In mid-November 2025, the EPA changed a page on its website that originally included a definition for PFAS chemicals endorsed by more than 150 leading PFAS researchers, the European Union and nearly half of US states.
The nuance was important: Instead of considering pesticides with any type of carbon-fluoride bond as potentially toxic, the agency declared single carbon-fluoride bond chemicals were no longer PFAS and therefore “safe.”
“EPA-approved single fluorinated compounds are not forever chemicals, they are not PFAS, and do not pose any risks of concern when used as labeled,” the page now states.
The agency’s deviation from the global scientific consensus in defining PFAS reflects the “deep level of industry capture at the agency and the willingness of political appointees to succumb to that pressure,” Munoz told CNN.
