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US Food and Drug Administration rejects petition to set PFAS limits in food

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/08/us-food-and-drug-administration-rejects-petition-to-set-pfas-limits-in-food
66•randycupertino•54m ago

Comments

BLKNSLVR•38m ago
No Tylenol for y'all, but I'll shout the whole bar another round of PFAS!

> They have been linked to cancer, birth defects, decreased immunity, high cholesterol, kidney disease and a range of other serious health problems. They are dubbed “forever chemicals” because they can persist for thousands of years in the environment, and are designed to be indestructible.

But _not_ autism! Autism is the great evil we have chosen as our individual health enemy. I don't see autism listed, you may pass.

cmdrmac•37m ago
Not surprising at all. What are "action levels" supposed to do? It's basically a helpful suggestion to take action, but you don't have to. FDA obviously doesn't care about the well-being of anyone.
seethishat•37m ago
Doing whole blood donations seems to significantly reduce PFAS in the blood. Here's one paper:

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle...

Edit: This also helps others who are in accidents, car wrecks, have Cancer, etc. Yes, we pass on the PFAS to others, but the immediate need for blood is more urgent than the potential long term impacts of PFAS.

hombre_fatal•35m ago
My girlfriend accidentally told the donation center she went to Mexico, and they banned her from donating for four years.

Apparently you'd only go to Mexico to eat brain tacos and share needles with cows. Surely there's a better way to filter out risky blood.

notrealyme123•26m ago
I was banned roughly the same time for being in the US. I guess its mostly so they don't need to check for unexpected things.
hombre_fatal•24m ago
I get it, just seems like it could be more granular, especially since she could have just said no.
seethishat•22m ago
Yes... travel, tattoos, drug use and sexual behavior can and should disqualify a person from donating blood.
hombre_fatal•14m ago
Well, it's the having of an infectious blood borne thing that disqualifies you.
maxweylandt•33m ago
Do blook banks have a way of filtering out PFAS? Or are we giving each other forever chemicals through blood donations?
HumblyTossed•35m ago
What happened to MAHA?
jihadjihad•31m ago
Must be rendered immobile by all that beef tallow.
llm_nerd•27m ago
It was always a farce that only incredibly stupid people fell for. I mean, even their most "well meaning" gestures were promoting saturated fat, unpasteurized milk and tallow. Those already are just spectacularly ignorant, destructive recommendations going against every bit of science.

Now add that they've basically abolished the EPA (want to power your new data center with a phalanx of smog spewing generators running on bunker oil? Eh, go nuts!) and legalized some highly cancerous pesticides to be used on food crops.

Trump a few days ago pardoned some people who he claims were "fixing their cars": They were actually running a commercial operation removing emissions systems on diesel heavy equipment (a so-called "delete"), and the impact of "rolling coal" is overwhelming and hugely negative, making a single vehicle pollute more than hundreds. But hey, what's the harm in particulate and NOx, besides lung damage, worker health and reduced lifespans?

This vile, corrupt administration hates Americans and wants to see you all die. There is no other possible interpretation. It is simply astonishing that there is some subset of profoundly gullible and/or unintelligent clowns who still support this busted kleptocracy. What a disgrace.

haussman•24m ago
You got tricked by a Guardian article. You need to do deeper research and not get manipulated by the first article you read.
llm_nerd•
Forgeties79•33m ago
I mean what did we expect? This admin’s entire MO has been dismantle or de-fang what little regulatory framework we have left.

Did they really think RFK Jr. was ushering in a healthier, “more natural” America?

deepsquirrelnet•22m ago
Turns out it's easier to make conspiracies than effective policy. Who knew?
mindslight•21m ago
Yes. But of course "healthier" is describing the health of brain worms. On the bright side, this probably indicates that the reactionaries' pushes to deeducate the population are reaching a point of diminishing returns, now that they have to turn to parasites to further lower intelligence.
WarmWash•31m ago
From the article:

>The agency said it plans to set less non-binding “action levels” that do not require contaminated food to be removed from shelves. “Tolerance levels”, or limits, make it illegal to sell food contaminated beyond a set threshold.

From the FDA

>Action levels and tolerances represent limits at or above which FDA will take legal action to remove products from the market.

Typical junk tier rage bait journalism you can expect from the guardian.

estearum•22m ago
You can read the FDA letter itself: https://www.regulations.gov/document/FDA-2023-P-4826-0015

Your comment does not give a correct impression of FDA's position here.

Action levels are correctly described by the article and not by whatever FDA quote you provided, which seems to imply the FDA is required to take action to remove products. Surpassing action levels do not require FDA to remove products from the market.

fcarraldo•9m ago
This is correct. So much misinformation being spouted here on the spurious grounds that The Guardian is an inaccurate news source.
WarmWash•7m ago
Here is the FDA document I got the quote from

https://www.regulations.gov/document/FDA-2020-D-1956-0001

notrealyme123•
groundzeros2015•30m ago
The article fails to mention risk and the amounts that create those. In typical journalist fashion it just emphasizes the word “chemical” and other scary framings.
cluckindan•24m ago
True. The risk is heavily downplayed, since the health effects manifest in decades and can be blamed on lifestyle factors, while the amounts causing health issues are in the order of parts per trillion.
haussman•25m ago
This is a stupid, manipulated article. The Guardian, which is already at the limits of reliability, is manipulating the situation and framing it as if the FDA is rejecting the idea of limiting PFAS when that is not the case at all.

