MINNESOTA — Public health advocates and independent experts are challenging a Minnesota Resources Recovery Association (MRRA) report that claims the state’s incinerators reduce PFAS emissions by 99.6%, citing flawed methodology and incomplete data. The MRRA report, developed in response to a request from state regulators, concluded that “little or no inhalation health risks are associated with the emitted six PFAS compounds” regulated in Minnesota.

The Zero Burn Coalition and incineration specialists criticized the report as relying on bad assumptions, misleading language, and insufficient testing. The MRRA only analyzed about 50 of more than 16,000 known PFAS compounds, despite hundreds being used commercially. Zero Burn noted a “large hole” in the toxicity assessment due to missing health data for 16 of the 22 PFAS compounds detected in incinerator emissions.

Denise Trabbic-Pointer, a former DuPont PFAS scientist and incineration consultant, called the MRRA report a “pretty poor study.” She said there is scientific consensus that PFAS require temperatures far higher than those used in municipal incinerators to be fully destroyed. “I don’t know how they can say ‘99% reduction’, because there is too much missing data to make that claim,” Trabbic-Pointer said. She added, “You can’t just ‘promote degradation’ of PFAS, you have to totally mineralize it and prove that you’ve done it.”

Doug Gurian-Sherman, lead author of the Zero Burn analysis and a former EPA official, called the situation “a clear example of environmental injustice.” He added, “This is part of a broader history of deception and attempts to mislead public and elected officials.” Nazir Khan, executive director of the Minnesota Environmental Justice Table, said, “This trash becomes the problem of the poor and marginalized to deal with in their bodies.”

The MRRA responded that Zero Burn’s analysis, which extrapolated risks from proposed drinking water standards, “is also not a risk assessment.” In a statement, the association acknowledged some valid points but maintained that the data “does not support the conclusion that PFAS emissions from [Minnesota incinerators] are likely to be unsafe.” The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wrote in 2024 that “because there are insufficient data available, there is low confidence in the reliability of this technology to control PFAS releases.”