August 5, 2026| by Natural Customers Affiliation
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, generally known as “ceaselessly chemical compounds,” are a category of extremely poisonous man-made fluorinated chemical compounds utilized in a wide range of merchandise, together with pesticides, waterproof cloth, sunscreen, dental floss, stain-resistant carpets, nonstick cookware, flame retardant furnishings, meals packaging, cosmetics, and firefighting foam.
PFAS lasts ceaselessly, accumulating within the setting, and it kills. There’s scientific proof that it causes most cancers, kidney illness, beginning defects, and liver injury, whereas battering the immune system.
PFAS has been detected within the blood of 98% of People and is contaminating 45% of U.S. faucet water, as a result of corporations like 3M and DuPont have at all times had a free move to dump this “satan’s piss” proper into streams, rivers, and sewage techniques.
The EPA promised to do one thing about this however by no means adopted by on its promise to cease the estimated 30,000 PFAS polluters from dumping their ceaselessly chemical compounds into our water. As an alternative, regulators have minimize sweetheart offers with polluters just like the DuPont spin-off Chemours, which in July 2026 inked a $450 million settlement so meager it immediately raised the corporate’s inventory value.
The EPA ought to cease the air pollution at its supply by banning all fire-retardant, non-stick, water resistant, herbicidal, and insecticidal PFAS chemical compounds and getting them out of our water, out of client merchandise, out of the army, out of firefighting, and out of meals and farming. On the very least, it ought to require the factories making these merchandise to get rid of their poisonous waste safely as a substitute of dumping it in our water.
The EPA hasn’t gotten that far but, however it not too long ago started a challenge it ought to have completed way back: figuring out the well being dangers of PFAS within the sewage sludge unfold on farmland. In its Draft Threat Evaluation for PFOA and PFOS in Sewage Sludge, the EPA discovered that these poisonous “ceaselessly chemical compounds” could cause most cancers and different illnesses in individuals who reside close to farm fields the place sludge is unfold, or who devour tainted milk, beef, or different meals from these farms, together with kidney and liver cancers, decreased beginning weight, elevated ldl cholesterol, and diminished immune system operate.
The well being dangers had been noticeable at any stage above 1 half per billion (ppb). Since most sludge has greater than 1 ppb of PFAS, if the EPA had finalized and enforced that threshold, it could have been a de facto ban on the disposal of sewage sludge on farmland.
The EPA discovered PFOA and PFOS are more likely to be carcinogenic to people. For PFOA, it cited epidemiological proof of kidney, testicular, and breast most cancers in people. For PFOS, proof of bladder, prostate, liver, kidney, and breast cancers, together with liver, pancreatic, and thyroid tumors in uncovered rats. The company additionally discovered the chemical compounds hurt the liver, elevate ldl cholesterol, decrease toddler beginning weight, and injury the immune system by altering the spleen and thymus, the organs that produce the antibodies and T cells the physique must struggle an infection.
These findings are exceptional, as a result of the EPA’s threat evaluation was structured to underestimate the well being harms of poisonous sludge. Because the Coalition for Sludge-Free Land has identified, the EPA didn’t think about larger real-world PFAS concentrations, repeated land purposes, long-term publicity particularly for kids, the entire 23 PFAS chemical compounds the EPA has detected in sewage sludge fairly than simply PFOA and PFOS, or combination toxicity. The Heart for Meals Security provides that the EPA assumed far decrease PFAS ranges than assessments present, checked out just one publicity supply at a time fairly than mixed dietary publicity, and modeled solely common publicity fairly than the degrees folks in hotspots really face.
And but, even with all of the downplaying and underestimation, it nonetheless discovered that PFAS in sewage sludge unfold on farmland could cause kidney and liver cancers, decreased beginning weight, elevated ldl cholesterol, and diminished immune operate. That may be a critical threat to the folks dwelling close to these fields.
Now the company is strolling away from its personal science. In July 2026, as a substitute of transferring towards enforceable limits, it selected as a substitute to draft weak, voluntary steering. The general public can remark by September 4.
TAKE ACTION: Inform the EPA to Ban Poisonous Sludge from Farmland!
READ: EPA, Draft Sewage Sludge Threat Evaluation for PFOA and PFOS (January 2025)
WATCH: “PFAS & Congress,” Final Week Tonight with John Oliver (S8 E25)
WATCH: “How One Firm Secretly Poisoned The Planet”
