WASHINGTON—A key Senate Democrat on plastics issues pressed President Donald Trump's choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency to focus on the health impacts of microplastics and to be skeptical of industry claims around chemical recycling.
At a Jan. 16 confirmation hearing, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., urged Lee Zeldin, Trump's nominee to head the EPA, to put microplastics and chemical recycling high on his agenda.
"We're learning more and more. We now have plastics in breast milk, plastics in every organ of the body and plastics in the brain," Merkley said. "We also have a record of microplastics and nanoplastics affecting human fertility. Plastic is by its chemical structure an endocrine disruptor.
"Are you familiar, have you steeped yourself in the science and problems associated with plastics in the human body?" asked Merkley, who was the lone U.S. senator to travel to the last round of the plastics treaty talks in November 2024 in South Korea.
Zeldin said he would study the issue to become "intimately familiar" with the topic.
"Clearly, this is an issue of great interest and passion of yours," Zeldin said. "I would look forward to an opportunity to be able to read what you're specifically referencing."
The three-minute exchange between Zeldin and Merkley, who led a series of Senate hearings on plastics from 2022 to 2024, was the longest discussion on plastics at the confirmation hearing.
The three-hour hearing covered a wide range of topics, from Zeldin's views on the role of fossil fuels in causing climate change to the federal government's response to California wildfires to whether Zeldin would resist calls in the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 for steep cuts in EPA's budget and staff.