Trump EPA departs from Biden-era report detailing cancer risk from ‘forever chemical’ contaminated farms

The Trump administration is apparently departing from a landmark Biden-era report that detailed human health risks including cancer from farms contaminated with “forever chemicals.”

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week issued a draft guidance document criticizing a draft Biden administration risk assessment detailing health risks from applying contaminated sludge to farm land. 

The Biden-era assessment detailed the risks posed by forever chemicals that are spread across farmland in a type of fertilizer known as “sewage sludge.”

If finalized, it could have laid the groundwork for eventual restrictions on the practice of applying contaminated sludge to farmland.

However, the Trump document, from EPA water chief Jessica Kramer, said that the Biden-era assessment “exhibited a number of serious flaws that have caused confusion.”

Kramer wrote that the agency failed to conduct a national survey of the chemicals in question. 

She also said that the Biden administration “only evaluated sewage sludge management practices with higher potential for human health risk” saying this does “not reflect the majority” of actual uses.

Kramer, in her document, offered “voluntary recommendations for potential ways to mitigate risks” posed by the chemicals.

Critics of the Trump move say that the administration is walking away from regulating and its duty to protect the public from “forever chemicals” which are also........

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