Read the full article by Dietrich Knauth (Reuters)
“Aug 18 (Reuters) – An appeals court on Tuesday upheld the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2024 decision to designate some ‘forever chemicals’ as hazardous substances, keeping the companies that make or transport the chemicals on the hook for potential cleanup costs in the future.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the EPA acted reasonably and was within its authority to designate the chemicals as ‘hazardous’ in the last year of President Joe Biden’s administration. The court rejected a challenge by seven business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and groups representing waste management and chemical industries.
The EPA issued a rule in 2024 that designated a pair of widely used industrial chemicals as hazardous substances under the country’s Superfund program, part of a crackdown on toxic compounds known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) or ‘forever chemicals.’
PFAS are a family of thousands of chemicals used in consumer and commercial products like firefighting foams, nonstick pans and stain resistant fabrics. They have been linked to cancer and other health concerns, and are often called forever chemicals because they do not easily break down in the human body or the environment.”…