Detailed Analysis:
As the awareness of the harmful effects of PFAS grew in the early 2000s, PFAS guidelines and
policies started taking shape. Here is a high level summary of federal actions in the US to date.
1) EPA’s regulation of PFAS began with two Significant New Use Rules (SNUR) published
in 2002, which required manufacturers to provide the EPA with a notification about the
manufacture or import of 13, and later 75 PFAS chemicals.
2) In 2006, EPA invited eight major PFAS producers to join the PFOA stewardship program,
which pledged to reduce 95% of their facilities’ PFOA emissions by 2010.
3) In 2009, the EPA published provisional health advisories for PFOA and PFOS, along
with a Long Chain PFC Action Plan.
4) Between 2013 and 2015, EPA monitored levels of PFOS, PFOA, and PFNA in drinking
water supplies, and in 2016 issued a lifetime drinking water health advisory of 70 parts
per trillion for PFOS and PFOA.
5) In 2019, EPA released their PFAS Action Plan. This plan indicated that EPA would
pursue the process for designating PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances, which
could hold companies liable for the cleanup of hazardous substances they released into
the environment. Also in 2019, the Congress passed the NDAA (National Defense
Authorization Act), which included requirements to phase out the use of PFAS in fire
fighting foams, addressed PFAS contamination in water supplies due to military activity,
restricted the use of PFAS in military food packaging, and required EPA to list PFAS
chemicals under the TSCA (Toxic Substances Control Act), among other things.
6) In 2020, the US FDA announced that they had reached an agreement with three
manufacturers to begin a three year phase out period for sale of products that used
PFAS containing 6:2 fluorotelomer alcohol (FTOH, for grease proofing in paper and
paperboard food packaging).
7) On March 14, 2023, EPA proposed new federal drinking water standards for six PFAS.
These regulations, first of their kind, would be legally enforceable if adopted. The final
ruling is expected by the end of the year, after the public has a chance to comment on
the proposal.
Many states have also taken legislative and regulatory action to phase out PFAS. Eleven states
including CA, CO, CT, HI, ME, MD, MN, NY, RI, VT, and WA have enacted phase-outs of PFAS
in food packaging. Five states including CA, CO, MD, ME, and VT have adopted restrictions on
PFAS in carpets, rugs, and aftermarket treatments and regulatory action is pending on these
products and other home textiles in WA. CO has adopted restrictions on indoor and outdoor
furniture as well as oil and gas products. CA is phasing out PFAS in children’s products, and VT
has banned PFAS in ski wax. Three states including CA, CO, and MD are taking action to
eliminate PFAS in cosmetics. Eleven states including CA, CO, CT, HI, IL, ME, MD, NH, NY, VT,
and WA have put in place bans on the sale of firefighting foam containing PFAS.
Multiple states have also begun the process of regulating PFAS in drinking water by specifying
Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) for PFAS in their state. States with enforceable drinking
water standards include ME, MA, MI, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VT, and WI. Both DE and VA are in
the process of establishing enforceable drinking water standards. FL is on track to adopt its own
standards if the EPA has not finalized its standards for PFAS in drinking water by 2025.
Seventeen states are pursuing litigation against the manufacturers of PFAS chemicals for
contaminating water supplies and other natural resources.
The little progress which has been accomplished has been very slow. In absence of strong
federal action, multiple states have carried out their own individual legislative and regulatory
action. This has resulted in a disjointed action with some states taking aggressive action, others
in the middle, and some have done nothing to combat this problem. What we need is a
coordinated, multi stakeholder, tech enabled war against these chemicals. Since PFAS does not
degrade for hundreds of years, even if all PFAS were banned today, it would stay in our
environment and groundwater for hundreds of years. And even at low levels, these chemicals
are toxic, which means our future generations will be impacted, and that’s not the kind of legacy
we want to leave behind. So, not only do we need to act now to completely stop any new
manufacturing of these chemicals (or import any products that contain PFAS), we also need to
figure out ways to eradicate these chemicals that are already present.