Washington DC - The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under Donald Trump nominee Lee Zeldin is systematically dismantling protections and bans against forever chemicals and other dangerous substances.

A variety of bans are reportedly being revoked by Trump's EPA, including mercury in personal care products, perfluoroalkoxys (PFAS) in cooking equipment, and a variety of other forever chemicals.

Forever chemicals are synthetic chemicals used in various manufactured products that stay in both the environment and the body for an extremely long time. They are known to cause serious health issues such as cancer, birth defects, hormonal disruption, and more.

According to The Guardian, the EPA's plan is to change how chemical risk evaluations take place and potentially intervene in state laws on forever chemicals, including California's Proposition 65.

"This will increase health risks to consumers by exposing them to toxic chemicals," an EPA employee told The Guardian on the condition of anonymity.

"It also allows the market for toxic chemicals to continue, because it maintains the financial incentive for them to be made for all these consumer products."

Many of the chemicals which have been banned across certain states serve a practical role in how they have been used, such as PFAS in nonstick cookware.

The problem is that these chemicals then leech into our bodies in small quantities, which then accumulate over time.

Trump's plan is to set a limit on the amount of certain chemicals that can be present in a product as a percentage of its total makeup.

If this happens, states like Nevada – which banned flame retardants in toys – would be left unable to legally justify such bans because the percentage of forever chemicals in such products is at too low a concentration.

"They are going to exclude a huge number of consumer products from being considered for risk management," the EPA employee said.