A private entity filed a petition to try to force the FDA to set limits and the FDA has said they are studying it themselves, but there is no reason why they should follow this petition's timelines when it already has its own timelines.

Here is their direct response to the petition.

https://www.fda.gov/food/process-contaminants-food/questions...

They are definitely studying this and have narrowed down on areas where they think it's most at risk, ie. water and seafood. But they still have to do more research to figure out exactly how to quantify this. The idea that the FDA needs to follow the deadlines set by some random entity is nonsense. This is a complicated issue and needs deeper research to figure out if there is an issue with the food supply. They said they did tests on a variety of foods and they didn't find anything in many food types, so it's all a process of doing the science

fcarraldo•14m ago
> The Guardian, which is already at the limits of reliability

Based on what, exactly? Disagreeing with a publication does not make them unreliable. The Guardian's journalism is consistently award-winning and rates highly on credibility. The Guardian's opinion section is openly centre-left, though I suppose Americans would consider this to be some sort of comically ultra-left-wing communist point-of-view given the state of politics in the country.

Simple PFAS regulations have been put in place in Europe[0] and the FDA has access to the same studies and information as the EU bodies. The science has been performed. The lawsuit was to push for regulation because the FDA has been dragging their feet for years[1] and refusing to act.

[0] https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/chemicals/pfas-pollu...

[1] https://www.eenews.net/articles/inside-fdas-forever-chemical...

Edit: Also, note that this account was created today and has made 3 comments, 2 of which are taking potshots at The Guardian. This sort of astroturfing has no place on HN.

ck2•18m ago
if a request doesn't come with a minimum $2 Million check attached or crypto transfer, nothing will get done this decade

it's going to be a health and science dark ages for US

feverzsj•15m ago
EPA already set a Maximum Contaminant Level of 4.0 ppt. That's why they moved most PFAS production to China.
fcarraldo•11m ago
In drinking water, yes. And the EPA coordinated a "voluntary" phase-out of PFAS in packaging, but it is not enforced.

Is there a limit in food, which is what this petition was about?

toomuchtodo•10m ago
Another issue is that sewage sludge, unknowingly containing PFAS, is/was being used as farm fertilizer, causing some farms to have to be written off for food production. I would expect many more farms in the future to be found with PFAS soil levels exceeding what is safe to produce food with.

The only way to find out is to test.

Maine listened to farmers and confronted the PFAS crisis - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47509448 - February 2026 (0 comments)

Maine Is a Warning for America's PFAS Future - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40007582 - April 2024 (0 comments)

Toxic Chemical Contaminant PFAS Found on Maine Farms - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20142212 - June 2019 (1 comment)

> The practice of spreading sludge as a soil amendment has been a common practice in Maine and across the nation for decades. Land application of sludge material occurred long before there was knowledge that it may contain PFAS or the health implications of PFAS.

EPA Fact Sheet: Draft Sewage Sludge Risk Assessment for PFOA and PFOS: Information for Farmers - https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2025-01/fact-shee... - January 2025

rayiner•11m ago
The EPA first issued health advisories around PFASs in 2009. Why didn’t these folks file this petition sometime during the 12 years since then where it likely would’ve gotten a more favorable reception?
13m ago
Fresh new account demanding that people do "deeper research".

The EPA is slow-walking this to avoid taking any action, and the article is completely accurate. It sounds like you got "tricked" by some grifters and imbeciles who are enriching themselves and making everything much stupider and more dangerous.

This is not isolated. Just a few months ago this admin cancelled Biden restrictions on PFAS in drinking water, fully removing four contaminants from having any limits at all, and giving another two years for drinking water to hit massively relaxed rules for two more.

Trying to find ways to apologize for this kind of hits a point of comedy at some point.

fcarraldo•6m ago
I genuinely do not understand what this person believes is happening here. The Guardian is part of some mass-conspiracy to attack the FDA in order to...achieve what? Prevent unnecessary and potentially harmful chemicals from being introduced into the food supply? What sort of mindset must you have to believe this is a bad thing?

No one benefits from PFAS being unregulated in food, other than stockholders, C-suites and the politicians who accept money from lobbyists that represent them.

22m ago
I can not find it in the FDA list. Is there a newer source?
DarkNova6•10m ago
+1 couldn't agree more. It's concerning this account is on the top.
striking•12m ago
I don't see any forward looking timelines on the page, is this the right link?
Hikikomori•10m ago
>The Guardian, which is already at the limits of reliability

Not enough right wing denial of reality for your tastes?

blitzar•5m ago
You sound bought. I hope they paid you well.

The FDA were of course were well paid.

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