Washington DC - The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is reported to be canceling grants aimed at protecting children from toxic "forever chemicals" in the food supply chain.

Millions of dollars in EPA grants are set to be cut by the Trump administration, mostly for scientists studying environmental hazards faced by children across the US, especially in regard to "forever chemicals."

The New York Times (NYT) acquired internal emails written by officials in the EPA looking to dismantle some of the agency's core functions and continue a cost-cutting campaign across the civil service.

Deputy Assistant EPA Administrator Dan Coogan reportedly emailed the agency's leadership on April 15 directing them to cancel all active and pending grants across a selection of programs.

These programs include research into how pesticides and pollution impact children's health in rural America, the effects of wildfire smoke, and how to prevent "forever chemicals" from entering the food supply.

"We have received direction from Leadership to cancel all pending awards and terminate grants for the following programs," Coogan's email reportedly read.

The EPA denied that grants had been cancelled in a statement to the NYT, but said that a review was ongoing as to whether the projects were an "appropriate use of taxpayer dollars."

If the EPA goes ahead with the cuts, it will gut about $40 million a year from research into some of the most crucial health threats of our time.

"This is just terrible," Tracey Woodruff, who used to work at the EPA as a senior scientist and policy advisor, told the NYT.

"EPA's research program is already woefully underfunded, particularly when considering the enormity of the health problems faced by environmental exposure to the American public."