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EPA Will Keep Rule Designating PFAS as ‘Hazardous’

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Tuesday, September 23, 2025

September 23, 2025 – Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced last week that the agency will keep in place a Biden-era policy change that enables the agency to make companies pay for the cleanup of harmful “forever chemicals.” Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are chemicals that can persist in the environment for centuries, accumulate in the human body, and are associated with a range of health harms. “EPA’s reaffirmation of this rule is a win for environmental justice, giving communities poisoned without their knowledge a long-overdue path to relief,” Melanie Benesh, vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group (EWG), said in a statement. In April 2024, Biden’s EPA designated the two forever chemicals associated with the most harm and widespread environmental contamination—perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS)—as “hazardous substances” under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, the country’s “Superfund” law. That meant the agency could then prioritize the cleanup of sites contaminated with those chemicals and hold companies responsible for the remediation. Since then, agricultural industry groups, including the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association,  National Pork Producers Council, and American Farm Bureau Federation, have challenged the rule in court, arguing that farmers who spread contaminated fertilizer on their land could be on the hook for the cleanup costs. Last week, a broader coalition of farm groups, among them the National Farmers Union, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, and American Farmland Trust, released federal policy recommendations for addressing PFAS contamination on farms. In addition to provisions related to assisting farmers with cleanup and the reduction of future contamination, the groups included a section recommending the EPA further clarify and confirm that farmers will not be held responsible for contamination caused by fertilizers. Zeldin put that issue—referred to as “passive receiver liability”— front and center in the EPA’s Sept. 17 announcement. “When it comes to PFOA and PFOS contamination, holding polluters accountable while providing certainty for passive receivers that did not manufacture or generate those chemicals continues to be an ongoing challenge,” he said. “EPA intends to do what we can based on our existing authority, but we will need new statutory language from Congress to fully address our concerns.” But some experts say those concerns have already been addressed. “The 2024 enforcement discretion policy resolved the situation, clarifying that EPA would focus enforcement only on polluters—not farmers and municipalities that received PFAS chemicals,” said Betsy Southerland, the former director of the EPA’s Office of Science and Technology in the Office of Water, in a statement released by the Environmental Protection Network. Southerland welcomed the announcement that the EPA will keep the designations in place. She also warned it will offer little relief to people worried about forever chemicals in drinking water, because of Zeldin’s earlier decision to roll back limits on four other PFAS. The EPA also recently approved four new pesticides that qualify as PFAS based on an internationally recognized definition the EPA does not use. “Let’s be clear,” Southerland said. “Our drinking water is still at risk because Trump’s EPA is recklessly allowing more toxic chemicals in Americans’ drinking water.” (Link to this post.) The post EPA Will Keep Rule Designating PFAS as ‘Hazardous’ appeared first on Civil Eats.

September 23, 2025 – Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced last week that the agency will keep in place a Biden-era policy change that enables the agency to make companies pay for the cleanup of harmful “forever chemicals.” Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are chemicals that can persist in the environment for […] The post EPA Will Keep Rule Designating PFAS as ‘Hazardous’ appeared first on Civil Eats.

September 23, 2025 – Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced last week that the agency will keep in place a Biden-era policy change that enables the agency to make companies pay for the cleanup of harmful “forever chemicals.”

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are chemicals that can persist in the environment for centuries, accumulate in the human body, and are associated with a range of health harms.

“EPA’s reaffirmation of this rule is a win for environmental justice, giving communities poisoned without their knowledge a long-overdue path to relief,” Melanie Benesh, vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group (EWG), said in a statement.

In April 2024, Biden’s EPA designated the two forever chemicals associated with the most harm and widespread environmental contamination—perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS)—as “hazardous substances” under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, the country’s “Superfund” law. That meant the agency could then prioritize the cleanup of sites contaminated with those chemicals and hold companies responsible for the remediation.

Since then, agricultural industry groups, including the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association,  National Pork Producers Council, and American Farm Bureau Federation, have challenged the rule in court, arguing that farmers who spread contaminated fertilizer on their land could be on the hook for the cleanup costs.

