The companies Chemours, DuPont and Corteva announced they have agreed to pay more than $1 billion to settle claims that “forever chemicals” contaminated public US water systems. More:

• Three companies agree to pay more than $1 billion to settle ‘forever chemical’ claims  –  CNN
• Chemours, DuPont, and Corteva Reach Comprehensive PFAS Settlement with U.S. Water Systems  –  Business Wire

• PFAS Explained  –  US EPA
• EPA Announces New Drinking Water Health Advisories for PFAS Chemicals, $1 Billion in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Funding to Strengthen Health Protections  –  US EPA
• EPA wants to label certain ‘forever chemicals’ as hazardous substances  –  CNN

A trickle of studies warning that the enormous variety of living things on Earth is diminishing has turned into a flood. The evidence for these losses within regions and globally is undeniable. But data on biodiversity, and what is causing its decline, is still patchy – restricted to some causes, some places and some species. That isn’t the case for birds in Europe, however. More:

• Europe has lost over half a billion birds in 40 years. The single biggest cause? Pesticides and fertilizers  –  The Conversation
• Farmland practices are driving bird population decline across Europe  –  PNAS

Plastics contain toxic chemicals that can enter products and interact to create new harmful substances during the recycling process, a new report from Greenpeace and the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN) shows. More:

• Recycling plastics “extremely problematic” due to toxic chemical additives: Report  –  EHN
• New Greenpeace Report Calls Out Toxic Hazards of Recycled Plastic  –  IPEN
• Forever Toxic: The science on health threats from plastic recycling (Report) (download PDF)  –  Greenpeace USA

• Chemicals in plastic, electronics are lowering fertility in men and women  –  PBS
• Chemicals in Plastics - A Technical Report  –  UNEP

Consumer groups are condemning the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for allowing plastic containers made with toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” to continue being distributed across the economy – even though the agency is suing a top manufacturer over the dangerous compounds leaching into containers’ contents, such as food or personal care products. More:

• Plastic containers still distributed across the US are a potential health disaster  –  The Guardian
• EPA Takes Action to Investigate PFAS Contamination  –  US EPA

• Directly Fluorinated Containers as a Source of Perfluoroalkyl Carboxylic Acids (Reseach abstract)
• Perfluorinated Carboxylic Acids in Directly Fluorinated High-Density Polyethylene Material (download PDF) (Research article)
• Inhance Technologies Announces its Enkase® Technology Does Not Impart LCPFACs to HDPE Packaging  –  Benzinga
• Fluorinated Barrier Packaging (download PDF)  –  Inhance Technologies
• Sustainable Barrier Packaging - A Guide to Fluorination (Webinar)  –  Inhance Technologies

• Toxic ‘forever chemicals’ are contaminating plastic food containers  –  The Guardian
• New US lawsuit targets ‘forever chemicals’ in plastic food containers  –  The Guardian

Several major agrochemical companies did not disclose to European Union authorities studies assessing the toxic effects of pesticide ingredients on brain development, research said on Thursday. More:

• Firms withheld pesticide toxicity data from EU: study  –  Phys.org
• Non-disclosure of developmental neurotoxicity studies obstructs the safety assessment of pesticides in the European Union (Research article)

Scientists behind a new study discovered that two kinds of bacteria, Desulfovibrio aminophilus and Sporomusa sphaeroides, can break down chlorinated PFAS, a subgroup of PFAS used to repel water in packaging and electronics. The microbes are able to sever a key chemical bond in those PFAS, unraveling the compounds, rendering them harmless. More:

• Scientists Identify Bacteria That Can Break Down ‘Forever Chemicals’  –  Yale Environment 360
• Our Current Understanding of the Human Health and Environmental Risks of PFAS  –  US EPA
• Substantial defluorination of polychlorofluorocarboxylic acids triggered by anaerobic microbial hydrolytic dechlorination (Research abstract)

