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PFAS ‘Forever Chemicals’ Used on Farms Could Significantly Raise Health Risks, EPA Draft Guidelines Warn

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15 Jan, 2025

This post was originally published on Eco Watch

Toxic chemicals from sewage sludge used as fertilizer pose health risks to those who regularly consume products from farms that use it, in some instances raising cancer risk by “several orders of magnitude” over what is considered acceptable by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), federal officials said on Tuesday.

EPA’s draft risk assessment, Draft Sewage Sludge Risk Assessment for Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) and Perfluorooctane Sulfonic Acid (PFOS), is a scientific evaluation of potential health risks to humans associated with toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) “forever chemicals” in biosolids, or “sewage sludge,” a press release from EPA said.

“EPA under President Biden’s leadership has taken unprecedented actions to advance research and science on PFAS and to protect people from these dangerous forever chemicals,” said Jane Nishida, EPA’s acting administrator, in the press release. “This draft assessment provides important information to help inform future actions by federal and state agencies as well as steps that wastewater systems, farmers and other stakeholders can take to protect people from PFAS exposure, while ensuring American industry keeps feeding and fueling our nation.”

The findings show that exposure to PFOA or PFOS — two types of forever chemicals — during sewage sludge use and disposal methods may pose human health risks. The three methods are: surface disposal in landfills, land application of biosolids and incineration.

Once the assessment is finalized, it will assist EPA and partners in understanding the public health impacts posed by forever chemicals in biosolids, as well as inform potential future actions that could help reduce exposure risk.

Wastewater gets conveyed to a treatment plant from businesses, households and industrial dischargers. The treatment processes produce a semi-solid product that is rich in nutrients called “biosolids” or “sewage sludge.”

An urban wastewater treatment plant. Bilanol / iStock / Getty Images Plus

“EPA typically uses the term ‘biosolids’ to mean sewage sludge that has been treated to meet regulatory standards and is thereby suitable to be land applied as a soil conditioner or fertilizer. In turn, biosolids can be beneficially reused as land applied fertilizer on agricultural fields or on nonagricultural lands to promote plant health and productivity,” EPA explained.

EPA’s draft risk assessment focused on a narrow and specific population that the agency considered most likely to have exposure to PFOS or PFOA from biosolids being applied to land or through the consumption of products produced on the land where biosolids were applied as fertilizer.

“The preliminary findings of the draft risk assessment indicate that there can be human health risks exceeding EPA’s acceptable thresholds, sometimes by several orders of magnitude, for some scenarios where the farmer applied biosolids containing 1 part per billion (ppb) of PFOA or PFOS (which is near the current detection limit for these PFAS in biosolids),” the press release said.

The risk assessment used scientific modeling of hypothetical health risks to humans who live on or near sites that have been impacted by PFOS or PFOA or for those who mostly rely on products from the sites, such as animal products, food crops or drinking water.

“EPA risk assessments follow a scientific process to characterize the nature and magnitude of health risks to children, adults, and the environment from pollutants based on modeled exposure scenarios. An environmental risk assessment considers three primary factors: 1) presence (i.e., how much of a pollutant is present in the environment); 2) exposure (i.e., how much contact a human or wildlife has with the pollutant); and 3) the toxicity of the pollutant (i.e., the health effects the pollutant causes in humans or wildlife),” EPA said.

The modeled scenarios included farms that used one application of 10 dry-metric-tons per hectare of the biosolids for 40 consecutive years.

The modeling also found human health risks above the EPA acceptable standards in scenarios where 1 part per billion of PFOS or PFOA was put in a clay-lined or unlined surface disposal unit.

Once the draft risk assessment is finalized, EPA will use it to “help inform future risk management actions for PFOA and PFOS in sewage sludge. For the incineration scenario, risk is not quantified due to significant data gaps,” the press release said.

The analysis did not suggest that the country’s general food supply was contaminated by biosolids containing PFOS or PFOA, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration are conducting broad PFAS monitoring in the food supply and have taken actions to address products that have been impacted from imported and domestic sources.

According to the “best available data,” biosolids make up less than a percent of fertilized acreage of the nation’s productive agricultural lands annually. There are specific “hot spots” recognized by EPA, and certain farming operations could have higher PFOS or PFOA levels if they used contaminated sludge.

EPA said “further collaboration with impacted operations and other federal agencies will be important to fully understand risks and support impacted farmers.”

The analysis found that PFOS and PFOA risks of exposure from biosolids increased proportionally with how much of the chemicals were present.

“This means that if you lower the concentration of PFOA or PFOS in biosolids or the amount of biosolids applied to agricultural land, you lower the risk. The actual risks from exposure to PFOA or PFOS will vary at farms that land-apply biosolids or at biosolids disposal sites based on the amount of PFOA or PFOS applied, as well as geography, climate, soil conditions, the types of crops grown and their nutrient needs and other factors.,” EPA said.

The draft risk assessment’s findings highlight the importance of proactive state and federal policies to remove and control PFAS at their source.

“Moving forward, EPA is working to set technology-based limits on discharges from several industrial categories — including PFAS manufacturers, electro- and chrome-platers and landfills — under the agency’s Effluent Limitations Guidelines program,” the press release said. “Several states have begun monitoring for PFAS in sewage sludge and published reports and data that are publicly available.”