Last week, a broader coalition of farm groups, among them the National Farmers Union, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, and American Farmland Trust, released federal policy recommendations for addressing PFAS contamination on farms. In addition to provisions related to assisting farmers with cleanup and the reduction of future contamination, the groups included a section recommending the EPA further clarify and confirm that farmers will not be held responsible for contamination caused by fertilizers.

Zeldin put that issue—referred to as “passive receiver liability”— front and center in the EPA’s Sept. 17 announcement. “When it comes to PFOA and PFOS contamination, holding polluters accountable while providing certainty for passive receivers that did not manufacture or generate those chemicals continues to be an ongoing challenge,” he said. “EPA intends to do what we can based on our existing authority, but we will need new statutory language from Congress to fully address our concerns.”

But some experts say those concerns have already been addressed.

“The 2024 enforcement discretion policy resolved the situation, clarifying that EPA would focus enforcement only on polluters—not farmers and municipalities that received PFAS chemicals,” said Betsy Southerland, the former director of the EPA’s Office of Science and Technology in the Office of Water, in a statement released by the Environmental Protection Network.

Southerland welcomed the announcement that the EPA will keep the designations in place. She also warned it will offer little relief to people worried about forever chemicals in drinking water, because of Zeldin’s earlier decision to roll back limits on four other PFAS. The EPA also recently approved four new pesticides that qualify as PFAS based on an internationally recognized definition the EPA does not use.

“Let’s be clear,” Southerland said. “Our drinking water is still at risk because Trump’s EPA is recklessly allowing more toxic chemicals in Americans’ drinking water.” (Link to this post.)

The post EPA Will Keep Rule Designating PFAS as ‘Hazardous’ appeared first on Civil Eats.

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Factbox-Highlights of US Framework Trade Deals With Argentina, Ecuador, El Salvador and Guatemala

By Andrea Shalal and Natalia SiniawskiWASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States on Thursday announced framework agreements with Argentina, Ecuador,...

