EPA's Trump-Era Chemical Reviews Face Lawsuits Alleging Manipulated Cancer Risk Data

The Environmental Protection Agency is fighting on two fronts over how it assesses cancer risk from chemicals already in wide use across the U.S. economy, according to reporting from The Guardian and legal action from the nonprofit Earthjustice. At the same time, the agency is promoting a separate deregulatory push it says is cutting energy costs for American consumers, according to Breitbart's review of EPA actions.

The flame retardant fight

TBBPA is a brominated flame retardant applied to circuit boards in computers, phones, microwaves and televisions, and it also turns up in toothbrushes, children's clothing, carpeting, car interiors and furniture, according to The Guardian. Global production topped 552 million pounds in 2016, and the chemical is used in an estimated 70% of electronics worldwide.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies TBBPA as a probable carcinogen, and European regulators have reached similar conclusions, The Guardian reported. The EPA's draft U.S. risk assessment, by contrast, concludes the chemical is not carcinogenic at the levels Americans and children are exposed to, and finds no "unreasonable risk" that would justify new restrictions.

Maria Doa, a former EPA scientist now at the Environmental Defense Fund, told The Guardian the agency's political appointees "changed the science to get the outcome they want." The EPA's own assessment is built on its own methodology and reliance on industry-funded research, which the agency has not publicly defended in detail in the available reporting. No formal investigation into the EPA's assessment process has been announced.

The datacenter chemicals

Separately, Earthjustice has sued the EPA over its fast-track approval of two new chemicals for use in facilities across the country, according to Search Engine Journal's summary of Guardian reporting by Tom Perkins published August 26, 2026. The compounds are photoacid generators used in chip manufacturing and may also be PFAS "forever chemicals," though redactions in EPA documents make that unclear, the lawsuit states.

Earthjustice attorney Jonathan Kalmuss-Katz said the EPA approved the chemicals for import and immediate use despite acknowledging it doesn't know the exposure level at which they become "acutely lethal." The consent orders reviewed by The Guardian show the EPA itself conceded the chemicals "may present an unreasonable risk" to workers and the public, and approved them anyway. The approvals allow production essential to the ongoing U.S. semiconductor and datacenter buildout, a sector the administration has treated as a national economic priority.

A different EPA priority: cutting fuel costs

While those fights play out, the EPA has been touting a separate deregulatory agenda aimed at lowering energy prices, according to Breitbart. The agency finalized revisions in April to methane rules for oil and gas producers, known as OOOOb/c, which it estimates will save Americans $2.5 billion over 15 years. It has also proposed changes to Clean Water Act Section 401 rules to stop states from blocking pipeline projects, and it repealed 2024 mercury and air toxics standards for coal and oil-fired power plants, a move it estimates saves $670 million.

The EPA also determined no new pollution-control technology is needed under its Oil and Gas NESHAP review, concluding upgrades would raise fuel costs without a meaningful benefit, per the Federal Register notice cited by Breitbart. A temporary emergency fuel waiver is set to begin Monday, September 1, 2026, which the agency says will expand the gasoline supply and ease prices. These moves reflect the same broader philosophy running through the TBBPA and datacenter decisions: weighing the economic cost of restriction heavily against health and environmental claims that the agency says are often overstated.

A California community with its own cancer questions

Far from Washington, residents of Ladera Ranch, an unincorporated master-planned community of about 25,000 in Orange County, California, have spent years pressing state officials over a suspected pesticide-cancer link, according to The Epoch Times. Resident Kara Bell began raising alarms in 2019 after learning the HOA's landscaping contractor was applying herbicides near schools without required notifications, a violation state pesticide regulators later confirmed.

Residents describe elevated rates of breast, stomach, colon, thyroid and brain cancer, along with childhood non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, in a community they say prizes flawless, weed-free landscaping. National attention grew this year after the death of 17-year-old Brody Matteson from secondary cancers linked to treatment for Ewing sarcoma. A government probe into a potential cancer cluster is underway, but no cause has been established, and the case involves state pesticide law and a private HOA contractor, not the federal chemical reviews at the EPA.

Three separate disputes share one common question: whether the government agencies and contractors responsible for judging chemical safety are getting the math right before people are exposed. The EPA's TBBPA risk assessment has not been finalized, Earthjustice's lawsuit over the datacenter chemicals is pending in court, and California's investigation into the Ladera Ranch cancer cluster has not produced public findings.