EDC Policy Updates

Pesticide trade groups are using lobbyists and grassroots networks to delay state laws aimed at curbing PFAS contamination in food and water, citing economic concerns. Lisa Held reports for Civil Eats.

Fifty years after the Safe Drinking Water Act became law, millions still lack reliable access to clean water, particularly in marginalized communities and small towns. Brett Walton reports for Circle of Blue.

President-elect Donald Trump’s health appointee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., aims to end fluoride in drinking water nationwide, but many states maintain mandates that the federal government cannot override. Hannah Recht reports for The Washington Post.

The final global plastics treaty, which stalled during talks last week, needs to address chemicals used throughout the life cycle of plastics, some of which significantly reduce our fertility and impair our health, in order to truly confront the full scope of the crisis. The global plastics treaty currently being negotiated by 175 countries via the United Nations Environment Programme is a pivotal and possibly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to address this crisis. Last week the fifth round of negotiations ended in a stalemate, with a sixth round planned for 2025. The lack of consensus to date is largely due to failure to agree on regulation of plastic chemicals and production caps. While nearly 100 countries (the “high ambition countries”) support production limits and chemical regulation, fossil fuel dependent countries such as Russia and Saudi Arabia are resisting these measures and instead pushing for a focus on plastic waste.

The Biden administration plans to increase the allowable environmental threshold for atrazine, a controversial pesticide, sparking backlash from environmental groups. Rachel Frazin reports for The Hill.

Global negotiators failed to finalize a plastic waste treaty in Busan, but experts remain hopeful that ongoing discussions will yield stronger international agreements to reduce plastic pollution. Lauren Giella reports for Newsweek.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving to restrict the pesticide chlorpyrifos on food crops, allowing its use on 11 crops while reducing overall application by 70%. Roni Caryn Rabin reports for The New York Times.

Environmental justice and Indigenous groups say they were largely excluded from key plastic treaty talks last week in Busan, South Korea, which took place over seven days and ended without a final text. During previous plastic treaty talks, environmental justice and Indigenous delegations were permitted to listen and speak during negotiations between member states. That changed at this meeting, as the last several days of the talks consisted of private conversations.

This failure was necessary. Moving to a final treaty in South Korea, given the state of negotiations, was premature. But the meeting did lay the groundwork for a future round of negotiations that could produce a more responsible and sustainable result. The small group of “like-minded nations” — who, not coincidentally, are the major producers of oil and gas and plastic — were never likely to agree on provisions that would reduce plastic production, even if the vast majority of nations around the world are in favor of doing so.

The Biden administration has barred PFAS chemicals from expedited safety reviews to ensure thorough evaluations before their use in products. Rachel Frazin reports for The Hill.

On a cool, sunny day in March 2020, Ted Harris towed a large net from a boat in Clinton Lake in Kansas and retrieved a sample of microscopic debris in the water. Tiny plastic particles with a diameter less than 5 millimeters (nanoplastics are much smaller, ranging from 1 to 1,000 nanometers), these particles are harmful to tiny organisms in lakes like zooplankton, that mistake them for food. Larger animals like fish eat the zooplankton, causing the plastic particles to accumulate up the food chain. People can be exposed by eating fish from these lakes. Once in our bodies, they cannot be digested or broken down. “They either get passed through us or they get stuck somewhere inside,” Harris said.

Negotiations for a United Nations treaty to address plastic pollution stalled after oil-producing nations resisted limits on plastic production, prompting calls for a procedural overhaul. Joseph Winters reports for Grist.

As Donald Trump’s allies prepare for his potential return to the presidency, Republican leaders target U.S. Environmental Protection Agency policies regulating PFAS and other environmental standards. Tom Perkins reports for The Guardian.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to partially ban chlorpyrifos, allowing its use on 11 crops, despite its links to developmental harm in children and concerns from health advocates. Carey Gillam reports for The New Lede.

Global negotiations in South Korea aimed at curbing plastic pollution ended in deadlock as more than 170 countries failed to agree on whether to limit plastic production or focus solely on waste management. Andrew Jeong reports for The Washington Post.

Delegates from more than 170 nations are meeting in South Korea to negotiate a treaty to reduce plastic pollution, but debates over production caps and enforcement could derail the effort. Douglas Main reports for The New Lede.

Global talks in South Korea aim to create the first treaty to curb plastic waste, but opposition from oil-producing nations and shifting U.S. leadership complicates the effort. Hiroko Tabuchi reports for The New York Times.

U.S. plastics plants, including 22 in Louisiana, release significant wastewater pollutants into rivers due to outdated federal regulations, according to an Environmental Integrity Project report. Elise Plunk reports for Louisiana Illuminator.

Donald Trump’s plans for the Environmental Protection Agency may include rolling back protections against PFAS and other drinking water threats, worrying public health advocates. Hiroko Tabuchi reports for The New York Times.

President-elect Trump’s selection of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services won’t give him direct control over water fluoridation policies, though his influence could sway public and local debates. Miranda Willson reports for E&E News.