EPA and HHS will study microplastics and pharmaceuticals in water
US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced new initiatives Thursday to combat microplastics in the human body and drinking water.
Kennedy said the government would create a $144 million program called STOMP to systematically target microplastics.
“We focus on three questions: What is in the body, what is causing the harm, and how do we eliminate it?” Kennedy said.
The environmental agency will also add microplastics and pharmaceuticals to its list of chemicals of concern in drinking water, Zeldin said.
“For the first time in the program’s history, EPA identifies both microplastics and pharmaceutical products as priority pollutant groups,” he said.
The two Cabinet members sat at a table in front of a crowded room at EPA headquarters in Washington; microplastic researchers, including Marcus Ericsson, environmental scientist and co-founder of the antiplastic Five Gyres Institute; Matthew Campin, biomedical scientist at the University of New Mexico; and Leo Trasande, a pediatrician and public policy expert at New York University Grossman School of Medicine and Wagner School of Public Service.
On either side of the table were two large posters that said “Confronting Microplastics” in block letters.
Zeldin has come under fire in recent months from the movement known as MAHA, or Making America Healthy Again, over federal plans. Loosening restrictions on harmful chemicals and approve new pesticides, including two pesticides that include what are internationally considered “forever chemicals” linked to serious health risks.
Kennedy, the political face of the MAHA movement, was also criticized for making concessions on issues he once embraced. In February, President Trump signed an executive order to accelerate production of the herbicide glyphosate “for national security and defense reasons.”
Kennedy publicly supported the decision, saying in a social media post that herbicides and pesticides are “toxic by design” and “put Americans at risk” but that the food supply depends on them.
Glyphosate, known commercially as Roundup, has long been a target of the MAHA movement. The herbicide, produced by Bayer, which acquired original manufacturer Monsanto in 2018, has been the subject of tens of thousands of lawsuits, many filed by users who claim they developed non-Hodgkins lymphoma as a result of exposure.
Antiplastic advocates applauded Thursday’s announcement.
“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has taken an important first step to regulate microplastics in drinking water,” said Judith Enck, the agency’s former regional director and founder of Beyond Plastics, an anti-waste environmental group based in Bennington, Vt.
He called on regulators to “act quickly” to not only regulate plastic in drinking water but to prevent it from entering drinking water in the first place. So did Kimberly Wise White, vice president of regulatory and scientific affairs for the American Chemistry Council, a chemical industry trade group.
“We support science-driven monitoring of microplastics in drinking water and research to better understand potential impacts,” White said in a statement.
But others greeted the news with caution.
“We welcome any steps that take microplastics and emerging pollutants seriously,” said Kelly Shannon McNeill, executive director of the nonprofit environmental group Los Angeles Waterkeeper. “Americans deserve to know what’s in their tap water, but announcements are not regulations and regulations are not enforcement, and this administration has a track record that gives us serious pause.”
Along with other recent EPA actions, including steps to weaken protections against PFAS, or “forever,” chemicals and glyphosate, this latest step by the Trump administration is “really disingenuous,” he said.
In 2022, California became the first government in the world to require drinking water to be tested for microplastics. The state has not yet started reporting its results.
“I think it’s a positive thing to see the federal government follow California’s lead in launching programs to investigate the extent to which these microplastics are forming in our drinking water supplies across the country,” said David Andrews, chief scientific officer of the Environmental Working Group. He also noted that the Trump administration has moved to cut funding for water infrastructure and is “going backwards” on many areas of environmental regulations.
The State Water Resources Control Board was expected to submit a report in 2025, but it has not yet been released.
Micro and nanoplastics were found everywhere scientists looked. They have been found in human organs and tissues such as the brain, liver, placenta and testicles. It has also been detected in blood, breast milk, and even meconium, a baby’s first stool. In addition, they are widespread throughout the environment, including in Alpine snow, deep-sea sediments, and drinking water.
On Tuesday, a coalition of Kennedy-affiliated MAHA groups sent a letter to Zeldin demanding the Trump administration stop permitting new plastic manufacturing facilities and step up monitoring of microplastics in drinking water.
Zeldin in December He told MAHA groups He would also include plastics-related measures on the agency’s agenda, following calls from many prominent MAHA groups for him to be fired. They said he was too close to chemical companies.
Shannon McNeill of the Los Angeles Water Watch also worries that if the source of these contaminants is not addressed, “all you’re doing is shifting that cost to local water utilities and wastewater treatment plants, which will ultimately result in our water bills going up.”
Meanwhile, plastic manufacturers will continue to make money by selling more plastic.
“If they follow through on this it would be a great first step, but we have to stop plastic pollution upstream,” he said.
