Douglas Main

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February 26, 2025

New data show widespread chemical contamination of drinking water

By Douglas Main

A newly released trove of data reveals widespread pollution of US tap water with more than 320 chemical contaminants, including industrial chemicals and farm-related pollutants.

The latest information is part of a tap water database, created by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), and incorporates information from nearly 50,000 water systems collected between 2021 and 2023.

Though few chemicals were found exceeding the federal government’s legally mandated maximum contaminant level (or MCL), almost all US water systems nation-wide contained at least one contaminant at levels that surpassed the health guidelines developed by EWG that are based on scientific research of the harms associated with the various contaminants.

“This is a wake-up call,” said Tasha Stoiber, an EWG senior scientist. “Outdated federal regulations continue to leave millions of people at risk of exposure to harmful substances.”

Among the chemicals commonly detected were per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as forever chemicals, which were found in the water of at least 143 million Americans. Nitrates, a common waste product from farming operations linked to colorectal cancer and thyroid disease, were also commonly detected as well as disinfection byproducts caused by using chlorine.

Many of these disinfection byproducts — including chemicals called trihalomethanes, chloroform, haloacetic acids, and more — showed up in tens of thousands of water systems at concentrations far above what many health scientists consider safe.

February 13, 2025

It’s not just RFK Jr — Opposition to fluoride in drinking water grows

By Douglas Main

Opposition to the US practice of adding fluoride to drinking water supplies has been growing as more evidence accumulates linking fluoride exposure to potential harmful brain impacts in children. Now, the future of the practice could be in doubt, with Thursday’s confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as President Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Kennedy, an environmental health lawyer, has been calling for an end to fluoridation in public drinking water for years. And though it is the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that has regulatory oversight of fluoride levels in water supplies, the HHS plays a role in policy by publishing recommendations for fluoridation that many states follow.

An HHS task force currently recommends fluoridation based on “strong evidence of effectiveness in reducing tooth decay.”

But that could change. In his new role, Kennedy is widely expected to push for guidance against fluoridation.

Since Kennedy posted on X on November 2, 2024, that Donald Trump would end fluoridation if elected, it opened a floodgate of attention to the issue, said Chris Neurath, science research director with the anti-fluoridation group Fluoride Action Network.

That, combined with a high profile recent court case that ordered the EPA to re-evaluate the safety of fluoridation, and accumulating evidence of harm, have all caused a “snowball effect” of attention, according to Neurath.

“This elevation of the issue into the mainstream really is unique in the last 80 years,” Neurath said. Though evidence of harm keeps growing, he said, “the facts haven’t really changed — but the awareness of them has.”

February 12, 2025

Microplastic pollution found “pervasive” in Antarctic snow

By Douglas Main

New research has found significant levels of tiny microplastics within Antarctic snow from multiple locations across the world’s most remote wilderness, findings that reinforce concerns that no part of the planet is safe from plastic pollution.

The paper, published this month in Science of the Total Environment, provides evidence that earlier studies have underestimated the extent of microplastic contamination in the region.

The first such study on the subject, published in 2022, found an average of 29 particles per liter of snow sampled. The new study, which used techniques that allow for greater detection of tiny materials, found that “microplastics were pervasive” at more than 3,000 particles per liter, with an average of around 800 particles. About 95% of these bits were under 50 microns, slightly smaller than the average width of a human hair.

Researchers now know that microplastics are essentially everywhere — the remote Amazon, inside human brains, plant roots, clouds — but to find them in such levels in the world’s most remote wilderness still came as a shock.

“It was surprising to see such high concentrations of microplastics in areas with a limited human footprint,” said study co-author Emily Rowlands, a researcher with the British Antarctic Survey.

February 3, 2025

High levels of microplastics found in human brains

By Douglas Main

A new study has found high concentrations of tiny plastic particles in human brain samples, with levels appearing to climb over time.

The paper, published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine, found nanoplastics in each of the brain samples studied, and found a potential link between the presence of the plastics and several types of dementia.

“There’s much more plastic in our brains than I ever would have imagined or been comfortable with,” said Matthew Campen, a doctor and researcher at the University of New Mexico who is the lead author of the study.