By Andrea Shalal and Natalia SiniawskiWASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States on Thursday announced framework agreements with Argentina, Ecuador, El Salvador and Guatemala that will see Washington drop tariffs on imports of some foods and other goods, while those countries will open their markets to more U.S. agricultural and industrial goods.Details will be released in coming weeks after the framework deals are finalized.Following are highlights of the four deals, according to fact sheets and joint statements released by the White House and the countries involved on Thursday:Argentina will provide preferential market access for U.S. goods, including certain medicines, chemicals, machinery, information technology products, medical devices, motor vehicles, and a wide range of agricultural products.Under the deal, Argentina will allow access for U.S. poultry and poultry products, within one year, and simplify red tape for U.S. exporters of beef, beef products, pork, and pork products. Argentina also has agreed not to restrict market access for certain U.S. meats and cheeses.Argentina agreed to step up enforcement against counterfeit and pirated goods; use U.S. or international standards for imports of goods made in the United States, including automobiles; and refrain from imposing customs duties on electronic transmissions or digital services taxes.Argentina agreed to treat U.S. firms fairly in its critical minerals sector, and to adopt a ban on importation of goods produced by forced or compulsory labor.In exchange, the U.S. will remove tariffs on "certain unavailable natural resources and non-patented articles for use in pharmaceutical applications."The countries also committed to improved, reciprocal, bilateral market access conditions for trade in beef.Total two-way trade in goods and services between the United States and Ecuador amounted to approximately $90.4 billion in 2024.Ecuador agreed to remove or lower a range of tariffs on products including tree nuts, fresh fruit, pulses, wheat, wine, and distilled spirits, as well as machinery, health products, chemicals, motor vehicles, and to establish tariff-rate quotas on a number of other agricultural goods.It also agreed to reduce non-tariff barriers for U.S. agricultural goods, including through changes to its licensing systems for food and agricultural products.Ecuador will also accept vehicles and automotive parts built to U.S. motor vehicle safety and emissions standards, as well as U.S. medical devices marketed in the United States, and U.S. pharmaceutical products marketed in the United States.It also agreed to prevent barriers to services and digital trade with the U.S.; refrain from imposing digital service taxes; strengthen enforcement of its labor laws and ban importation of goods produced by forced or compulsory labor.The two countries agreed to strengthen their economic and national security cooperation by taking complementary actions to address non-market policies and cooperating on investment security and export controls, a reference that could refer to China and its non-market policies.In exchange, the U.S. will remove its tariffs on certain qualifying exports from Ecuador that cannot be grown, mined or naturally produced in the United States in sufficient quantities, including coffee and bananas.El Salvador will provide preferential market access for U.S. goods, including pharmaceutical products, medical devices, remanufactured goods and motor vehicles.The country will streamline regulatory approvals, accept U.S. auto standards, simplify certificate of free sale requirements, allow electronic certificates, remove apostille requirements and expedite product registration.El Salvador has committed to prevent barriers to U.S. agricultural products, recognize U.S. regulatory oversight, continue accepting agreed U.S. certificates and not restrict access of meats and cheeses including parmesan, gruyere, mozzarella, feta, asiago, salami, and prosciutto.The country will advance international intellectual property treaties and ensure transparency and fairness on geographical indications.El Salvador will prevent barriers to services and digital trade and support a permanent moratorium on customs duties for electronic transmissions.It has reinforced its commitment to labor rights, environmental protection, and sustainable resource management, including tackling illegal logging, mining, wildlife trafficking and industrial distortions.In return, the United States will remove reciprocal tariffs on certain Salvadoran exports and extend preferences to qualifying CAFTA‑DR textiles. The countries will also strengthen economic and national security cooperation, enhancing supply chain resilience, innovation, and collaboration on duty evasion, procurement, investment security and export controls.Two-way trade in goods and services between the United States and Guatemala totaled almost $18.7 billion in 2024.Under the deal, Guatemala will streamline regulatory approvals, accept U.S. auto standards, simplify certificate of free sale requirements, allow electronic certificates, remove apostille requirements and expedite product registration.The country has committed to prevent barriers to U.S. agricultural products, recognize U.S. regulatory oversight, maintain science- and risk-based frameworks and continue accepting agreed U.S. certificates. Access will not be restricted on common meats and cheeses.Guatemala will strengthen intellectual property protection, implement international treaties, resolve longstanding U.S. Special 301 issues, and ensure transparency on geographical indications.It will facilitate digital trade, refrain from discriminatory digital services taxes, support free cross-border data flows and back a permanent WTO moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions.The country has reinforced commitments to labor rights, environmental protection, and sustainable resource management, including prohibiting goods from forced labor, combating illegal logging, mining, and wildlife trafficking, enforcing forest and fisheries measures and addressing industrial and state-owned enterprise distortions.In response, the United States will remove reciprocal tariffs on certain Guatemalan exports, including products that cannot be grown or produced in sufficient quantities in the United States and qualifying textiles and apparel.(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Natalia Siniawski; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

Chemicals
Food
Forests

Jesse Marquez, tireless defender of L.A. port communities, dies at 74

One of the Los Angeles region's most important environmental justice advocates has died.

