GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued a proposal to modify the country’s definition of hazardous waste to include PFAS, providing the EPA with more clarity and authority to take action.
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The proposal would make changes to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which currently does not “clearly and accurately reflect the full authorities granted to the EPA by Congress,” the agency said in a news release.
PFAS — or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — are a large group of compounds first developed in the 1940s and incorporated into all sorts of products for waterproofing and heat resistance. Decades later, research showed that PFAS compounds take a long time to break down organically and can build up in the human body, causing serious health problems including cancer.
According to the National Institute of Environmental Health Services , there are more than 15,000 known PFAS compounds.