Data centers, forever chemicals, and a poisoned future: The toxic alliance fueling a public health crisis

Deep in the pine forests of Wayne County, Mississippi, a Sipcam Agro plant quietly releases the herbicide paraquat into the air — a chemical so lethal that one sip can kill. Paraquat is banned in over 70 countries including China, Brazil, and across the European Union because it causes neurological dysfunction and cancer, yet the United States still allows its manufacture, while Parkinson’s disease deaths in Wayne County now rank in the top 7% of all U.S. counties.

Across the country, from Virginia’s Data Center Alley to Montana’s freshwater streams, a new wave of environmental contamination is unfolding, driven by the explosive growth of data centers and the forever chemicals known as PFAS.

Key points:

• The herbicide paraquat, linked to Parkinson’s disease, is banned in over 70 countries but still manufactured in Mississippi, where Parkinson’s death rates are among the highest nationally.
• Data centers in Virginia and Texas require massive amounts of electricity and water, ramping up PFAS pollution and straining local infrastructure.
• PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” are found in fish across Montana, prompting updated consumption advisories after state testing revealed contamination.
• Air pollution affects 44% of the U.S. population, with 46% of children under 18 living in counties that fail at least one air quality standard.
• Vaping, e-cigarettes, and their aerosols contain heavy metals, diacetyl, and benzene — known carcinogens — while youth usage remains high.
• Texas ranchers face shortened review times and compensation disputes over a $33 billion transmission build-out driven by oil and gas and data center demand.

The paraquat paradox: A banned poison thrives in the American South

Paraquat is not a hypothetical danger. The Environmental Protection Agency warns that “one sip can kill.” The chemical has been used in suicides worldwide. For decades, 70% of suicides in Samoa were committed using paraquat. Even wearing personal protective equipment does not fully protect applicators from exposure, according to the EPA. Yet the Sipcam Agro plant in Wayne County, Mississippi, remains the largest single emitter of paraquat in the United States.

The county also sees high rates of Parkinson’s disease deaths, ranking in the top 7% of all U.S. counties that reported Parkinson’s deaths between 2018 and 2024. Troves of evidence have long linked paraquat to Parkinson’s, the world’s fastest-growing and incurable neurodegenerative disease. The disconnect between regulatory warnings and industrial reality raises uncomfortable questions about whose health is being protected and whose profits are being prioritized.

Data center boom fuels PFAS disaster

In suburban Virginia, a cluster of monumental gray buildings rises around Ashburn in Loudoun County. This place is known as Data Center Alley, the biggest data center hub in the world. Popular large language models like ChatGPT and Gemini need data centers to function. Companies building these compounds have brought billions of dollars in investments to Virginia, along with promises of jobs and economic growth. But for Virginians living nearby, those promises have largely failed to deliver. Data centers take over the landscape, bring air and noise pollution, and guzzle as much as 2 million gallons of water a day. Energy prices in states like Virginia have skyrocketed by up to 267 percent in the last five years as utilities scramble to build out infrastructure needed to accommodate the boom.

PFAS are used in data centers primarily as coolant gases and in immersion cooling fluids. The most common cooling method involves using PFAS gases in a compressor system, similar to a refrigerator, to cool air or water for the computers. Alternatively, computers can be submerged in PFAS chemical fluids to transfer heat. These PFAS chemicals can escape into the air, accelerating climate change, or leak into water sources, contaminating drinking water and agriculture.

The primary risk is that PFAS are “forever chemicals” that never break down in the environment. The EPA has determined there is no safe level of exposure, as they are toxic to humans and linked to cancer. Furthermore, PFAS gases used in cooling have a global warming potential thousands of times higher than CO2. Alternatives exist, such as propane or ammonia, but companies often resist investing in them due to cost. The AI boom also drives semiconductor manufacturing, which uses over a thousand PFAS applications in its supply chain, and PFAS leakage from these processes is poorly monitored.

Julie Bolthouse, director of land use at the Piedmont Environmental Council, a nonprofit dedicated to land and water conservation in Virginia, said the changes deeply impact quality of life. “Data centers are located in close proximity to houses and schools,” she said. “You’re really changing those communities. These are huge boxes surrounded by fencing. They are not conducive to a walkable, livable environment.”

The Environmental Protection Agency finally set limits for PFAS last year at four parts per trillion, but enforcement will not begin until 2029. Meanwhile, hot-spots like New York’s Nassau County and California’s Orange County report cancer spikes linked to PFAS-tainted water. In Montana, state agencies updated fish consumption guidance after a study found PFAS in fish populations for the first time. FWP Pollution Biologist Trevor Selch said the state had never looked at PFAS in fish before. “DEQ had done monitoring across the state in the water,” Selch said. “And so we used the results they had from that water sampling to kind of follow up with fish testing to see if the fish were safe to eat.”

Sources include:

ChildrensHealthDefense.org

TheLensNola.org

SierraClub.org