Toxic Chemicals
A stillborn calf with very high levels of PFOS (a “forever chemical”) in its liver. Photo credit: Texas A&M Medical Diagnostic Laboratory.
One of the distinguishing features of modern society is the ubiquity of synthetic chemicals. Tens of thousands of different synthetic chemicals are in daily use all around us – in consumer products, industry, food production, fire-fighting, etc. Many of these chemicals are safe, but many are not – and we have not been great at distinguishing between them, with serious consequences for both ecosystems and human health.
What does this have to do with water? Well, in many cases, water is the main medium that moves these chemicals around and brings them into contact with sensitive receptors like the calf in the image – or our own bodies.
Toxic Chemicals in the News
April 2025: Sludge Contaminated 10,000 Acres of Farmland. What Should be Done?, New York Times (gift link)
Another excellent piece of reporting on PFAS chemicals from Hiroko Tabuchi (see also these pieces). These widely-used “forever chemicals” tend to concentrate in municipal and industrial sewage sludge. Thus, the widespread use of sewage sludge as a fertilizer / soil additive for farmland – which at first seemed like a good way to reuse nutrients and organic matter – turns out to also be a great way to spread PFAS chemicals onto the land we use to grow food. Now South Carolina is trying to get a huge amount of farmland that received sludge from a textile factory declared a Superfund site.
April 2025: “Weedkiller maker moves to settle suit over Parkinson’s disease claims,” The Guardian
The herbicide paraquat – which may increase the risk of Parkinson’s and other diseases – has been banned in many countries, including the EU, but is still used in the US. Syngenta, the manufacturer of paraquat, has now settled a lawsuit from a group of Parkinson’s patients, without admitting guilt. On another front, there has been pressure on EPA to ban paraquat, though the prospect seems unlikely under the Trump Administration. This case illustrates the central problem with regulating toxic chemicals: when the burden of proof is on those seeking to prove harm, scientific uncertainty can be effectively harnessed by industry as a delaying tactic. This case also suggests that civil litigation – where juries may find evidence compelling even when that evidence doesn’t meet the standard of certainty demanded by an agency captured by industry – may be a better strategy for this and other environmental harms.
March 2025: EPA Announcement on Chemical Review
The Trump EPA is planning to change how the safety of chemicals is reviewed under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA; amended in 2016 by the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act). While details are scarce at this point, all indications are that the EPA under Lee Zeldin will bow to industry wishes and significantly weaken the regulation of toxic chemicals.
Resources to Understand Toxic Chemicals
Some information on toxic chemicals is provided at the beginning of Chapter 8 and in Chapter 17.