Toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” are widely added to pesticides, and are increasingly used in the products in recent years, new research finds, a practice that creates a health threat by spreading the dangerous compounds directly into the US’s food and water supply.
The analysis of active and inert ingredients that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved for use in pesticides proves recent agency claims that the chemicals aren’t used in pesticides are false.
The researchers also obtained documents that suggest the EPA hid some findings that show PFAS in pesticides.
About 14% of all active ingredients in the country’s pesticides are PFAS, a figure that has doubled to more than 30% of all ingredients approved during the last 10 years.
The increased PFAS use in pesticides is “disturbing”, said Kyla Bennett, a former EPA official now with the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility non-profit, and a study co-author.
“We should be eliminating PFAS from all products, but particularly pesticides because you’re spraying them on crops, and there’s not a more direct way to expose the population than that,” Bennett said. “We should not be going in this direction.”
PFAS are a class of about 15,000 compounds typically used to make products that resist water, stains and heat. They are called “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down and accumulate, and are linked to cancer, kidney disease, liver problems, immune disorders, birth defects and other serious health problems.
PFAS are added to a range of pesticides, including those used on crops, to kill mosquitoes, or to kill fleas on pets. The compounds are likely used as surfactants and to help the chemicals disperse or be absorbed.
The true level of PFAS in pesticides is likely much higher, Bennett said. The estimate works off the EPA’s unusually narrow definition of what constitutes a PFAS, and omits organofluorines.
Most regulatory agencies in the US and around the world consider organofluorines to be PFAS. When organofluorine is added to the tally, at least 60% of active ingredients approved for use in common pesticides over the last 10 years are PFAS, and about 40% overall.
Moreover, companies are not required to disclose when PFAS are used as an inert ingredient, so the paper likely missed some. The chemicals have also been found to leach at high levels from plastic containers in which many pesticides are stored, and that is not accounted for by the EPA.
Among chemicals in pesticides are PFOA and PFOS, two of the most dangerous PFAS compounds. The EPA has found virtually no level of exposure to the two chemicals in drinking water is safe. PFOA is likely leaching from the pesticides’ containers, Bennett said, but PFOS appears to be added for unknown reasons.
About two years ago, an EPA research fellow identified PFOS in pesticides and raised the alarm. The EPA responded last year by taking the highly unusual step of publicly criticizing the research, and put out a paper attempting to discredit the findings. The EPA wrote it “did not find any PFAS in the tested pesticide products”, including PFOS.
The paper’s methodology was called into question, but the new research that shows the EPA has approved PFAS to be added to pesticides “contradicts the EPA’s statements”, Bennett said. Moreover, in a Freedom of Information Act request that was part of the new study, researchers found documents showing the EPA had in fact found PFOS in pesticides but omitted those findings from the final study.
“They were trying to quell fears and said: ‘No, there’s no PFAS in pesticides,’ but, yes, there are PFAS in pesticides,” Bennett said. “They found large quantities of numerous PFAS, so that’s a problem.”
The EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
