Mark Ruffalo urges Biden to accelerate action on ‘forever chemicals’

Actor and activist Mark Ruffalo urged President Biden to accelerate action on “forever chemicals” on Thursday, while calling out the administration’s failure to meet key regulatory deadlines.

“When candidate Joe Biden pledged to make PFAS a priority during his campaign, communities contaminated by PFAS polluters for decades rejoiced,” Ruffalo said, referring to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

Nine months after taking office, Biden launched the PFAS Strategic Roadmap — a plan that the actor described as “the most ambitious” of any administration and an indicator to communities “that help was finally on the way.”

“But since that announcement, the Biden administration has missed some important deadlines,” Ruffalo said.

The actor was speaking at a webinar organized by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), during which both he and pioneering environmental attorney Rob Bilott demanded that the government make good on its commitments to regulate these toxins.

Ruffalo commended the Biden administration for its August proposal to designate two types of PFAS — PFOA and PFOS — as hazardous substances under the Superfund Law.

But he slammed the administration for missing key deadlines to set drinking water standards for these two compounds and to address releases of PFAS into the water and air.

“None of us volunteered to have a toxic forever chemical in our blood in our bodies and in our food and in our environment,” Ruffalo said.

Notorious for their ability to persist in the human body and in the environment, PFAS are known for their presence in jet fuel firefighting foam and in industrial discharge.

Exposure to these synthetic substances is linked to a variety of illness, including thyroid disease, testicular cancer and kidney cancer.

The deadlines to which Ruffalo was referring were highlighted in a “Federal PFAS Report Card” assembled by EWG earlier this month.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had stated that it would issue a proposal for National Primary Drinking Water Regulations for PFOA and PFOS — the two most common types of PFAS — by fall 2022.

Nonetheless, the proposed rule has yet to be released.

As far as setting limits on industrial discharges of the substances is concerned, the EPA revealed in January that it “intends to publish a proposed rule in the spring of 2024” — postponing its initial timeline by about nine months.

The EWG Report Card likewise called out the EPA for missing a target date that involved PFAS air pollution.

The agency’s PFAS Strategic Roadmap had indicated that by fall 2022, it would evaluate a variety of mitigation options, including the possibility of listing certain types of PFAS as hazardous air pollutants. It has yet to provide updates.

“We’ve all been victims to the polluters who hid the risks of PFAS from their workers and neighbors, and the victims of the regulators looked the other way for decades,” Ruffalo said.

“President Biden, we need you to issue a proposed drinking water standard for PFOA and PFOS,” the actor continued.

Bilott, an environmental attorney known for his legal battles against PFAS producers, echoed Ruffalo’s sentiments, stressing that “people all over this planet are contaminated with these chemicals.”

“Here we are in the current administration, which has finally promised that it will set these drinking water standards, but we’re still waiting,” said Bilott, who was portrayed by Ruffalo in the true-to-life film Dark Waters.

“The American public demands that the action happen, and they deserve that that action happen now,” Bilott added.

Ruffalo described the situation as a “vicious cycle” in which the government is “turning the other way.”

“We’re asking you to finally do something on this issue and not twiddle your thumbs,” the actor said.

“Take action for the people who so desperately need it — who are sick or dying have already lost loved ones,” Ruffalo added.

The Hill has reached out to the EPA for comment.