Kyla Bennett, director of science policy at the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said EPA likely underestimated the risks posed by PFAS-laden sewage sludge.
She questioned EPA’s assertion that most food produced in the U.S. “is not grown on fields where sewage sludge is land applied,” as well as EPA’s decision to only include PFOA and PFOS in the assessment. There are thousands of versions of PFAS, and scientists believe that many of them pose similar human health risks.
“I’m glad that EPA is addressing this issue, but it is not enough. They need to look at more PFAS than PFOA and PFOS, and they need to fix some of their assumptions,” Bennett said in an email.
