User:McKennaEve0204/Gaps in Regulation of Chemical Agents

Environmental and Human Health Risks
Following the end of WWII, the production of organochlorines, such as DDT, Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), and other synthetic chemicals were developed for use in agriculture. These purposes included insecticides, fungicides, and in some cases, fire retardants; while effective for agriculture and forest services, these chemicals are known lipophiles (meaning that they attach to fat cells in organisms) and have been shown to bioaccumulate, passing from prey to predator and from mother to offspring throughout embryonic development and lactation. Studies have shown that exposure to organochlorines like DDT can lead to increased risks of pancreatic cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, impaired lactation, possible male infertility and testicular cancers, and DDT poisoning in those who work to manufacture the chemicals.

Environmental Regulation
Rachel Carson’s exposé novel, Silent Spring, is largely accredited for spurring public awareness of the ecological and human health impacts of organochlorines such as DDT. Her work began a national movement to ban chemicals, such as DDT. However, chemical companies responded with backlash claiming that her work was falsified and DDT was not banned until 1972. Since then, many other organochlorines have been placed under similar restrictions and bans, yet there are few regulations in place for new organochlorines being produced in labs. This lack of regulation has raised concerns among members of the environmental community about the hazards of these unstudied pollutants not being monitored by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), especially in light of budget cuts and bureaucratic inefficacy.

Mercury
Mercury is a naturally occurring element in the Earth’s lithosphere that can be found in its elemental, inorganic, and organic-compounded forms. It is often found in coal deposits and regions rich in fossil fuels.

Mercury Pollution
Like other heavy metals, mercury can be released from both natural and anthropogenic sources. Mercury from natural sources (such as soil/sedimentary erosion or volcanic eruptions) accounts for a small percentage of rising mercury levels. Meanwhile, the release of industrial mercury from mining and fossil fuel combustion has led to heightened mercury pollution in the atmosphere. In fact, fossil fuel combustion accounts for 45% of human mercury release.

Environmental and Human Health Impacts
Mercury exposures are variant, relative to the degree of exposure, demographics of the individual exposed, and the mercury form or compound that they are exposed to. Because it is a neurotoxin, mercury can be particularly damaging to developing fetuses when exposed in vitro and young children. Inhalation of mercury gas is more deadly and can cause kidney failure and respiratory problems if not treated. From an ecological perspective, mercury is concerning because of its ability to bioaccumulate in food chains, particularly in marine environments. For this reason, the EPA advises against the regular consumption of fish and shellfish that are documented to contain high levels of mercury, especially for pregnant and nursing mothers and young children.

Environmental Regulation
In recent years the United States Environmental Protection Agency has established policies to mitigate atmospheric mercury release from the combustion of fossil fuels and waste. These policies include the 2011 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards which require that power plants use controls and technologies that mitigate mercury pollution. Between 2011 and 2013, additional policies were applied to municipal and medical waste management facilities mandating that all sewage and waste containing mercury cannot be incinerated. Earlier standards from 1991 also established a maximum contaminant level, or MCM, of 0.002 mg of mercury per liter of municipal drinking water. Legal measures such as the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act also set standards for pollutant release and clean-up for the United States.

Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA)
DuPont and 3M

Starting in the early 1950s, PFOA was released by DuPont into private wells and the Ohio River without disclosure to the public of EPA. Although both companies conducted independent studies demonstrating the harmful side effects of PFOA exposure, these results were hidden from the public as a result of the EPA’s self-reporting policy on chemical toxicology in manufacturing.

Health Risks and Birth Defects
The 2012 C8 Science Panel conducted a survey using blood samples from approximately 69,000 residents of regions with heightened PFOA levels as a result of a class action lawsuit against DuPont to determine correlations between PFOA exposure and chronic illnesses. Those surveyed had a range of PFOA levels from 0.2-22,412 μg/L, with a median exposure of 28.2 μg/L. These levels were significantly higher than the levels detected in the general American population, which had a median exposure of 3.9μg/L. Results from the study concluded that PFOA exposure was linked to pancreatic cancer and testicular cancer, among other conditions, and possible correlations with kidney and prostate cancer. Other chronic conditions included high cholesterol, thyroid disease, ulcerative colitis, pre-eclampsia, and hypertension.

Known as a “forever chemical” PFOAs do not biodegrade naturally and thus, are at a high risk for bioaccumulation in exposed populations if governmental regulators do not take action. The conclusions from the C8 Panel were used to justify medical monitoring among all residents affected by PFOA exposure at the expense of DuPont, however, some claims remain disputed by the chemical giant.

Contamination of drinking water in Parkersburg, WV
Wilbur Tennant filed a lawsuit with environmental lawyer, Robert Billot, who also started a class-action lawsuit with nearly 80,000 plaintiffs in the same year as a result of the widespread impacts of PFOA chemicals across six water districts polluted by DuPont. The class-action lawsuit settled for $343 million in damages to residents and DuPont was ordered to pay for costs of medical monitoring.

Environmental regulation
The struggles to regulate and determine the toxicity of synthetic chemicals are strongly reflected in the case of DuPont’s PFOA pollution. Because the EPA only regulates chemicals that have been proven toxic and uses a self-reporting system, past uses of synthetic chemicals have gone unregulated until health risks are observed, as seen with the case of C8 and PFOA. This lack of communication between the EPA and potential polluters is one of the reasons that many policies aimed at widespread chemical regulation often fail. Current EPA policies are looking to increase involvement in reporting to reduce these breaches, however, cuts to the EPA budget limit the feasibility of these goals without resources to expand their workforce.

Legal fees, lawsuits, and governmental fines have been used to discourage companies from releasing untested chemicals into the environment, however, these are often insignificant when compared to the net worth of the company. So long as the market exists for these products (as seen with the successes of Teflon) companies are likely to continue valuing their profits over environmental and health concerns.

Recent settlements between the EPA and Dupont/Chemours have worked to improve the lives and environment of residents near the Washington Works plant in Parkersburg, WV by mandating that DuPont pay for clean-up efforts in the region under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Unfortunately, technology is not able to fully remove PFOAs and thus, the existing reparations include providing bottled water and installing filtration systems with partial removal abilities.