years, evaluations were a tendency to be finalized within a few weeks.”

Last year a draft version of the evaluation was made public and created objections to an industrial trade group. The final version, which retains the calculations published in the draft report, was completed shortly before declaring the EPA’s PFNA amount and a few more permanent chemicals approved by drinking water. President Joe Biden’s administration set the limitations last year.

Senior analyst Daria Minovi of the union of the concerned scientists pointed to that pending change as a possible inspiration for not publishing the PFNA evaluation. “If you are trying to bring back the quality of drinking water, you probably don’t want to disclose information that makes the case on why these values ​​are necessary,” said Minovy.

Nonprising Science Advocacy has focused on unpublished reports in Group A Social media posts end The month that said, “Without this assessment, the federal and state agencies are denied the best available science they depend on to protect public health.”

PFNA is so dangerous that the EPA signed an agreement with eight companies about two decades ago. Was an element of chemicals Fire And a processing assistance to create a type of plastic used in circuit boards, valves and pipes. PFNA was used in the water where the foam was used in the EPA and the state data analysis by the non -profit and was found in the water near the drinking water in 20 states Environmental working groupThe

Local governments all over the country are using and trying to create the chemicals like PFNA for the bill for expensive work to clean pollution. In 2019, the state of New Jersey ordered the owner of an industrial center in West Dustford addressed the site to address chemical pollution on the site, where high -level PFNA was found in the near soil and water. The state took the specialty polymer to the court, accusing it of failing to fully obey it. As part of legal settlement, Solve Agree to pay more than $ 393 million And to clean pollution. The company, which has since become the Scienceco Specialty Polymer, has indicated other sources of PFNA pollution in the plant area and points out that it has settled the case without recognizing responsibility.

Solves tried to impress EPA on closing water constraints, according to agencies prescribed for other chemicals in PFNA and class, according to, PlanningThe The company also made the Congress a law that could prevent the agency’s integrated risk information system from using chemical evaluation under control. Iris, as the program is known, analyzes the chemicals and the PFNA can combine the report. Scienceco and Solv did not respond to questions about the plan and whether they asked EPA to change or publish the IRIS report in PFNA.

Scientists at the EPA IRIS program started evaluation because short PFNA seemed to be especially dangerous for perflurononic acid. Like the other Compounds in the classPFNA does not break into nature. Scientists have already found it in soil and water all over the country. It was also measured in food, air, indoor dust and fish – as well as breast milk, fetal tissue and human blood. Perhaps the most worrying, studies already suggested that chemicals did severe damage to humans and lab animals.

A draft of the report, which reflects five years of study collection and review, has been found to have developed, liver and reproductive damage as well as PFNA resistance problems, thyroid effects, developer brain damage and other bunch of other disorders including type 2 diabetes. The proof was not so strong that the industrial trade group did not resolve the reproductive threat raised by the PFNA. Enrolled Another Regulatory body And part of a greater proof that attaches to “forever chemicals” to the male reproductive loss, such as small tests and at Reduces the number and mobility of spermThe Everlasting chemicals, also known as PFA, are also associated with female reproductive problems, as Endometriosis, ovarian trauma and tumor And The dramatic decrease in fertility

Questions about the fate of the PFNA report have extended to the fate of the IRIS program that managed it and could handle the toxic chemicals of EPA more broadly.

Iris was created during the President of Ronald Reagan to provide an independent and reliable information source about pollutants who could damage public. Dozens of EPA scientists contribute to a general assessment, which takes a few years to complete and is subject to extensive peer review. The level of scientific investigation and skill means these documents are credible by environmental experts around the world.

Many hoped that the iris would be heated from political pressure as it was separated from the agency’s regulatory weapon. However, from the beginning, the industry has targeted the program, whose evaluations can trigger toxic waste cleanup and expensive regulatory changes.

Project 2025, President Donald Trump has called for the eradication of Conservative Blueprint, Iris, who created guidance for the second administration of President Donald Trump. Earlier this year, the Republican in the Congress The law introduced the law known as the “No Iris Act”. Their proposal will forbid the EPA to use the programs, rules, enforcement steps and allow the use of programs in the action, which limit the amount of air and water allowed in the water and prevent them from using them for the risk map of the health. This law has been sent to the committee in both the House and the Senate but no branch has been passed yet.

The Iris program has been destroyed since Trump took over. The program was kept in the research and development office, which has been dramatically reduced under Trump A large reconstruction Agency. According to a source familiar with the program, only 55 scientists identified have worked on the recent IRIS evaluation are in the office. The rest are either employed in the agency elsewhere or left the EPA.

“They have been dispersed by the movement of companies,” a scientist who worked with this program for decades and left the EPA recently. “It seems that some generations of scientists who have worked very relentlessly to create a highly audited evaluation in the world have been separated without any way.”

Meanwhile, the iris program has stopped issued Report has posted it regularly For years about its progress. Most recent, Published in FebruaryIt is mentioned that the PFNA evaluation was expected to be published in the second quarter of the fiscal year ended in June.

Asked about the status of the program, an EPA spokesperson told Propablish that “Iris is not wrong to say that it is no longer existing.” The Press Office did not answer the follow-up question about whether it was correct to tell iris What Exists, how many people still work there, whether the agency is planning to allow its continued access to Chemical assessment And how it plans to use those evaluations in the future. The EPA did not clarify how the EPA plans to poison the chemicals.

In Could be releasedThe EPA said it was “committed to adding” to the chemicals of drinking water forever. At the same time, it was rotating behind the drinking water limit over a few compounds. The agency is also Rebencies of restrictions on solvents called TCE and PCEWhich Associated with Parkinson’s diseaseThe It is offering agencies to exempt from pollution restrictions for up to two years Email the agency And the rules designed to protect the public from toxic air pollution are in the process of reversing the rules. The company recently announced plans to simplify the rules known as hydrofloorocarbons of climate pollutants.

Under Trump, there is an EPA made for public health protection To celebrate the attempt to reverse the regulations And the champion industry. However, people concerned about chemical health effects see the agency’s retreat from environmental protection as a betrayal. Lauren Allen, an environmental advocate living in Marimak, New Hampshire, where PFNA was one of the many chemicals discovered in drinking water in 20 2016, waiting for this report and was frustrated and late.

“This is suppressed to information,” said Allen, co-founder of the National PFAS pollution alliance. “We have science, and it should not be interrupted.”