EPA approved toxic chemicals for fracking, new report finds

The big picture: EPA regulators had previously expressed concerns about using these chemicals, saying that they can "degrade in the environment" into substances similar to PFOA, a kind of PFAS that has been largely discontinued in the U.S. and that the EPA has found to be "toxic to people, wild mammals, and birds.”

• PFAS has been linked to cancer, birth defects, pre-eclampsia and other health outcomes.
• The EPA's approval of these chemicals was not publicly known before the new report.

EPA spokesperson Nick Conger told the Times the chemicals were approved a decade ago and that the agency now has to affirm that new chemicals are safe before they're allowed in the marketplace

• He added that the documents were redacted because of a statute protecting proprietary business information.

What they're saying: "The E.P.A. identified serious health risks associated with chemicals proposed for use in oil and gas extraction, and yet allowed those chemicals to be used commercially with very lax regulation," Dusty Horwitt, a researcher at Physicians for Social Responsibility, said, per the New York Times.

• "Considering the terrible history of pollution associated with PFAS, EPA and state governments need to move quickly to ensure that the public knows where these chemicals have been used and is protected from their impacts," Horwitt said in a statement.