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She Left the Medical Mainstream and Rose to Be RFK Jr.’s Surgeon General Pick
Casey Means, the surgeon general nominee, has criticized the medical establishment. She could be put in position to change it.
Seven years ago, Casey Means was on a path to finishing up a highly competitive residency and becoming a well-paid surgeon. But she resigned, becoming a health products entrepreneur and popular online personality who has frequently suggested that Americans should question the advice they get from medical authorities.
“We are told to ‘trust the science,’” she wrote in her 2024 book, “Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health.” “This obviously doesn’t make sense. We have been gaslighted to not ask questions over the past fifty years at the exact time chronic disease rates have exploded.”
EPA Adds ‘Forever Chemical’ to Toxics Reporting Database
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) list of “forever chemicals” subject to mandatory release reporting requirements will grow by one, a decision that follows precedent from previous years to continue expanding the reporting list. The agency announced Tuesday it would add sodium perfluorohexanesulfonate (PFHxS-Na) to the Toxics Release Inventory, bringing the number of PFAS subject to TRI up to 206.
EPA in a news release said the addition of PFHxS-Na to the inventory supports the Trump administration’s agenda “by informing decision-making about chemical management by companies and government agencies.”
PFHxS-Na is one of the related salts of PFHxS, one of the six PFAS subject to the Biden administration’s first-ever drinking water standards for the chemical family.
50 Years, $229 Million, and Army Still Hasn’t Removed Toxic Waste From Ammunition Plant
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported:
The sprawling grounds of the former Badger Army Ammunition Plant in Sauk County are largely peaceful, long transformed from what was once the world’s largest manufacturer of smokeless gunpowder and rocket propellant for wartime. Many area residents still have ties to the plant, including Charles Wilhelm, who worked there after a stint in the Navy in the mid-20th century.
Today, the plant’s legacy is why he won’t drink his tap water. Toxic chemicals produced at the plant leached into the soil and then the groundwater. The problem was first noted as far back as the late 1970s. Wilhelm and his neighbors have lived through a decades-long effort by the Army to clean the mess up.
Dangerous chemical compounds like dinitrotoluene, an explosive used in ammunition production that can cause cancer, continue to be found in elevated levels in groundwater within the former plant’s boundaries. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, better known as PFAS, also have been found on-site. The Army said that is being addressed in a separate investigation.
EPA Moves to Roll Back Drinking Water Standards
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is looking to roll back regulatory standards for three types of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS chemicals, in drinking water systems. This comes despite a series of releases of EPA data revealing that millions of Americans are currently drinking water contaminated with the chemicals.
“I am very concerned, as are all the scientists and affected residents whom my colleagues and I speak with all the time,” Phil Brown, the director of the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute at Northeastern University, told Newsweek.
He added that the regulations for these PFAS chemicals were “years in the making, and took much effort from people across the many involved communities.”
An EPA spokesperson told Newsweek that the agency was “committed to addressing PFAS to ensure that Americans have the cleanest air, land, and water. The EPA’s progress on PFAS started under the first Trump Administration, and that historic work is continuing today.”
EPA Toxics Nominee Pledges to Speed Chemical, Pesticide Reviews
President Donald Trump’s nominee to oversee the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) chemicals and pesticides office pledged to make sure new substances are reviewed quickly with workable safety restrictions.
Douglas Troutman wouldn’t commit at a Senate nomination hearing Wednesday to changing assumptions the Environmental Protection Agency uses to evaluate pesticides to include what Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) said would be more realistic.
Nor did Troutman answer questions from other senators about whether the agency would examine risks faced by communities living near factories and other facilities that release chemicals.
