The EPA has announced a rollback of Biden-era regulations on so-called Forever chemicals, also known as PFAS and drinking water systems across the country.

Our John Yang has more.

Jeff, the EPA has estimated that more than 158 million Americans are exposed to these chemicals through their drinking water.

Last year, the Biden administration

set very low limits for six common PFAS contaminants in drinking water. Now the EPA says it's

rescinding and reconsidering the standards for four of them. For the other two, the agency is giving

water utilities two more years until 201331 to meet the new limits.

Amdala-Ajasa covers environmental health for the Washington Post. What are PFAS and how

widespread are they? Yeah, PFFs are a class of thousands of carbon fluorine compounds used to repel grease, water, and oil, and they're the

strongest bond in chemistry. And they're really persistent. I mean, they have the nickname

Forever Chemicals for a reason.

And it's not just in drinking water. Where else are they, can it be found?

Scientists estimate that PFFs are in the blood of almost every American, and they're found in remote regions around the world, even as far as Antarctica.

And is it in soil? Because it lasts so long?

It's in the environment. It's in the air. It's in the soil. It's in the water, but, you know, people are primarily exposed to

PFAS and drinking water. What does research say about the effect on human health of these

things? Yeah, the effect of human health is pretty toxic. PFAFs, even at the smallest detectable

level, are toxic to humans. They're linked to a variety of cancers, including rare and reoccurring cancers,

weakened immune systems, low birth rates, developmental delays, infertility, and much, much more.

And what does the EPA explain why they're doing this? How do they explain it?

They were met with challenges from the water utilities and chemical manufacturers who said that

the costs were too steep and that the time was too tight for them to comply with the standards.

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