The median concentration in brain samples collected from people who died in 2024 was nearly 5 micrograms of plastic per gram of brain tissue, tallying almost 0.5% by weight.

This total was 50% higher than it was just eight year prior, from brain samples acquired in 2016 (for various reasons, most brain samples become available these two years). This suggests the concentration of microplastics found in human brains is going up as plastic waste and microplastic pollution increases.

“You can draw a line — it’s increasing over time. It’s consistent with what you’re seeing in the environment,” Campen said.

January 30, 2025

Fluoride toothpastes, mouthwash marketed to kids in dangerous ways, lawsuits say

By Douglas Main

Companies making fluoride-containing toothpastes and mouthrinses are improperly marketing their products as harmless and pleasant-tasting to very young children despite scientific research showing ingestion of the products could be dangerous to their health, according to allegations in a group of proposed class action lawsuits filed earlier this month.

There is a scientific consensus that fluoride primarily acts topically and reduces tooth decay when used properly in toothpaste, but ingestion of concentrated fluoride products can be dangerous across the board — especially for young children.

Many fluoride products lack easy-to-read warning labels and are flavored to taste like fruit or candy, and bear bright colors, cartoon characters, and illustrations of misleadingly large quantities of toothpastes on toothbrushes, according to the lawsuits, which bear many similar claims.

“The qualities they imbue these products with very much entice children to use more and ingest more than they should,” said Michael Connett, a partner at New York-based firm Siri & Glimstad, which is bringing the suits.

“Kids are swallowing so much of this stuff. I’ve always been disturbed by how reckless and deceptive the marketing is.”

January 28, 2025

Environmental and health programs thrown into chaos by Trump funding freeze

By Douglas Main

President Donald Trump’s surprise decision to freeze a massive portion of federal grants and loans — a move temporarily blocked by a federal court — has thrown environmental research, health programs, and community groups into chaos.

Trump’s directive instructs federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligations or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance.” The order affects around $3 trillion in funds.

The pause was to take effect Tuesday evening but a federal judge in the District of Columbia temporarily blocked the order in response to a lawsuit by the group Democracy Forward arguing the move violates the First Amendment and other federal law. The judge will render a more permanent decision on Feb. 3.

But the court order hasn’t immediately cleared up many uncertainties or apparently started funds flowing again. And some projects whose funds were already approved have been canceled.

One of many researchers impacted is Gabriel Filippelli, an environmental scientist and professor at Indiana University, who had been eagerly working on ramping up a project to study air pollution and climate change in Pakistan, funded by the State Department in late 2024, which involved training over a dozen students and researchers in the United States and abroad.

On January 27, Indiana University received a letter from the State Department stating that the project “no longer effectuates the agency’s priorities and is suspended… recipients must cancel as many outstanding obligations as possible.”

January 25, 2025

EPA proposal for pesticide tied to reproductive harm lands back with Trump

US environmental regulators are planning to change allowable levels of a weedkiller tied to reproductive health problems to a level critics say discounts years of documented health risks — and potentially marks a new battlefront within the Trump administration.

The proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which was put forth in late 2024 under the Biden administration, would allow concentrations of the herbicide atrazine up to 9.7 parts per billion (ppb) in streams and lakes before any mitigation efforts were required.

That is nearly three times higher than the level of 3.4 ppb proposed by the EPA in 2016 and reiterated by the agency as proper in 2022. But it is lower than a level pushed for under the prior Trump administration. It is also lower than the longtime benchmark of 10 ppb that was in place from 2011-2019, and lower than atrazine maker Syngenta says is necessary.

The agency’s move has been met with outrage by environmental health advocates who say industry influence is overriding solid science, and years of fighting to reduce atrazine contamination of waterways is in jeopardy.

“It’s a punch in the gut for all the people who have worked to protect us from this incredibly harmful poison,” said Nathan Donley, environmental health science director with the Center for Biological Diversity.

Atrazine is a widely used weed killing chemical that is popular with farmers, particularly those growing corn, and the chemical has been found to heavily contaminate drinking water supplies around the country, raising concerns for human health. The chemical has been banned for use as an herbicide in European Union since 2003.

