U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced new initiatives to tackle microplastics in the human body and drinking water on Thursday.
Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic - as small as nano-sized pieces - that are increasingly ubiquitous in water supplies and in the human body.
Zeldin said the environmental agency will add microplastics and pharmaceuticals to its list of concerning chemicals in drinking water. “For the first time in the program’s history, EPA is designating both microplastics and pharmaceuticals as priority contaminant groups,” he said.
Kennedy said the government will create a $144-million program called STOMP (Systematic Targeting of Microplastics).
“We are focusing on three questions, what is in the body, what’s causing harm, and how do we remove it?” Kennedy said. “We still do not have clear answers about causation or solutions,” Kennedy said. “We do not yet understand how these particles interact with the immune system, the endocrine system or the neurological system, and we do not have validated methods to remove them safely.”
But a number of environmental groups said the actions taken by the government aren't sufficient.
“Microplastics are a serious – and growing – threat to our health and our environment," Erin Doran of Food & Water Watch said in a statement. "Without monitoring of our drinking water, we can’t know the full scale of this crisis. Today’s announcement ...ultimately falls short on its own. It does not reflect the urgent need for a comprehensive nationwide monitoring program for microplastics in drinking water now."
Samantha Pickering leads the public and environmental public health program at the Michigan Environmental Council. She said the EPA's acknowledgment of the problem is a good thing, but there's more that should be done now, like adding microplastics to the government's official list of contaminants in drinking water that must be monitored.
She said she agrees with the EPA that much more research needs to be done to determine the health effects of microplastics. But she said there's enough evidence already that microplastics are bad for the environment and for humans.
"I appreciate that the EPA is acknowledging that they're going to start watching it. but it needs to be shifted into a precautionary approach. I don't see why they wouldn't be able to start taking action," she said.
Pickering said some states, including California and Michigan, are ahead of the U.S. EPA in tackling the problem. "Having the Great Lakes ecosystem, and so much Great Lakes shoreline, we're a bit more responsible for our stewardship."
Michigan will be conducting a pilot to test five different drinking water systems for the contaminants, she noted, and it will also, for the next three years, test about 200 of its inland lakes and streams for microplastics.
And Pickering said California has passed a law requiring the adoption of a system for testing drinking water supplies, as well as projects to keep plastics out of the marine environment.