When Jesse Marquez walked into the Los Angeles harbor commission hearing room in 2013, he didn’t bring a consultant or a slideshow. He brought death certificates.Each sheet of paper, he told the commissioners, bore the name of a Wilmington resident killed by respiratory illness. Wedged between two of the country’s busiest ports, the neighborhood is dotted with oil refineries, chemical plants, railyards and freeways. It’s one of several portside communities known by some as a “diesel death zone,” where residents are more likely to die from cancer than just about anywhere else in the L.A. Basin. For decades, Marquez refused to let anyone forget it.He knocked on doors, installed air monitors, counted oil wells, built coalitions, staged demonstrations, fought legal battles and affected policy. He dove deep into impenetrable environmental impact documents.“Before Jesse, there was no playbook.” Earthjustice attorney Adrian Martinez said in an interview. “What was remarkable from the beginning is that Jesse wasn’t afraid to write stuff down, to demand things, to spend lots of time scouring for evidence.”Marquez, founder of the Coalition for a Safe Environment, or CFASE, died surrounded by family in his Orange County home Nov. 3. His death was due to complications after he was struck by a vehicle while in a crosswalk in January. He was 74.“He was one of a kind,” Martinez said. “He had a fierce independence and really believed in speaking up for himself and his community. He played an instrumental role in centering Wilmington in the fight for environmental justice.”In 2001, when the port planned to ramp up operations and expand a major terminal operated by Trapac Inc. further north into Wilmington, Marquez and neighborhood organizers pushed back, winning a $200-million green-space buffer between residences and port operations.When oil refineries evaded pollution caps through what organizers called a “gaping loophole” in Environmental Protection Agency policy, Marquez and others sued, overturning the policy and successfully curtailing pollution spikes at California plants.And when cargo ships idled at California ports burning diesel fuel, Marquez and his allies pressed the state to adopt the nation’s first rule requiring vessels to turn off their engines and plug into the electric grid while docked.Born Oct. 22, 1951, Marquez was raised in Wilmington, and lived most of his life there. As a child, he had a view of Fletcher Oil Co.’s towering smokestacks from his frontyard.Years later, black pearls of petroleum rained down on Wilmington the day the oil refinery exploded.Then 17, Marquez hit the floor when he heard the blast. Frantic, he helped his parents hoist his six younger siblings over a backyard fence as fireballs of ignited crude descended around their home, just across the street. His grandmother was the last over, suffering third-degree burns along the entire left side of her body.“From that moment on, he’s always had Wilmington in his mind,” his 44-year-old son, Alex Marquez, said in an interview.The memory shaped the battles he fought decades later. In college at UCLA, he crossed paths with young members of the Brown Berets, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlán, and the Black Panther Party, later volunteering in demonstrations led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta.“He started off within that movement,” Alex Marquez said. “It was his reason to bring a lot of different communities into his work.”After a career in aerospace, he began organizing in earnest in the 1990s, aligning with groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council and Coalition for Clean Air to oppose port expansion projects.When his sons were old enough, he brought them along to photograph and count oil wells, later folding them into his other projects.He described his father as a man of contrasts.“When it was time to work, he was the most serious, stern, no patience,” Alex Marquez said. “But the minute the job was done, he completely transformed. He was your best friend who brought a roast turkey and a six-pack of beers. He partied and relaxed better than anyone I’ve ever met.”Marquez’s home was always filled with dogs — he jokingly called his lawyers his “legal beagles,” Martinez recalled. He loved reggae music, dancing and was an amateur archaeologist. He kept a collection of colonial maps tracing the migration of the Aztec people, part of what his son called “his love for Native American and Aztec culture.”He founded CFASE with a group of Wilmington residents. After learning about the port’s expansion plans, he hosted an ad hoc meeting at his home. There, residents shared their experiences with industrial pollution in Wilmington.They talked about the refinery explosions in 1969, 1984, 1986, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1996 and 2001.“Then someone says, ‘Well, I have two kids and they have asthma,’” Jesse Marquez recalled in a media interview in January. “And then someone else says, ‘All three of my kids have asthma — My mom has asthma — I have asthma.’”The group would play a central role in developing the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach’s landmark Clean Air Action Plan and Clean Truck Program, which replaced more than 16,000 diesel rigs with cleaner models.It pushed for zero-emission truck demonstrations, solar power installations, and won millions of dollars for communities for public health and air-quality projects.The coalition helped negotiate a $60-million settlement in the seminal China Shipping terminal case — securing local health grants, truck retrofit funds and the first Port Community Advisory Committee in the U.S. — and later helped establish the Harbor Community Benefit Foundation, which funds air filtration, land use, and job-training initiatives across Wilmington and San Pedro.Marquez’s group also fought off proposals for liquefied natural gas terminals, oil tank farms and hydrogen power plants.Since 2005, diesel emissions at the Port of Los Angeles have plummeted by 90%.Now Alex Marquez finds himself suddenly in charge of the nonprofit his father built.He’s been learning to manage the group’s finances, fix its monitoring equipment and reconnect with its network of allies.“It’s literally been a crash course in how to run a nonprofit,” he said. “But we’re keeping it alive.”In Wilmington, residents point to visible symbols of Marquez’s work: the waterfront park, the electrified port terminals and the health surveys that documented decades of illness.“He left us too early, but a movement that was just budding when he started decades ago has now blossomed into national and even international networks,” Martinez wrote in a tribute to Marquez.Marquez is survived by his sons Alex Marquez, Danilo Marquez, Radu Iliescu and, the many who knew him say, the environmental justice movement writ large.