The post PFAS ‘Forever Chemicals’ Used on Farms Could Significantly Raise Health Risks, EPA Draft Guidelines Warn appeared first on EcoWatch.

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Taking the electronic pulse of the circular economy

Taking the electronic pulse of the circular economy

In June, I had the privilege of attending the 2025 E-Waste World, Battery Recycling, Metal Recycling, and ITAD & Circular Electronics Conference & Expo events in Frankfurt, Germany.

Speaking in the ITAD & Circular Electronics track on a panel with global Circular Economy leaders from Foxway Group, ERI and HP, we explored the evolving role of IT asset disposition (ITAD) and opportunities in the circular electronics economy.

The event’s focus on advancing circular economy goals and reducing environmental impact delivered a series of insights and learnings. From this assembly of international expertise across 75+ countries, here are some points from the presentations that stood out for me:

1. Environmental impact of the digital economy

Digitalisation has a heavy material footprint in the production phase, and lifecycle thinking needs to guide every product decision. Consider that 81% of the energy a laptop uses in its lifetime is consumed during manufacture (1 tonne in manufacture is equal to 10,000 tonnes of CO2) and laptops are typically refreshed or replaced by companies every 3–4 years.

From 2018 to 2023, the average number of devices and connections per capita in the world increased by 50% (2.4 to 3.6). In North America (8.2 to 13.4) and Western Europe (5.6 to 9.4), this almost doubled. In 1960, only 10 periodic table elements were used to make phones. In 1990, 27 elements were used and now over 60 elements are used to build the smartphones that we have become so reliant on.

A key challenge is that low-carbon and digital technologies largely compete for the same minerals. Material resource extraction could increase 60% between 2020 and 2060, while demand for lithium, cobalt and graphite is expected to rise by 500% until 2050.

High growth in ICT demand and Internet requires more attention to the environmental footprint of the digital economy. Energy consumption of data centres is expected to more than double by 2026. The electronics industry accounts for over 4% of global GHG — and digitalisation-related waste is growing, with skewed impacts on developing countries.

E-waste is rising five times faster than recycling — 1 tonne of e-waste has a carbon footprint of 2 tonnes. Today’s solution? ‘Bury it or burn it.’ In terms of spent emissions, waste and the costs associated with end-of-life liabilities, PCBAs (printed circuit board assembly) cost us enormously — they generally achieve 3–5% recyclability (75% of CO2 in PCBAs is from components).

2. Regulating circularity in electronics

There is good momentum across jurisdictions in right-to-repair, design and labelling regulations; recycling targets; and voluntary frameworks on circularity and eco-design.

The EU is at the forefront. EU legislation is lifting the ICT aftermarket, providing new opportunities for IT asset disposition (ITAD) businesses. To get a sense, the global market for electronics recycling is estimated to grow from $37 billion to $108 billion (2022–2030). The value of refurbished electronics is estimated to increase from $85.9 billion to $262.2 billion (2022–2032). Strikingly, 40% of companies do not have a formal ITAD strategy in place.

Significantly, the EU is rethinking its Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) management targets, aligned with upcoming circularity and WEEE legislation, as part of efforts to foster the circular economy. A more robust and realistic circularity-driven approach to setting collection targets would better reflect various factors including long lifespans of electronic products and market fluctuations.

Australia and New Zealand lag the EU’s comprehensive e-waste mandated frameworks. The lack of a systematic approach results in environmental degradation and missed positioning opportunities for businesses in the circular economy. While Australia’s Senate inquiry into waste reduction and recycling recommended legislating a full circular economy framework — including for imported and local product design, financial incentives and regulatory enforcement, New Zealand remains the only OECD country without a national scheme to manage e-waste.

3. Extending product lifecycles

Along with data security and digital tools, reuse was a key theme in the ITAD & Circular Electronics track of the conference. The sustainable tech company that I lead, Greenbox, recognises that reuse is the simplest circular strategy. Devices that are still functional undergo refurbishment and are reintroduced into the market, reducing new production need and conserving valuable resources.

Conference presenters highlighted how repair over replacement is being legislated as a right in jurisdictions around the world. Resources are saved, costs are lowered, product life is extended, and people and organisations are empowered to support a greener future. It was pointed out that just 43% of countries have recycling policies, 17% of global waste is formally recycled, and less than 1% of global e-waste is formally repaired and reused.

Right to repair is a rising wave in the circular economy, and legislation is one way that civil society is pushing back on programmed obsolescence. Its global momentum continues at different speeds for different product categories — from the recent EU mandates to multiple US state bills (and some laws) through to repair and reuse steps in India, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The European Commission’s Joint Research Commission has done a scoping study to identify product groups under the Ecodesign framework that would be most relevant for implementing an EU-wide product reparability scoring system.

Attending this event with the entire electronic waste recycling supply chain — from peers and partners to suppliers and customers — underscored the importance of sharing best practices to address the environmental challenges that increased hardware proliferation and complex related issues are having on the world.

Ross Thompson is Group CEO of sustainability, data management and technology asset lifecycle management market leader Greenbox. With facilities in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, Greenbox Group provides customers all over the world a carbon-neutral supply chain for IT equipment to reduce their carbon footprint by actively managing their environmental, social and governance obligations.

Image credit: iStock.com/Mustafa Ovec

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