KOS Nature-Powered Organic Plant Protein drinks and powders contain toxic “forever chemicals”, a recent filing with the California department of justice charges. The filing, made by the Environmental Research Center (ERC), a San Diego-based consumer protection nonprofit, states that its testing found PFOA, a dangerous PFAS compound, in five KOS products. More:

• Consumer watchdog says KOS protein powder contains toxic PFAS  –  The Guardian
• Top US smoothie company accused of deception after toxic PFAS discovered  –  The Guardian
• ‘All-natural’ Simply Tropical juice has high toxic PFAS levels, lawsuit alleges  –  The Guardian
• Revealed: the dangerous chemicals in your food wrappers  –  The Guardian

A team of researchers from around the world is urging the international community to recognize the full environmental and health threat of plastics and categorize them as persistent, bio-accumulative and toxic (PBT) pollutants. More:

• It’s time to classify plastics as persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic pollutants  –  University of British Columbia

The World Health Assembly (WHA) approved a landmark resolution calling on the World Health Organization (WHO) to scale up its efforts to fight the impact of chemicals, waste and plastic pollution on human health and produce the data to back it up. More:

• Landmark Resolution on Chemical Pollution Passes World Health Assembly  –  Health Policy Watch
• The impact of chemicals, waste and pollution on human health (download PDF) (Draft resolution)  –  WHO
• Amazon forests capture high levels of atmospheric mercury pollution from artisanal gold mining (Research article)

The country has a long history of industrial pollution, including that which led to the Minamata disease of the 1950s and ‘60s. In that dark chapter in the nation’s history, thousands of people in and around Kumamoto and Niigata prefectures suffered from severe neurological symptoms after eating fish and shellfish, not knowing that they were laced with methylmercury released into the ocean and rivers by the regions’ chemical plants. More:

• Japan slowly wakes up to health risks of PFAS ‘forever chemicals’  –  The Japan Times
• Documents indicate chemical leaks at U.S. base have polluted Okinawa water supply  –  The Japan Times

Only twelve companies account for a majority of the PFAS production in the world. PFAS production is hardly profitable, but the cost for society is massive. More:

• The top 12 PFAS producers in the world and the staggering societal costs of PFAS pollution  –  ChemSec
• 3M to end 'forever chemicals' output at cost of up to $2.3 bln  –  Reuters

• Annual societal costs from the use of PFAS (download Excel) (Data)  –  ChemSec
• The Cost of Inaction - A socioeconomic analysis of environmental and health impacts linked to exposure to PFAS (Report)  –  Nordic Council of Ministers
• 'Forever pollution': Explore the map of Europe's PFAS contamination  –  Le Monde
• Reducing Pollution of PMT Substances to Protect Water (YouTube)  –  SETAC

Chemical cocktails that are harmful to wildlife have been found in 81% of river and lake sites tested in England, a study has found. Campaigners call for rigorous testing of waterways to protect species after analysis reveals scale of problem. More:

• Chemical cocktails harmful to wildlife found in 81% of English rivers and lakes  –  The Guardian
• Firm releases almost 800kg of ‘forever chemical’ a year into Lancashire river  –  The Guardian
• Revealed: scale of ‘forever chemical’ pollution across UK and Europe  –  The Guardian

Toxic PFAS chemicals, used in a multitude of consumer products during the last decades, are on everyone’s lips these days. In fact, if you are wearing lipstick, there’s a good chance that you, literally, have these cancer-causing chemicals on your lips. More:

• The claim that PFAS are critical to the green economy is complete hyperbole  –  ChemSec

If you put on a pair of soft contact lenses this morning you took a greater risk than you might realize. Soft lenses seem very eye-friendly; they’re smooth, comfortable, allow oxygen to reach the eye and, if they’re disposable, they don’t give bacteria any time to grow. What’s not to like? Well, one very important thing, actually. More:

• All The Stuff in Your Home That Might Contain PFAS 'Forever Chemicals'  –  Time