Chemicals
Culture
Health

James Watson, Co-Discoverer of DNA's Double Helix, Dead at 97

(Reuters) -James D. Watson, the brilliant but controversial American biologist whose 1953 discovery of the structure of DNA, the molecule of...

(Reuters) -James D. Watson, the brilliant but controversial American biologist whose 1953 discovery of the structure of DNA, the molecule of heredity, ushered in the age of genetics and provided the foundation for the biotechnology revolution of the late 20th century, has died at the age of 97.His death was confirmed by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, where he worked for many years. The New York Times reported that Watson died this week at a hospice on Long Island.In his later years, Watson's reputation was tarnished by comments on genetics and race that led him to be ostracized by the scientific establishment.Even as a younger man, he was known as much for his writing and for his enfant-terrible persona - including his willingness to use another scientist's data to advance his own career - as for his science.His 1968 memoir, "The Double Helix," was a racy, take-no-prisoners account of how he and British physicist Francis Crick were first to determine the three-dimensional shape of DNA. The achievement won the duo a share of the 1962 Nobel Prize in medicine and eventually would lead to genetic engineering, gene therapy and other DNA-based medicine and technology.Crick complained that the book "grossly invaded my privacy" and another colleague, Maurice Wilkins, objected to what he called a "distorted and unfavorable image of scientists" as ambitious schemers willing to deceive colleagues and competitors in order to make a discovery.In addition, Watson and Crick, who did their research at Cambridge University in England, were widely criticized for using raw data collected by X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin to construct their model of DNA - as two intertwined staircases - without fully acknowledging her contribution. As Watson put it in "Double Helix," scientific research feels "the contradictory pulls of ambition and the sense of fair play."In 2007, Watson again caused widespread anger when he told the Times of London that he believed testing indicated the intelligence of Africans was "not really ... the same as ours."Accused of promoting long-discredited racist theories, he was shortly afterwards forced to retire from his post as chancellor of New York's Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL). Although he later apologized, he made similar comments in a 2019 documentary, calling different racial attainment on IQ tests - attributed by most scientists to environmental factors - "genetic."James Dewey Watson was born in Chicago on April 6, 1928, and graduated from the University of Chicago in 1947 with a zoology degree. He received his doctorate from Indiana University, where he focused on genetics. In 1951, he joined Cambridge's Cavendish Lab, where he met Crick and began the quest for the structural chemistry of DNA.Just waiting to be found, the double helix opened the doors to the genetics revolution. In the structure Crick and Watson proposed, the steps of the winding staircase were made of pairs of chemicals called nucleotides or bases. As they noted at the end of their 1953 paper, "It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material."That sentence, often called the greatest understatement in the history of biology, meant that the base-and-helix structure provided the mechanism by which genetic information can be precisely copied from one generation to the next. That understanding led to the discovery of genetic engineering and numerous other DNA techniques.Watson and Crick went their separate ways after their DNA research. Watson was only 25 years old then and while he never made another scientific discovery approaching the significance of the double helix, he remained a scientific force."He had to figure out what to do with his life after achieving what he did at such a young age," biologist Mark Ptashne, who met Watson in the 1960s and remained a friend, told Reuters in a 2012 interview. "He figured out how to do things that played to his strength."That strength was playing "the tough Irishman," as Ptashne put it, to become one of the leaders of the U.S. leap to the forefront of molecular biology. Watson joined the biology department at Harvard University in 1956."The existing biology department felt that molecular biology was just a flash in the pan," Harvard biochemist Guido Guidotti related. But when Watson arrived, Guidotti said he immediately told everyone in the biology department – scientists whose research focused on whole organisms and populations, not cells and molecules – "that they were wasting their time and should retire."That earned Watson the decades-long enmity of some of those traditional biologists, but he also attracted young scientists and graduate students who went on to forge the genetics revolution.In 1968 Watson took his institution-building drive to CSHL on Long Island, splitting his time between CSHL and Harvard for eight years. The lab at the time was "just a mosquito-infested backwater," said Ptashne. As director, "Jim turned it into a vibrant, world-class institution."In 1990, Watson was named to lead the Human Genome Project, whose goal was to determine the order of the 3 billion chemical units that constitute humans' full complement of DNA. When the National Institutes of Health, which funded the project, decided to seek patents on some DNA sequences, Watson attacked the NIH director and resigned, arguing that genome knowledge should remain in the public domain.In 2007 he became the second person in the world to have his full genome sequenced. He made the sequence publicly available, arguing that concerns about "genetic privacy" were overwrought but made an exception by saying he did not want to know if he had a gene associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease. Watson did have a gene associated with novelty-seeking.His proudest accomplishment, Watson told an interviewer for Discover magazine in 2003, was not discovering the double helix - which "was going to be found in the next year or two" anyway - but his books."My heroes were never scientists," he said. "They were Graham Greene and Christopher Isherwood - you know, good writers."Watson cherished the bad-boy image he presented to the world in "Double Helix," friends said, and he emphasized it in his 2007 book, "Avoid Boring People."Married with two sons, he often disparaged women in public statements and boasted of chasing what he called "popsies." But he personally encouraged many female scientists, including biologist Nancy Hopkins of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology."I certainly couldn't have had a career in science without his support, I believe," said Hopkins, long outspoken about anti-woman bias in science. "Jim was hugely supportive of me and other women. It's an odd thing to understand."(Editing by Bill Trott and Rosalba O'Brien)Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025

