That leaves regulators attempting to protect the public without essential information for some chemicals and in effect creates a “shadow regulatory government” in the EPA, said Tim Whitehouse, a former EPA attorney who is now director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer), a plaintiff in one of the suits.
“It makes it impossible to have proper chemical oversight because much of the information that the EPA is evaluating is withheld from other regulators within the EPA, the states and the public,” he said.
He pointed to the EPA’s approval of hundreds of types of PFAS, or “forever chemicals”, which are a class of compounds known to generally be toxic, accumulate in humans and not fully break down in the environment. The chemical class is thought to be contaminating drinking water for tens of millions of people.