EPA stalls nitrate cancer risk review amid drinking water crisis

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has halted a long‑planned reassessment of the health risks posed by nitrates and nitrites in drinking water, including potential cancer links. The original nitrate threshold was set over three decades ago to protect infants from “blue‑baby syndrome.” The review, announced in 2017, was suspended in 2019 under the Trump administration, briefly restarted by the Biden administration, and received public comment in 2023, but the agency has provided no further update.

The EPA’s Office of Research and Development, which housed the Integrated Risk Information System responsible for such assessments, was eliminated earlier this year. Health advocates and scientists warn that nitrate contamination—driven by fertilizer and livestock manure runoff, especially in agricultural states like Iowa—remains at crisis levels, posing cancer and other health risks. “The assessment was intended to do the hard science to support appropriate human health protections,” said Tyler Lobdell, senior staff attorney at Food & Water Watch.