The Department of Health and Human Services and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are taking bold strides to protect Americans’ health, announcing programs combatting microplastics.
The agencies are putting forward a “landmark set of actions” to protect the nation’s drinking water from “microplastics, pharmaceuticals, forever chemicals, and dozens of other contaminants.” Seventy-five chemicals and nine microbes that may be found in drinking water are listed in a draft Sixth Contaminant Candidate List (CCL 6).
“For the first time in the program’s history, EPA is designating both microplastics and pharmaceuticals as priority contaminant groups—a direct response to the concerns of millions of Americans who have long demanded answers about what they and their families are drinking every day,” the EPA said in a press release.
“For too long, Americans have vocalized concerns about plastics and pharmaceuticals in their drinking water. That ends today,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. “By placing microplastics and pharmaceuticals on the Contaminant Candidate List for the first time ever, EPA is sending a clear message: we will follow the science, we will pursue answers, and we will hold ourselves to the highest standards to protect the health of every American family.”
Meanwhile, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), an agency under HHS, announced the STOMP program, or the Systematic Targeting Of MicroPlastics. The $144 million program creates a means of measuring, researching, and removing microplastics and nanoplastics (MNPs) from the body.
“Today, HHS is taking decisive action to confront microplastics as a growing threat to human health,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said of the program. “Americans deserve clear answers about how microplastics in their bodies affect their health. Through ARPA-H’s STOMP program, we will measure microplastic exposure, identify sources of risk, and develop targeted solutions to reduce it.”
In 2022, microplastic pollution was detected in human blood, with scientists finding the tiny particles in almost 80% of the people tested.
