“Wake Up Republicans!” You Too Can be Impacted Negatively by PFAS’s.  It’s Not Only Democrats Who Are Vulnerable to PFAS Contamination. 

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Interior and Environment Subcommittee, is calling for transparency and immediate action from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) after it was reported the Agency is withholding a long-delayed “forever chemical” risk assessment.

The EPA’s report on a PFAS compound called Perfluoronomanoic Acid (PFNA) concluded that PFNA can cause developmental, liver and reproductive harm, including lower birth weights and reduced testosterone and sperm levels.  According to ProPublica’s reporting internal EPA documents and agency scientists confirmed that the report was “completed and ready to post” in April, needing only final briefings to leadership.

In a letter to EPA  Administrator Lee Zeldin, PIngree said the delay is part of a “growing pattern of interference with the Agency’s scientific work.”

“The delay in issuing PFAS poses a significant public health threat to our water, food supply and farming communities.  It is necesssary to take steps to combat PFAS contamination, yet this delay and erosion of capacity directly contradict your repeated public statements about both transparency and the need for strong, science-based PFAS policies,” she continued.

Pingree called on Zeldon to explain the delay – including who directed it – and asks when he will commit to releasing the PFNA assessment and ensuring future IRIS reports are free from political interference.

“Forever chemicals” pose serious risks to public hdalth and the environment, appearing at our former military installations, farms and water systems.  PFAS chemcals ae persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic.  These chemicals have been linked to harmful human health effects, including cancer, reproductive and developmental harms and weakened immune systems.  This is an urgent public health and environmental hreat and it’s growing at an alarming rate — in Maine, there have been more than 30,000 reords of PFAS at close to 250 sites across the state.