The Trump administration is moving to more closely track and study microplastics and pharmaceuticals in Americans’ drinking water, marking the first time federal regulators have formally flagged them as potential contaminants.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated that microplastics are a “growing threat to human health.”
The effort is split into two initiatives, first shared with The Daily Wire.
The Environmental Protection Agency will consider microplastics and pharmaceuticals a “priority contaminant group” in a current draft list. At the same time, a Health and Human Services-backed agency is launching the Systematic Targeting of Microplastics (STOMP) project to investigate the impact of microplastics and their effects on human health.
“For too long, Americans have vocalized concerns about plastics and pharmaceuticals in their drinking water. That ends today,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said on Thursday.
Microplastics have been detected in water, food, and household products, and some research has linked them to serious health issues like cancer, though scientists say more study is needed to understand their full impact, according to Stanford University School of Medicine.
“Americans deserve clear answers about how microplastics in their bodies affect their health,” Kennedy Jr. said. “Through [Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health’s] STOMP program, we will measure microplastic exposure, identify sources of risk, and develop targeted solutions to reduce it,” he said.
As for the administration’s initiatives, the goal of STOMP is to focus on the impact of microplastics in the body, specifically how to “measure,” “target,” and “remove” them. It will identify the most dangerous microplastics and how they affect the human body.
The EPA’s decision to include microplastics on its draft Contaminant Candidate List “does not constitute regulation, but signals that a substance warrants serious scientific attention and may be considered for future regulatory action,” the agency told The Daily Wire.
“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,” Zeldin explained.
Zeldin and Kennedy Jr. are expected to formally announce the effort in Washington, D.C. on Thursday afternoon.