Chemicals
Health
Science

How dry cleaning might raise the risk of cancer, and what to do about it

A new study found links between a toxic dry cleaning chemical and liver cancer. Trump officials are reconsidering an EPA plan to phase it out.

Environmental and health advocates have long sought to curb dangerous chemicals used in dry cleaning. Now a new study adds to the evidence of harms, linking a common dry cleaning chemical to liver disease and cancer.Here’s what you need to know about the risks.How dry cleaning worksDespite the name, clothes don’t stay “dry” when dry-cleaned. Instead, garments are loaded into drums and soaked in chemicals that dissolve stains.Before modern cleaning systems were developed, workers would manually move solvent-soaked garments from washer to dryer, creating a direct exposure route and increasing the chances of environmental contamination. Today, cleaners wash and dry everything in the same drum. Clothes are then pressed or steamed.What are the health risks?One of the most widely used dry cleaning chemicals is an industrial solvent called PCE, also known as tetrachloroethylene, perchloroethylene and perc. The Environmental Protection Agency considers PCE a probable human carcinogen, and it has been linked to bladder cancer, multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.Follow Climate & environmentLast year, the EPA announced a new rule banning PCE for most uses and giving dry cleaners a 10-year phaseout period. The Trump administration is reconsidering this decision, according to an EPA spokesperson.But a recent study found that exposure to PCE tripled the risk of liver fibrosis, excessive scarring that can lead to liver disease and liver cancer. Researchers found that repeated exposure to PCE, which is detectable in an estimated 7 percent of the U.S. population, increased the likelihood of liver damage.“If you’ve been exposed to PCE, talk to your doctor about it,” said Brian P. Lee, associate professor of medicine at the University of Southern California and the study’s lead author.The study found that higher-income households faced the most risk from PCE exposure because they are more likely to use dry cleaning. People who work in cleaning facilities or live nearby also face an elevated risk due to prolonged exposure. Once the chemical gets into a building or the ground, it’s very difficult to remove. The EPA estimates that roughly 6,000 dry cleaners, mostly small businesses, still use PCE in the United States.Lee said the study adds to the growing list of harms associated with the chemical.Studies have also shown that PCE can linger on clothing after dry cleaning and that it builds up over time after repeated cleanings and can contaminate indoor air as it vaporizes.“We now have decades of studies confirming that these widespread dry cleaning chemicals are exposing people to unacceptable risks of cancer and other serious diseases,” said Jonathan Kalmuss-Katz, a senior attorney at the advocacy group Earthjustice. “Those harms are entirely avoidable.”Jon Meijer, director of membership at the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute International, a trade association, said the group supports the original rule passed under the Biden administration and explained that those who still use the chemical do so because of financial challenges.