White House blocks chemical pollution Study. The White House and Environmental Protection Agency squelched a federal water pollution study after a Trump aide warned that its publication would be a “public relations nightmare,” Politico.com reported this week. The department of Health and Human Services report found that industrial chemicals called PFOA and PFOS have contaminated water supplies near manufacturing plants, military bases, and other sites and are dangerous at far lower levels than the EPA previously called safe. The chemicals have been linked to thyroid defects, pregnancy problems, and some cancers. In January, a White House aide wrote that the reaction to the study was “going to be extremely painful” for the administration. The report remains unpublished.
