Tom Perkins

Tom Perkins is a freelance reporter whose work for the Guardian and other outlets centers on environmental health, water quality and the way pollution and policy decisions translate into risks for ordinary people. His reporting distinguishes itself by following contaminants like PFAS and industrial emissions from the lab and regulatory docket all the way into homes, workplaces and local ecosystems. Across his health coverage, he returns to the question of how scientific findings and regulatory gaps shape long-term exposure, particularly for communities living near contaminated water, waste facilities and industrial sites.

PFAS exposure and health risks

Perkins devotes substantial attention to PFAS, treating the chemicals not as an abstract toxicology topic but as a steady, measurable presence in drinking water, consumer products and human blood. At the Guardian he covers studies that link exposure to PFAS during sensitive periods such as pregnancy to later health conditions, bringing epidemiological research into clear, accessible reporting on long-term risks. His work also tracks PFAS contamination across wider environments, including pesticide analyses that find roughly half of tested California waterways contaminated, connecting lab results to everyday uses of rivers and streams. In coverage of waste facilities, he reports on garbage incinerators that are failing to eliminate PFAS and other chemicals, underscoring how supposed solutions can become new sources of exposure. In a project for a consumer-focused publication, he spent months reporting on the PFAS crisis and then documented testing his own blood, using his personal results to illustrate how cumulative exposure builds over time. The through-line in this work is an insistence on tying chemical names and concentration levels back to lived experience, whether in the body or in community water systems.

Water quality, infrastructure and industrial pollution

Water systems are another core strand of Perkins’s reporting, and he treats water quality as both a scientific and political problem. He has written extensively on contamination in public and private water supplies, often tracing pollution back to industrial sources and regulatory decisions. In regional coverage he reports on toxic sites where corporate facilities and legacy pollution collide with questions of air and water monitoring, such as a case in which a major chemical company argued that air monitoring was not needed at a known toxic location, despite community concern. His stories follow how these decisions play out around specific facilities, townships and watersheds, showing how infrastructure, permitting and enforcement determine what comes out of taps and into lakes and rivers. He also connects water quality to broader environmental and food-system issues, reflecting a wider beat that encompasses environment and politics as described in his professional bio. Across these pieces, he distinguishes himself by holding together the technical details of contamination and the concrete realities for affected residents, rather than treating water issues as isolated policy disputes.

Food systems, environment and the politics of health

Beyond PFAS and water, Perkins writes about food and environmental policy as intertwined with health and political power. His portfolio includes work on how agricultural practices, industrial siting and waste management shape what communities eat and breathe, reflecting a beat that spans food reporting and environmental justice. In this coverage he often uses local case studies to illuminate national debates, drawing on specific towns, facilities and regulatory fights to show how broad policy choices are felt on the ground. His focus on politics is not limited to elections or legislative maneuvering; instead, he treats politics as the set of decisions that decide who bears the burden of contamination and who has access to safe food and water. This gives his health reporting a distinct edge: stories about chemicals and infrastructure are framed as questions of power, responsibility and accountability, rather than solely as scientific puzzles.

Health, rights and higher education

Perkins also reports on how surveillance, detention and displacement intersect with health and higher education, extending his interest in risk and exposure into human-rights contexts. On social channels tied to his work, recent pieces highlight students suing a major university over alleged surveillance linked to Gaza protests, as well as the struggles of Palestinians held in detention and medical students from Gaza seeking dignity and opportunity comparable to their peers in the United States. These stories sit at the edge of his health beat, but they share a common focus on how institutions affect people’s safety, autonomy and prospects, especially in crisis settings. Taken together with his environmental reporting, they show a journalist who consistently follows harm back to systems and policies, whether the setting is a contaminated river, a toxic worksite or a medical school under pressure.