Since returning to power, President Donald Trump's administration has approved five pesticides considered by many to be PFAS 'forever chemicals', a class of toxic substances facing bans and increasing restrictions around the world. But the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has an alternative definition of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances that excludes the new herbicides, insecticides and fungicides, and says they pose no threat to human health.
The EPA's Definition and Pesticide Approvals
The last three such approvals were made without press statements, surfacing only when nonprofits publicized them this month. Many scientists and nonprofit groups say the chemicals may pose hidden risks, and many of them break down into trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), now abundant in global drinking water and potentially linked to serious harms, including fetal and reproductive damage.
Scientific and Public Concerns
PFAS are defined by the carbon-fluorine bond, the most stable in organic chemistry, whose strength and liquid repelling properties made the chemicals prized for firefighting foam, nonstick pans, raincoats and more. But evidence linking them to cancers, immune conditions and reproductive harms has triggered billion-dollar settlements, new laws and corporate phase-outs. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) adopted a broad definition in 2021 encompassing any molecule with a single fully-fluorinated carbon atom. Roughly half of US states, Congress and the Pentagon have upheld it, as did 150 scientists in a 2024 consensus statement.
EPA's Narrow Definition and Pesticide Approvals
In 2023, the EPA under then-president Joe Biden went its own way, narrowing the definition to only include chemicals with two or more adjacent fully-fluorinated carbon atoms, which it deemed less likely to persist. One such pesticide was greenlit under Biden. Trump's second term has added five more. Trump's EPA says pesticides are essential for food abundance, that all are reviewed, and that single-fluorinated ones can be less toxic than alternatives. It notes they are also registered or proposed in the European Union, Canada and Australia.
Criticism and Concerns
That is not good enough for many scientists and activists, who fear a growing threat to the food supply and to farm workers. Trifludimoxazin, one of the new herbicides, has 'suggestive evidence of carcinogenic potential,' the EPA's own review found. And the new approvals are just the tip of the iceberg: a 2024 retrospective analysis revisited hundreds of pesticide ingredients approved in the past and found 66 would have met the OECD definition of PFAS.
Why This Matters for Bangladesh
Bangladesh, which relies heavily on agriculture, must be cautious about the pesticides it imports and uses. The presence of PFAS in pesticides could have serious implications for public health and the environment, especially given the country's limited resources for monitoring and regulating such chemicals.