“It’s time for a phaseout of perchloroethylene,” Meijer said. “There are so many alternatives out there.”Safer alternativesExperts say there are plenty of alternatives to using harmful dry cleaning chemicals, but some are safer than others.Go dry-clean free: Try purchasing clothes that don’t need to be dry-cleaned. Selecting cotton blazers and other professional attire, for example, can reduce dry cleaning visits, said Tasha Stoiber, a senior scientist at the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy group. “The easiest thing is to look for professional staples that don’t need to be dry-cleaned,” Stoiber said.Hand-washing: Some “dry-clean only” garments can be delicately hand-washed in cold water with a gentle detergent specific to the particular fabric you’re using. Hanging delicate clothes to dry after a wash can avoid damage from heated air dryers.Steaming: Steam cleaning can freshen up clothes by removing odors, bacteria and small stains without needing a full wash.Commercial wet cleaning: Commercial wet cleaning relies on biodegradable detergents and water instead of toxic solvents.Liquid carbon dioxide: Experts suggest selecting dry cleaners that use liquid carbon dioxide as a solvent to remove dirt and avoid toxic chemicals.Watch out for greenwashingSome businesses advertise eco-friendly or “green” alternatives to dry cleaning. But experts warn that new chemicals can have their own downsides.Diana Ceballos, an assistant professor in the University of Washington’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, said that dry cleaning technology has improved dramatically and that new solvents and machinery can be more effective than PCE.Still, Cebellos said that there can be a lot of “regrettable substitution” when it comes to alternatives to PCE and that some that are billed as “safe” or “organic” could also be toxic.“Most options are far better,” Cebellos said. “But there’s a lot of greenwashing” out there, so people should ask questions and do “a little bit of research.”

Chemicals
Business
CO2

Emergency Crews Respond to Ammonia Leak at Mississippi Fertilizer Plant

(Reuters) -Emergency teams responded on Wednesday to a chemical leak, possibly caused by an explosion, at a fertilizer plant in Central Mississippi...

(Reuters) -Emergency teams responded on Wednesday to a chemical leak, possibly caused by an explosion, at a fertilizer plant in Central Mississippi, according to Governor Tate Reeves and media reports. No injuries were immediately reported.A tall cloud of orange vapor could be seen rising over the facility in a photo from the scene of the plant posted online by television station WJTV, a CBS News affiliate in Jackson, Mississippi, the state capital.The governor identified the leaking chemical as anhydrous ammonia, a toxic substance that can cause irritation to the eyes and lungs.Fertilizer manufacturer CF Industries said in statement that "all employees and contractors on site at the time of the incident have been safely accounted for, with no injuries reported."It said it had notified government officials of an "incident" that occurred at its Yazoo City Complex at about 4:25 p.m. CT (2225 GMT).Reeves said in a statement posted on social media that state authorities were "actively responding to the anhydrous ammonia leak" at the plant, located about 50 miles (80.5 km) north of Jackson."Initial reports indicate the leak is due to an explosion. At this time, no deaths or injuries have been reported," the governor said.Personnel from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality were among various teams dispatched to the scene, WJTV reported.The governor said residents living along two nearby streets should be evacuated, while other residents in the vicinity were encouraged to shelter in place.(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Costas Pita in Los Angeles and Angela Christy in Bengaluru; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Stephen Coates)Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