• Outside the Safe Operating Space of a New Planetary Boundary for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) (Research article)
• How can I be exposed?  –  US ATSDR
• Study identifies potentially harmful substances in household dust  –  Yale School of Public Health
• Immunotoxicity and allergenic potential induced by topical application of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in a murine model (Research article)

• Cosmetics, cellphones, guitar strings: where we found 'forever chemicals'  –  The Guardian
• Mohawk SmartStrand Carpet & Cushion PFAS -Forever Chemicals- Laboratory Results  –  Mamavation
• New PFAS Scorecard for Popular Apparel Brands: Levi Strauss Earns an 'A+', Outdoor Brands Fail  –  NRDC
• Avoid PFAS in bike oil  –  Taenk
• When Choosing Paint Colors, Keep this in Mind  –  Duke University Superfund Research Center

• Are you putting PFAS on your eyeballs?  –  EHN
• Indications of PFAS "Forever Chemicals" in Contact Lenses - Report  –  Mamavation
• PFAS 'Forever Chemicals' Are Turning Up in Menstrual Products. Here's What You Need to Know  –  Time
• Now We Need to Worry About Harmful 'Forever Chemicals' in Our Toilet Paper Too  –  Time

• Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances - Draft Chemical Action Plan (download PDF)  –  State of Washington
• Our Current Understanding of the Human Health and Environmental Risks of PFAS  –  US EPA
• A sensitive method for the detection of legacy and emerging per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) in dairy milk (Research article)

• Meaningful and Achievable Steps You Can Take to Reduce Your Risk  –  US EPA
• PFAS-free Purchasing (download PDF)  –  Ecology Center
• Products without intentionally added PFAS or PFCs  –  EWG
• Best Non-Toxic Bedding--Mattress Covers, Sheets, & Comforters 2022  –  Mamavation
• The Home Depot bans toxic PFAS in carpets and rugs it sells  –  Toxic-Free Future

The cost of cleaning up toxic PFAS “forever chemical” contamination around hundreds of US military installations is ballooning, but Congress and the Pentagon are failing to keep pace, a development that is leaving service members and civilians indefinitely at risk, a new analysis finds. More:

• Pentagon’s ‘forever chemicals’ cleanup budget falls ‘dramatically’ short  –  The Guardian
• US military ‘downplayed’ the number of soldiers exposed to ‘forever chemicals’  –  The Guardian
• US military accused of obstruction over cancer linked to ‘forever chemicals’  –  The Guardian

• At least 12 military bases contaminating water supply with toxic PFAS  –  The Guardian
• Interactive Map- 710 Military Sites With Known or Suspected Discharges of PFAS  –  EWG
• The 100 U.S. Military Sites With the Worst PFAS Contamination  –  EWG
• The Pentagon’s contamination time bomb: Cleanup backlog outpaces funding  –  EWG

At the beginning of 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed new rules for maximum allowable levels in drinking water for six per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Although these human-made so-called “forever chemicals” have been widely used since the 1940s in various industrial and consumer products due to their unique properties, such as oil and water resistance, temperature resistance, and low friction, they can persist for a very long time in the environment, accumulate in the food chain, and lead to a number of health risks. More:

• Forever chemicals are an underestimated source of water contamination  –  Earth.com
• Forever chemicals are raining down all over the world  –  Earth.com
• Centurial Persistence of Forever Chemicals at Military Fire Training Sites (Research article)

An increasing number of sports bra and athletic wear brands have been found with high levels of BPA in them, a chemical compound that's used to make certain types of plastic and can lead to harmful health effects such as asthma, cardiovascular disease and obesity, a watchdog group said. More:

• Growing number of sports bras, shirts and leggings brands found with high levels of toxic chemical, watchdog warns  –  CBS

• Questions & Answers on Bisphenol A (BPA) - Use in Food Contact Applications  –  US FDA
• Partnership to Evaluate Alternatives to Bisphenol A in Thermal Paper  –  US EPA

