Loser News

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) updated regulations on Dec. 3 that will prevent PFAS, often referred to as forever chemicals, from being fast-tracked for approval through an exemption process.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a family of forever chemicals used in a variety of products, are known to resist breaking down and therefore persist in the environment. They have also been linked to serious health problems.

Fortunately, the government agency tasked to protect the environment against just such threats maintains strict oversight of all but 600 of the 1462 chemicals compounds on their list.

Those 600 fall under the Low Volume Exemption (LVE) rules which allows them to bypass full EPA review, but restricts their production to the almost infinitesimal amount of  10,000 kg, or 22,046 lbs, per chemical per year.

Thus, this bastion of environmental  defense annually allows roughly 13,000,000 lbs of PFAS to skirt the chemical production guidelines set forth by itself, and find their way into our food, clothing, and water supply.

The current update in regulations comes on the heals of the Biden Administation’s 2021 update which encouraged chemical producers to voluntarily subject their PFAS to full regulatory oversight.  Surpringly, most opted out.