Chemicals
Government

Suggested Viewing

We Trees

Ever wonder what trees think of us now that we have created a climate disaster? This 2-minute film answers that question. As Bill McKibben recently tweeted about the film, “Who speaks for trees? In this short and elegant video, the trees themselves.” It has been screened at Green Fest (Serbia), The Colorado Environmental Film Festival, The Wildlife Conservation Film Festival and Winner of Merit at the Nature Without Borders Film Festival.

Forests
Chemicals
Climate

Lead in the Land

Lead in the Land is a documentary focusing on the harsh reality and far-reaching effects of lead poisoning, an invisible and insidious threat afflicting thousands of children in the United States. The film sheds light on the circumstances around lead poisoning, examining its causes, effects and potential solutions.

Chemicals
Social Justice
Health

Bag It

Bag It examines our society’s use and abuse of plastic. The theme of the film focuses on plastic as it relates to our society’s throw away mentality, our culture of convenience, and our over consumption of throwaway products and packaging—things that we use one time and then, without another thought, we throw them away. Bag It offers a candid view of the disturbing realities of our culture. And, it suggests concrete solutions to our plastic addiction. The film will raise public awareness on the many issues related to plastic and inspire change, both on the individual level and on the public policy level.

Chemicals
Waste
Culture

Sprayed

An exploration of what happens when whole communities get exposed to toxins: Naled sprayed on Miami residents to fight Zika virus, Agent Orange sprayed on the Vietcong, and release of GMO mosquitoes in Brazil with pyriproxyfen added to drinking water to fight dengue. What are the results for nature and humanity? We meet Agent Orange survivors at Vietnamese detoxification and rehabilitation centers, parents of babies born with microcephaly from Zika virus, and Florida residents dealing with efforts to kill mosquitoes carrying Zika virus. Perspectives of doctors, scientists, and politicians are balanced with voices of ordinary citizens and victims to explore concerns about the potential impact on current and future generations.

Chemicals
Health
Science

928 The Threat Continues...

Since the 1950s deadly nuclear fallout has threatened millions of Americans from nuclear fallout carried east in the atmosphere across the United States, from the Nevada Test Site. “928 The Threat Continues...” tells the story of massive contamination from concentrated nuclear fallout that rained down during heavy storms, on communities and major cities for 40 years. Hundreds of thousands of cancer cases and deaths were the result. The Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of Energy knew the truth, but covered it up. Multiple generations may still face the long-term affects. Through current interviews with scientific experts and surviving victims across the country, plus footage from historic interviews with victims, whistle-blower scientists and journalists, we tell the devastating story of those affected by the deadly radioactive fallout. In Act 3, obscure government videos from US government websites reveal that the threat of cancer death to Americans from Nevada Test Site contamination continues even today! NTS has been renamed, the Nevada National Security Site or NNSS. Presidential administrations from Harry Truman to the present day have kept the highly contaminated former Nevada Test Site operating. Donald Trump while in office ordered the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy to start testing newly designed battlefield nuclear weapons at the NNSS despite the existence of The Non-Proliferation Treaty – 1970. Not withstanding the treaty, the extremely reckless aboveground testing area at the NNSS called Big Explosives Experimental Facility or B.E.E.F. tests non-nuclear bombs that send tons of highly contaminated nuclear dirt 10,000 feet into the atmosphere where the winds carry it east. It needs to be stopped now! The film asks viewers to inform their congressman and vote.

Chemicals
Crisis
Government

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