Early this year, Steven Cook was a lawyer representing chemical companies suing to block a new rule that would force them to clean up pollution from “forever chemicals,” which are linked to low birthrates and cancer. Now Mr. Cook is in a senior role at the Environmental Protection Agency, where he has proposed scrapping the same rule his former clients were challenging in court. His effort could shift cleanup costs away from polluters and onto taxpayers, according to internal E.P.A. documents reviewed by The New York Times.

Other PFAS news:

• The Guardian (U.K.): The unlikely alliance pressing Trump to regulate PFAS on US farms: ‘This is a basic human right’
• The New Lede: “How can this happen?” Fight over sewage sludge on farms intensifies
• The National Law Review: Latest updates on Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances (PFAS)