\n<\/p>\n
Donald Trump\u2019s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to increase the levels of exposure to highly carcinogenic formaldehyde it considers safe. If successful, people would continue to be exposed to concerning amounts of the toxin in thousands of everyday products used across the economy, experts and advocates say.<\/p>\n
Formaldehyde, a pungent colorless gas at room temperature, is found in a range of cosmetics, personal care products, home cleaners, craft supplies, leather goods, furniture, clothing, plastic, building materials and other everyday goods. During Joe Biden\u2019s term, EPA scientists took a major step toward reining in the broad societal risk by issuing a finding that any level of exposure to formaldehyde can cause cancer, and very low levels cause non-cancer health harms.<\/p>\n
Chemical makers, who typically produce up to 5bn pounds of formaldehyde annually in the US, strongly opposed the Biden-era risk assessments\u2019 findings. The very industry leaders involved in the charge against the EPA\u2019s formaldehyde assessments in recent years were appointed this year by the Trump administration to run the relevant parts of the agency \u2013 and now they are attacking the science from the inside.<\/p>\n
The proposed changes represent a scenario that many public health advocates feared if Trump handed over the EPA to industry. In the simplest terms, the changes would maintain industry profits while rolling back efforts to better protect people\u2019s health.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have chemicals that are this ubiquitous and this toxic, they really call out for strong regulations,\u201d said Jonathan Kalmuss-Katz, an attorney with Earthjustice, which litigates on toxic chemical issues. \u201cYou really need the government to do its job and provide protections.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aside from being a known carcinogen, formaldehyde is linked to respiratory issues, miscarriage and fertility problems.<\/p>\n
Over strong chemical industry opposition, Biden\u2019s EPA in January finalized its formaldehyde risk assessment findings, which inform the development of regulations that limit or prohibit the substance\u2019s use in consumer goods and the workplace.<\/p>\n
Formaldehyde is ubiquitous in consumer goods in part because it is versatile. Companies add it to cosmetics, personal care products, paints and crafting products because it\u2019s an effective preservative. It is also commonly added as a binder to composite wood, like particle board, that is used to make furniture, cabinets and other home goods. Bamboo products, including cutting boards, are often bound with formaldehyde glue.<\/p>\n
The substance is added to clothing or textiles to help prevent mold growth and deterioration, and used in plastics, such as kitchenware, to help products resist heat. Furniture foam and mattress producers utilize it as an adhesive or antimicrobial agent.<\/p>\n
Because formaldehyde off gasses from products to which it is added, inhalation of the chemical is considered the biggest risk. The risk assessments from both Biden and Trump\u2019s teams focused on inhalation.<\/p>\n
Regulations around toxic chemicals contain a major flaw, in that they do not consider the cumulative exposure to substances. For example, if regulators are considering the risk in formaldehyde in makeup, they don\u2019t evaluate how the levels are compounded by formaldehyde that may also be in a desk, car interior or other products that people may also be exposed to during the day.<\/p>\n
That is in part why the Biden EPA\u2019s findings were so important \u2013 they would have lowered exposures virtually across the board. Biden\u2019s EPA found 58 scenarios in which formaldehyde can present an \u201cunreasonable risk\u201d to human health, and the Trump administration is reversing five of those.<\/p>\n
The law requires the EPA to put in place restrictions on uses in which the agency finds an unreasonable risk. No new restrictions would be put in place for those five scenarios the Trump administration reversed, which Kalmuss-Katz said involved industrial workplace exposure.<\/p>\n
For the other 53 scenarios in which Biden\u2019s EPA found an unreasonable risk, the weakened risk assessment findings would lead to weaker restrictions. Among consumer product scenarios in which the EPA found unreasonable risk of exposure to formaldehyde are furniture, wood products and automotive products.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny sort of protections are going to be much weaker than they would have been,\u201d said Maria Doa, the chemicals policy director with the Environmental Defense Fund, which litigates on toxic chemicals.<\/p>\n
The move is part of a broader effort to weaken risk assessments around toxic chemicals, and industry for decades has waged war against stricter regulations around formaldehyde.<\/p>\n
At the heart of the Trump EPA\u2019s reassessments is how agency scientists assess cancer risk. Previously, carcinogens that damaged DNA were considered among the most dangerous because any exposure presents a cancer risk.<\/p>\n
EPA scientists assessed the chemicals using a \u201clinear\u201d risk assessment, meaning it assumes a cancer risk all the way down to \u201czero\u201d exposure to formaldehyde, or other carcinogens. This approach has long been the EPA standard, and an industry target.<\/p>\n
The new Trump administration approach sets a threshold at which exposure is considered a risk. Any level of exposure below that threshold is considered safe. In short, levels of exposure that are now considered a cancer risk will not be if the changes are approved.<\/p>\n
The EPA and its chemical safety office is helmed by two former executives from the American Chemistry Council, a trade group that represents nearly 200 of the nation\u2019s top chemical makers and has welcomed the agency\u2019s new stance.<\/p>\n
Nancy Beck is now the EPA\u2019s deputy assistant administrator, while Lynn Dekleva is the deputy assistant administrator of the EPA\u2019s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. As recently as 2022, Dekleva helped lead the attacks on the EPA formaldehyde findings that she is now working from the inside to undo. The EPA has defended Dekleva\u2019s and Beck\u2019s involvement in the new risk assessments, insisting that they comply with federal ethics rules.<\/p>\n
The proposed change bucks science from across the federal government and independent researchers that have reached a broad consensus on formaldehyde\u2019s risks. The proposal also follows the usual industry playbook in that it claims no consensus on the risks exists.<\/p>\n
Doa, of the Environmental Defense Fund, said the new risk assessment \u201ccherry-picked\u201d data to arrive at its conclusions, but a lawsuit cannot be filed until the regulatory process plays out. \u201cWhat they\u2019re doing is scientifically horrendous and not correct,\u201d Doa added. \u201cIt\u2019s such chutzpah.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Donald Trump\u2019s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to increase the levels of exposure to highly carcinogenic formaldehyde it considers safe. If successful, people would continue to be exposed to concerning amounts of the toxin in thousands of everyday products used across the economy, experts and advocates say. Formaldehyde, a pungent colorless gas at room<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[794,2699,20343,2678,81,71,7995],"class_list":{"0":"post-38250","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-administration","9":"tag-epa","10":"tag-formaldehyde","11":"tag-protections","12":"tag-trump","13":"tag-trumps","14":"tag-weaken"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}