Environmental organizations have filed a legal challenge against the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to approve two hazardous chemicals for use in semiconductor manufacturing and data-center facilities, arguing the agency violated federal law by greenlighting substances it acknowledged pose serious health risks.
The two compounds in question are photoacid generators that may also qualify as "forever chemicals"—persistent substances that do not break down naturally in the environment. According to the lawsuit filed by Earthjustice and other groups, exposure to these chemicals can cause sudden death, cancer, eye corrosion, neurological damage, and reproductive harm. The EPA's own consent orders, reviewed as part of the legal challenge, explicitly acknowledge these dangers while simultaneously approving the chemicals for immediate use across US facilities.
"This is turning the new chemical review process on its head," said Jonathan Kalmuss-Katz, an attorney with Earthjustice. "You have a situation where the EPA has failed at its most fundamental obligation when it comes to new chemicals, and that is to protect the public from unreasonable risk."
The EPA acknowledged in its approval documents that it does not know the threshold at which these chemicals become acutely lethal or cause other serious health damage, yet proceeded with authorization anyway. The agency also conceded that the substances present an "unreasonable risk" to both workers and the general public. Under the Toxic Substances Control Act, such a finding should trigger mandatory restrictions or prohibitions on manufacturing, processing, distribution, use, or disposal—not approval.
What does the lawsuit allege?
The legal challenge contends that the EPA's minimal restrictions fail to provide meaningful protection. Among the safeguards imposed are limits on container size for imports, but notably not on total volume, a distinction Kalmuss-Katz characterized as largely ineffective. The consent orders reveal that the EPA identified acute toxicity, genetic toxicity, and systemic, reproductive, and developmental effects as potential risks to the general population through drinking water, groundwater contamination, and air inhalation. For workers, the agency identified additional hazards including skin and respiratory irritation, eye corrosion, and skin photosensitization.
The EPA stated in one consent order:
"The risks for these endpoints were not quantified due to insufficient information on hazard."Similarly, regarding acute lethality, the agency wrote that it had
"insufficient data" to assess that risk as well.
Environmental groups argue this pattern—identifying severe risks while simultaneously admitting insufficient data to quantify them, then approving the chemicals anyway—represents a fundamental failure of regulatory responsibility.
How do these chemicals relate to semiconductor production?
Photoacid generators are essential in semiconductor manufacturing, where ultraviolet light is filtered through them to imprint circuit patterns onto silicon wafers during photolithography and plasma processing. The chemicals are used in as many as 1,000 steps during nanometric-level production. Most do not remain on the finished chip but are instead discharged in wastewater or otherwise disposed of, creating potential pathways for environmental and human exposure.
Industry representatives have argued that semiconductor production cannot proceed without these chemicals and that finding safer alternatives is
"impossible in some instances" and would require "stepping back decades in technological advancement."However, environmental advocates counter that this argument does not justify approval without adequate safety data.
Testing data from 2022 at one US semiconductor manufacturing facility showed concentrations as high as 78,000 parts per trillion of PFAS in wastewater samples—vastly exceeding the EPA's legal limit of 4 parts per trillion for several common PFAS compounds in drinking water.
What is the connection to Trump administration policy?
The approvals appear to have been expedited under a controversial late 2025 Trump executive order prioritizing review of chemicals intended for data-center projects. Much of the EPA's documentation regarding this connection remains redacted, making the full scope of the policy's influence unclear. Executive Order 14318, issued on July 23, 2025, directed the EPA to prioritize new chemical reviews for data-center and semiconductor applications. The EPA announced this prioritization framework on September 18, 2025, signaling that data-center chemicals would receive expedited treatment.
Public health advocates raised concerns at the time that the order appeared designed to circumvent standard chemical safety review procedures. The redaction of the producing company's name and key details about the approval process has further fueled criticism that transparency has been compromised in pursuit of rapid approval.
This approval follows a broader pattern of environmental opposition to data-center chemicals. In July 2026, a coalition of 17 environmental organizations was already pressing the EPA to reject another new substance designed for data-center cooling, demonstrating sustained concern about the agency's approach to these approvals.
What are the disposal and environmental concerns?
The EPA states that these chemicals should be incinerated for disposal, but that process itself creates unknown health risks for communities surrounding incinerators—often low-income neighborhoods with limited political influence. Despite the photoacid generators' documented toxicity and persistence, there are likely no enforceable requirements for US semiconductor plants to limit discharges of these substances into the environment.
Lenny Siegel, executive director of the Center of Public Environmental Oversight, which advocates for stronger chemical regulations in the semiconductor industry, stated:
"The EPA should not approve any new photoacid generators, even on a temporary basis, until there is enforceable assurance that there will be zero discharge of such chemicals."
The broader context of PFAS contamination in the United States underscores the stakes of this decision. PFAS are a class of at least 16,000 compounds that do not naturally degrade and accumulate in human bodies and ecosystems over time. Recent data has shown widespread contamination across water systems, with environmental testing revealing that chemical safety failures at industrial facilities have far-reaching consequences.
What is the legal challenge and what happens next?
CHIPS Communities United and Sierra Club filed petitions for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on August 14, 2026, challenging the EPA's approvals. The case is being heard in San Francisco, and as of the reporting date, neither the EPA nor the companies that submitted the chemical notices had publicly responded to the legal challenge.
Kalmuss-Katz framed the lawsuit as part of a larger pattern:
"Unfortunately what we've seen time and time again in this administration especially is the EPA putting the pursuit of AI and increased computing capacity over its obligation to protect public health and the environment."He emphasized that environmental groups are not calling for the elimination of domestic chip production but rather for manufacturing processes that do not expose workers and communities to unstudied chemical risks.
The outcome of the Ninth Circuit case will determine whether the EPA's approvals can withstand legal scrutiny or whether the agency will be required to reconsider its decision based on the Toxic Substances Control Act's protective mandate.
Key Facts:
- Two photoacid generator chemicals approved by the EPA for semiconductor and data-center use can cause sudden death, cancer, neurological damage, and reproductive harm according to the agency's own risk assessments.
- The EPA acknowledged it lacks sufficient data to quantify the lethal threshold or other serious health risks, yet approved the chemicals anyway, violating the Toxic Substances Control Act's requirement to restrict substances posing unreasonable risk.
- The approvals were expedited under a Trump administration executive order prioritizing data-center chemical reviews, raising concerns about whether standard safety procedures were bypassed.
- Environmental groups filed a legal challenge in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on August 14, 2026, with no hearing or ruling date yet publicly identified.
- PFAS contamination from semiconductor manufacturing has been documented at concentrations 19,500 times higher than EPA drinking water limits, with disposal and environmental pathways remaining largely unregulated.
