“President Trump made a fantastic choice in selecting Dr. Beck, who has never been a lobbyist in her life, by the way—no lamestream media outlet has reported that correctly,” EPA press secretary Bridget Hirsch told WIRED in a statement. Beck and her colleagues, Hirsch said, “remain committed to being led by the science, unlike Biden EPA appointees with major ethical issues that were beholden to radical groups.”
Zeldin’s public calendar shows that he has met at least six times over the past seven months with chemical and plastics companies and lobbying groups—including a meeting in June with Bayer AG, which bought Monsanto in 2018.
“It’s a disservice to your readers to cherry-pick six of Administrator Zeldin’s many meetings over the last nine months from his very full calendar to paint an inaccurate picture and bolster your false narrative,” Hirsch said. “Administrator Zeldin is committed to protecting human health and the environment 100 percent—any implication otherwise is your opinion and nothing more.”
Brian Leake, the director of external communications for Bayer, said in an email that the company was “pleased to see feedback provided by the agriculture industry—in particular, farmers—was solicited and received by the commission, helping inform the report.
“Bayer stands behind the safety of our glyphosate-based products, which have been tested extensively, approved by regulators, and used around the globe for 50 years,” Leake said. “The EPA has an extremely rigorous review process which spans multiple years, considers thousands of studies, and involves many independent risk assessment experts at the EPA.”
As of May, 3,000 employees had already left the agency. That month, EPA leadership announced its intent to dissolve the Office of Research and Development, its independent scientific arm that employed more than 1,000 scientists at the start of the year, redistributing some to other areas of the agency while laying others off. That reorganization began in July. (Hirsch said that the reorganization will “improve the effectiveness and efficiency of EPA operations and align core statutory requirements with its organizational structure.”)
These crises, employees say, may be affecting the agency’s work with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), colloquially called forever chemicals, which are another area of concern for the MAHA movement. A growing body of research has linked these chemicals, which don’t degrade in the environment, to a variety of health concerns. The strategy document released this week says that the EPA and National Institutes of Health will help the CDC “update recommendations” regarding the health risks of PFAS in water.
It’s unclear how robust such a review will be. In 2024, the Biden administration put limits on six PFAS chemicals in drinking water. In May, the EPA announced that it would be reconsidering limits on four of those.
Two EPA employees working on PFAS issues told WIRED that thanks to shake-ups at the agency, they are struggling to procure supplies, hire lab techs, and do their work. These employees spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to speak to the press. (“We are confident EPA has the resources needed to accomplish the agency’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment, fulfill all statutory obligations, and make the best-informed decisions based on the gold standard of science,” Hirsch, the EPA press secretary, told WIRED.)
“I’ve been here for several years,” one employee told WIRED. “It is the least productive period for me, including Covid, and it seems like everyone else is in the same boat.”