• High levels of toxic chemical found in sports bras, watchdog warns  –  CNN
• The Fight Continues: BPA in Activewear  –  Center for Environmental Health

• BPA linked to asthma in school-age girls, study finds  –  CNN
• Chemicals in plastics damage babies’ brains and must be banned immediately, expert group says  –  CNN
• Association Between Bisphenol A Exposure and Risk of All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality in US Adults (Research article)

A recent study by a nonprofit focused on protecting the environment reveals a new problem with pesticides: They are filled with forever chemicals, a class of compound that is typically used in nonstick and waterproof surfaces. More:

• How did nonstick "forever chemicals" get into our food? Blame pesticides  –  Salon

• Toxic “forever chemicals” present in most pesticides  –  Earth.com
• US food pesticides contaminated with toxic ‘forever chemicals’ testing finds  –  The Guardian
• PFAS Pesticide Testing - Analytical Report (download)  –  Eurofins Lancaster Laboratories Environment Testing
• Targeted analysis and Total Oxidizable Precursor assay of several insecticides for PFAS (Research article)

• Your microwave popcorn bags are full of harmful "forever chemicals"  –  Salon

• Your water may be full of "forever chemicals" — and the EPA isn't even testing for many of them  –  Salon

• "Forever chemicals" in non-stick pans are in your body right now — and may be affecting your liver  –  Salon
• "Forever chemicals" linked to high blood pressure, study finds  –  Salon
• Male fetuses, bathed in forever chemicals, have lower sperm counts as adults: study  –  Salon
• Stray pollutants in fast food and microwave popcorn could be affecting pregnancies  –  Salon

There are growing calls for the Australian government to ban toxic chemicals still found in some common household products after this week's legal settlement with residents. More:

• Calls to permanently ban use of PFAS chemicals still found in some domestic products  –  ABC News

• Commonwealth settles $132.7 million class action over PFAS contamination across Australia  –  ABC News
• Major study of PFAS firefighting foam's impact on communities finds limited evidence of disease links  –  ABC News

A bathtub. A floor. A bike. The items Kevin Hartley, Drew Wynne and Joshua Atkins had been working on at the time of their deaths less than 10 months apart varied, but what cut their lives short was the same: a chemical in paint strippers and other products sold in stores nationwide. More:

• Three families vowed to stop a killer chemical. Here’s how they did it.  –  Center for Public Integrity

• Common solvent keeps killing workers, consumers  –  Center for Public Integrity
• Paint-Remover Hazard (download PDF) (Research article)
• EDF resources on methylene chloride in paint strippers  –  Environmental Defense Fund

• Upended by America’s ‘third wave’ of asbestos disease  –  Center for Public Integrity
• Slow-motion tragedy for American workers  –  Center for Public Integrity

• Walmart: Stop selling deadly paint strippers  –  Change.org
• Congress to Scott Pruitt: What do you have to say to these families?  –  Toxic-Free Future
• EDF Statement on the Meeting between the Wynne and Hartley Families and EPA Administrator Pruitt  –  Environmental Defense Fund
• Some paint strippers are killing people. The EPA promised to act — but hasn’t.  –  Center for Public Integrity

• EPA wants to restrict sometimes-deadly paint stripper chemical  –  Center for Public Integrity
• Reversing course, the EPA will regulate a deadly paint stripper  –  Center for Public Integrity
• EPA restricts sales of deadly paint strippers after years of delays  –  Center for Public Integrity
• The EPA has only banned these 9 chemicals — out of thousands  –  Insider

• NRDC Sues EPA Over its Evaluation of Methylene Chloride  –  NRDC
• EPA: Ban toxic methylene chloride  –  Toxic-Free Future
• The EPA planned to ban a deadly paint-stripping chemical. Will it follow through?  –  Center for Public Integrity
• The EPA wants to broaden a ban on a deadly chemical on store shelves  –  Center for Public Integrity