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Science / Re: Trump Administration Assaults on Science and the Environment
« on: Today at 12:49:54 AM »
Congress to Halt Military Use of Toxic Foam Contaminating Drinking Water
https://phys.org/news/2019-12-congress-halt-military-toxic-foam.html
Congress has reached a deal on a spending bill that would require the military to stop using firefighting foam containing toxic chemicals linked to cancer, but would abandon efforts to place stronger regulations on the chemicals.
The bill, called the National Defense Authorization Act, has been the focus of intense negotiations for months. House Democrats saw it as their best chance to force President Trump's Environmental Protection Agency to increase its oversight of a class of chemicals, called perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances—commonly known as PFAS—that have contaminated drinking water sources across the country.
Senate Republicans resisted these measures, wary of forcing chemical companies and the Defense Department to undertake extensive cleanups.
But when hopes of a compromise faded last week, Democrats were left with little choice but to agree to significantly weaker provisions or kill the entire defense spending bill.
The bill that emerged out of a joint House-Senate committee this week had been stripped of measures that would require the EPA to designate the chemicals as "hazardous" and set a nationwide safety standard for PFAS in drinking water.
A proposal requiring contaminated sites across the country to be cleaned up under the Superfund program had also been removed, as had one that would limit how much PFAS chemical manufacturers could dump into water supplies.
... The military would also be barred by 2021 from giving service members ready-to-eat meals packaged in containers treated with PFAS.

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Background:
https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,428.msg189529.html#msg189529
https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,428.msg189625.html#msg189625
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... Each Republican Senator & Congressman should be forced to drink a quart of this shit as a token of appreciation on behalf of a grateful nation.
https://phys.org/news/2019-12-congress-halt-military-toxic-foam.html
Congress has reached a deal on a spending bill that would require the military to stop using firefighting foam containing toxic chemicals linked to cancer, but would abandon efforts to place stronger regulations on the chemicals.
The bill, called the National Defense Authorization Act, has been the focus of intense negotiations for months. House Democrats saw it as their best chance to force President Trump's Environmental Protection Agency to increase its oversight of a class of chemicals, called perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances—commonly known as PFAS—that have contaminated drinking water sources across the country.
Senate Republicans resisted these measures, wary of forcing chemical companies and the Defense Department to undertake extensive cleanups.
But when hopes of a compromise faded last week, Democrats were left with little choice but to agree to significantly weaker provisions or kill the entire defense spending bill.
The bill that emerged out of a joint House-Senate committee this week had been stripped of measures that would require the EPA to designate the chemicals as "hazardous" and set a nationwide safety standard for PFAS in drinking water.
A proposal requiring contaminated sites across the country to be cleaned up under the Superfund program had also been removed, as had one that would limit how much PFAS chemical manufacturers could dump into water supplies.
... The military would also be barred by 2021 from giving service members ready-to-eat meals packaged in containers treated with PFAS.

------------------------------
Background:
https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,428.msg189529.html#msg189529
https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,428.msg189625.html#msg189625
-------------------------------
... Each Republican Senator & Congressman should be forced to drink a quart of this shit as a token of appreciation on behalf of a grateful nation.