“Forever chemicals” are everywhere. The thousands of chemicals in the group known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are found in cookware, packaging, cosmetics, clothing, carpet, electronics, firefighting foam, and many other products.
The chemicals, which do not naturally break down, are so widespread that they’re found in the blood of 97% of Americans. Research shows that some PFAS compounds may decrease fertility, cause metabolic disorders, damage the immune system, and increase the risk of cancer.
While states await regulations from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, rising awareness in recent years has prompted more than two dozen states to take the initiative to protect their residents’ health, in many cases through bipartisan legislation.
Some have banned the use of PFAS in certain consumer products. Others have issued stronger water quality standards or empowered state agencies to speed up regulations. Many are pursuing cleanup and remediation efforts, with states suing polluters for compensation ranging from tens of millions to nearly a billion dollars. And as more agencies and lawmakers become interested and begin testing for PFAS, experts say, more changes will come.
Doll’s group has tracked 203 bills proposed in 31 states related to PFAS issues.
“I have heard from legislators that testing has been a driving force for them,” said Mara Herman, environmental health manager with the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators, a forum for state lawmakers. “It’s being found in so many places, it’s not really an urban issue or a rural issue.”
Still, the patchwork of laws and lawsuits remains uneven, and advocates say Americans need federal action to hold multinational companies accountable for past contamination, clean the waterways and systems now infected and impose sweeping bans on putting PFAS in new products.
“State by state is just absolutely ridiculous,” said Laurene Allen, cofounder of Merrimack Citizens for Clean Water, a New Hampshire group that has pushed the state to act on PFAS. “The progress you have shouldn’t be determined by your ZIP code.”
The EPA has proposed a rule to regulate two common PFAS chemicals under the Superfund law, but the agency hasn’t yet solicited public comment, which is required before the rule can go into effect.
Industry advocates, meanwhile, are lobbying on the federal level and in statehouses, arguing that attempts to regulate PFAS broadly could end up banning harmless chemicals that are crucial for important products and industries. PFAS compounds were long seen as a chemistry “miracle” due to properties that made them nonstick, stain-repellent, waterproof or fire-resistant.
“All PFAS are not the same, and they should not be regulated the same way,” the American Chemistry Council said in a statement sent by Tom Flanagin, senior director of product communications. “The most problematic pieces of legislation include inappropriate and overly broad definitions of PFAS that pull in many potentially unintended substances and products.”
Flanagin’s email cited a category of fluoropolymers used in renewable energy, health care, electronics, and other industries as critical to many products while carrying a low safety risk.
PFAS bans
Lawmakers in several states point to Maine’s 2021 passage of a law banning PFAS in all new products as a landmark moment.
The measure, which will take effect in 2030, bans any intentionally added PFAS, but allows for exceptions in products that are essential for health, safety, or the functioning of society and don’t yet have a PFAS-free alternative.
“I was really concerned when I learned that PFAS is in virtually everything,” said state Rep. Lori Gramlich, the Democrat who sponsored the ban. “As I became more aware of how pervasive this problem was, I thought, ‘We’ve got to do something.'”
Few, if any states, have passed a PFAS ban as sweeping as Maine’s, but many have enacted laws targeting PFAS in food packaging, cosmetics, firefighting foam, or textiles. Colorado passed a law earlier this year covering many products, while also ending its use in oil and gas production. State Rep. Mary Bradfield, a Republican who co-sponsored the bill, said she was moved to act as three water districts in her community struggled with PFAS contamination from nearby Peterson Air Force Base.
“PFAS chemicals are showing up in alarming amounts,” Bradfield said. “In certain concentrations, it can be very detrimental to health. My bill targets those products where there is a viable substitution for PFAS.”
Bradfield said other lawmakers wanted to pursue an economy-wide ban as broad as Maine’s, but she felt the targeted approach–which includes carpets and rugs, food packaging, and children’s products–was more achievable.
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