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For the past 14 months, the Trump administration has focused on loosening federal regulations over air and water pollution, justifying such moves as being business friendly while seeming to ignore risks to human health. So it was surprising that the Environmental Protection Agency announced plans last week to designate microplastics and some pharmaceuticals as dangerous drinking water contaminants.

“For too long, Americans have vocalized concerns about plastics and pharmaceuticals in their drinking water,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said. “By placing microplastics and pharmaceuticals on the Contaminant Candidate List for the first time ever, EPA is sending a clear message: we will follow the science, we will pursue answers, and we will hold ourselves to the highest standards to protect the health of every American family.”

And to get the ball rolling, EPA put 75 chemicals, four chemical groups – microplastics, pharmaceuticals, PFAS and disinfection byproducts (DBPs) – and nine microbes on a list of likely contaminants that aren’t regulated or restricted under the country’s Safe Drinking Water Act. There’s no immediate ban on the substances, but EPA is seeking public comments on the list and a review of the policy by a scientific advisory board that will take place over the next several months that will determine the next steps.

It’s a welcome move, particularly since under Zeldin hasthe EPA focused on easing pollution rules to benefit U.S. oil and gas companies. Plastics and chemicals are a major source of revenue for oil companies, and they’ve worked to limit such regulations in the past. Meanwhile, last month EPA said it wasn’t issuing health guidelines for previously identified drinking water contaminants.

Microplastics are growing health crisis and an inescapable one for a world in which plastics surround us, used in everything from the packaging of food, beverages and consumer products, to car tires, electronics and clothing made from synthetic materials. Exposure to them is linked to heart disease, reproductive health, dementia, and a host of health woes. They’re also harmful to aquatic life and can harm soil quality in agricultural areas.

Environmental groups have long lobbied EPA to set restrictions on microplastics and harmful chemicals and pharmaceuticals. They’re worried that just listing dangerous pollutants, without a firm plan to get them out of drinking water by banning them, indicates the announcement is toothless.

“Just dumping a load of new pollutants into the purgatory of EPA’s long list of dangerous chemicals in drinking water without issuing new standards will do nothing to remove toxic chemicals from the tap water in millions of Americans’ kitchen sinks,” said Erik Olson, the Natural........

© Forbes