FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 8, 2026
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Aaron Bharucha, Public Relations Associate
(509) 429-1699 and epn-press@environmentalprotectionnetwork.org
Former EPA Officials Warn EPA Directive Will Leave Communities Less Protected from Toxic Chemicals
“This shift will affect how EPA addresses PFAS in drinking water, lead in soil and dust, arsenic in water, formaldehyde in air, nitrates in groundwater, and other pollutants families are already exposed to.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Former Environmental Protection Agency officials warned today that a new internal EPA directive could leave communities less protected from toxic chemicals in their water, air, soil, food, and household environments.
The April 27 memo would effectively end the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) as EPA’s centralized source of independent chemical risk assessments. For nearly four decades, IRIS has helped EPA, states, Tribes, researchers, public health officials, and other partners understand how toxic chemicals affect human health and inform safeguards for pollutants linked to cancer, developmental harm, neurological damage, reproductive harm, and other serious health effects.
“This is not an abstract process change,” said Dr. Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, former Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for Science and EPA Science Advisor. “This shift will affect how EPA addresses PFAS in drinking water, lead in soil and dust, arsenic in water, formaldehyde in air, nitrates in groundwater, and other pollutants families are already exposed to. Communities need EPA to move faster to protect people from toxic chemicals—not create a fragmented system that slows protections down.”
The directive shifts responsibility for key chemical risk assessments away from EPA’s independent science program and toward individual regulatory program offices. It also directs EPA offices to review past decisions that relied on IRIS values and encourages outside entities to do the same.
Former EPA officials warned that this shift could lead to inconsistent methods for the same chemical, invite new challenges to existing protections, and further strain EPA offices that may not have the staff or specialized expertise to replace IRIS.
“It is in the best interest of all Americans for the federal government to make decisions that protect public health and the environment based on the best available science,” said Christopher Zarba, former Director of EPA’s Science Advisory Board. “The IRIS program was developed to ensure that these scientific standards were upheld. To do otherwise would give special interests the opportunity to place their priorities above the health and well-being of the American people.”
EPN experts noted several immediate concerns:
- PFAS and drinking water: Delaying or weakening EPA’s ability to assess PFAS toxicity could slow future drinking water protections and cleanup decisions for chemicals already found in water, fish, food, and the environment.
- Contaminated sites and Superfund cleanups: Reopening or second-guessing IRIS values could delay cleanups, impede the redevelopment of brownfields and invite efforts to weaken cleanup obligations for contaminated soil, sediments, groundwater, and air.
- Lead, arsenic, formaldehyde, ethylene oxide, and other toxic pollutants: Undermining IRIS assessments could affect the scientific basis for protections involving chemicals linked to cancer, neurological harm, developmental damage, and other serious health effects.
- Emerging contaminants: EPA needs stronger, faster science on pollutants such as additional PFAS, nitrates, microplastics, and other chemicals of growing concern. Eliminating centralized expertise will make that work harder, not easier.
EPN experts said EPA should make clear how it will preserve independent, consistent chemical risk assessment across the agency, how existing IRIS assessments will continue to be used, and how communities will be protected from delays or weakened safeguards as a result of the directive.
“Americans deserve safeguards based on the best available science,” said Marc Boom, EPN Senior Director of Public Affairs. “EPA should be making families safer, not making it easier to second-guess the science behind toxic chemical protections.”
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ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION NETWORK
The Environmental Protection Network is a nonpartisan organization comprising more than 750 former EPA scientists, toxicologists, chemists, biologists, engineers, and policy analysts — many of whom spent decades as career experts inside the agency. They assessed cancer and developmental risks, studied links between pollution and fertility and chronic disease, investigated contaminated communities, and brought enforcement actions to hold corporate polluters accountable. EPN was founded in 2017 to serve as an independent voice promoting science-based policies that protect Americans’ health.