The Trump administration is going after microplastics in drinking water. A new plan to study and regulate plastic pollution was announced on [April 2, 2026] by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Environmental Protection Agency head Lee Zeldin.
The EPA and HHS will also launch a $144-million national initiative called the Systematic Targeting of Microplastics (STOMP), Kennedy said. The health secretary laid out that the program will build and standardize detection and measuring tools, “map” microplastics in the body and develop strategies to reduce and remove them.
Ideally, the EPA “would articulate standard methodologies for conducting the monitoring. I just don’t know whether that’s possible right now,” says Michelle Nowlin, co-director of the Environmental Law and Policy Clinic at Duke University ….
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[Martin Wagner, an ecotoxicologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology] is also doubtful of the new plans to establish ways to remove microplastics from the body—and, even if achievable through new techniques, whether that will ultimately lead to health benefits. “Humans are constantly exposed to these chemicals and particles, so removing them from the body will not deliver a long-term solution that protects human health.”
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