Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) filed a complaint accusing EPA of falsely claiming that per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) were not found in pesticide samples.
In May 2023, EPA released a memo stating that it “did not find any PFAS in the tested pesticide products.” This was prompted by a study published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials that found PFOS in 6 out of 10 pesticides used on a USDA research field. When the EPA requested samples of the pesticides, one of the researchers sent samples that had been spiked with PFOS, a common means of confirming testing accuracy. The EPA claimed that it found no PFAS in the samples after using a new extraction method that the agency deemed more appropriate for testing such materials.
The EPA has denied any misconduct.