January 16, 2025

Lee Zeldin, Trump’s EPA nominee, pledges independence from industry ties in senate hearing

By Douglas Main

Incoming President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) appeared on track for confirmation after a Senate hearing Thursday in which he pledged independence from industry money and influence.

Senators with the Committee on Environment and Public Works quizzed nominee Lee Zeldin, a former Congressman from eastern Long Island, on a wide range of issues, including his associations with, and financial ties to, the fossil fuel industry, his stance on government inducements for electric vehicle expansion, and environmental justice issues.

In one line of questioning, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, pressed Zeldin on how he would “separate” his work at EPA from the demands of the fossil fuel industry, in particular.

Zeldin has numerous ties to what Whitehouse described as a “climate denial front group,” and has been the recipient of what Whitehouse said was nearly $300,000 from the oil and gas industry back to 2007, and “large campaign support” from the wealthy Koch family, which runs a variety of businesses involved in oil and gas exploration, pipelines, refining, and chemical production, among others.

Zeldin said the connections would have no role in how he leads the EPA.

“There is no dollar, large or small, that can influence the decisions that I make, who has access to me and how I am ruling in my obligations under the law,” he responded.

“Well good luck standing up to these guys cause they’re going to come at you,” Whitehouse said.

January 6, 2025

Fluorinated drugs, a type of PFAS, widely contaminating US drinking water

By Douglas Main

New research suggests that fluorinated pharmaceuticals — a category that includes well-known medications such as Prozac and Flonase — are showing up in the water supply of millions of people. These drugs and their breakdown products are technically classified as being per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as “forever chemicals,” which as a chemical class is the subject of worldwide health concern.

A study published January 6 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that the bulk of PFAS entering and exiting wastewater treatment plants is made up of these fluorinated drugs. Notably, the researchers determined that the pharmaceuticals were largely not removed from the water by conventional wastewater treatment practices.

This pharmaceutical material “doesn’t get treated in the wastewater treatment plant, and it doesn’t break down,” said Bridger Ruyle, study co-author and researcher at New York University. “And we know [these chemicals] can be re-entering drinking water supplies.”

The study estimates that this material contaminates the water supply of around 23 million Americans, Ruyle said.

These drugs enter wastewater after being excreted by people. About 50% of drinking water utilities are located downstream of a wastewater outflow plant and regularly use varying amounts of this water.

A slight majority of this material was made up of only four drugs and one of their metabolites: the arthritis medication Celecoxib (Celebrex); flecainide (Tambocor), prescribed for arrhythmia; maraviroc (Selzentry), and one of its metabolites, used to treat HIV; and sitaglipt (Januvia), a diabetes drug.

“We don’t know that much about what the exposures or health risks are” for those drinking small concentrations of this material, Ruyle said.

January 6, 2025

Landmark study affirms fluoride’s link to lowered IQ, adds to debate

By Douglas Main

Fluoride exposure is consistently linked with lowered IQ, according to a landmark analysis of more than 70 published studies on the subject.

The paper, published January 6 in the journal JAMA Pediatrics and authored by scientists with the National Institutes of Health, found a significant inverse relationship between measures of fluoride exposure and IQ in 64 of 74 studies.

The study, the largest meta-analysis of its kind, found that those exposed to high levels of fluoride have measurably lower IQs, equivalent to a difference of nearly 7 IQ points, compared to those in the low fluoride groups. This conclusion came from 59 studies that looked at levels higher than those used in water fluoridation.

The study found the link between fluoride and IQ loss persisted even at low levels of fluoride, as measured in human urine samples.

The meta-analysis is an offshoot of the National Toxicology Program’s investigation into fluoride’s likely impact on neurodevelopment and cognition, published in August 2024, and comes at a time of heightened scrutiny of, and debate over, the practice of fluoridation of public drinking water.

In a seven-year-long court case that wrapped up in September 2024, US District Judge Edward Chen of the Northern District of California, ordered the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take regulatory action to eliminate the “unreasonable risk” that water fluoridation presents. The fluoridation of water at 0.7 ppm “poses an unreasonable risk of reduced IQ in children,” Chen wrote in his decision.

Many researchers are sharply divided over the issue, however.