States Sue Companies Over 'Forever Chemical' Contamination
Do you think the government is doing enough to address toxic chemicals?
Updated June 6, 2023
- A growing list of states, including Maine, Maryland, New Mexico, and Vermont, are suing chemical companies DuPont, Chemours, and Corteva for PFAS ("forever chemical") contamination in drinking water, which impacts approximately 64 million Americans.
- The companies announced on Friday that they would pay over $1 billion to settle the claims, despite DuPont denying it has ever produced PFAS.
- Maine's attorney general, Aaron Frey, said:
"We're alleging that 3M and DuPont [and other manufacturers] created these chemicals ... had the science that showed just how dangerous they were, how toxic they were, how they were going to last forever."
- Some states have successfully reached settlements with the chemical giants. Minnesota settled with 3M for $850 million, and Delaware settled with DuPont for $50 million.
- FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb highlighted the dangers:
"We've seen correlations with thyroid disease, certain kinds of cancer, kidney disease, liver dysfunction, it becomes concentrated in the liver ... they're called 'forever chemicals' because they stay in your body."
- The chemical industry is waiting on an EPA decision on whether to categorize PFAS as hazardous, which could instigate further litigation.
Updated May 24, 2023
- Maine is planning to end the use of PFAS in the sewage sludge currently used as fertilizer in the state.
- The family of toxic "forever chemicals" is found in high concentrations in sewage sludge and is poisoning agricultural produce, waterways, and farmland across the country.
- Sewage sludge, marketed as "biosolid," is a byproduct of the water treatment process, and it used to be dumped into the ocean before it was implicated in creating oceanic dead zones.
- The EPA then approved its use as fertilizer due to the concentration of valuable nutrients it contains.
- The environmentalist organization, the Sierra Club, has described sludge as "the most pollutant-rich manmade substance on earth."
- Portland Water Service director Scott Firmin said:
“The safe disposal of [sewage sludge] is critical to safeguarding the environment and protecting public health. We are leaving no stone unturned as we seek innovative and economical solutions to tackling the nationwide threat of PFAS."
- Public health advocates are still unsure about the efficacy of the PFAS-destroying technology that Maine plans to utilize.
- Nancy Raine from the Sierra Club said:
“Many other states are going to be facing what Maine is facing now."
What are 'forever chemicals?'
- Several state laws and corporate policies are being introduced to regulate PFAS, known colloquially as "forever chemicals," because they persist in the environment for centuries.
- PFAS are a class of about 9,000 compounds used to make products and materials resistant to water, heat, and stains. They are frequently found in food packaging, cookware, waterproof clothing, cosmetics, mattresses, carpets, electronics, and countless other consumer goods.
- Researchers have found that 98% of the population has a detectable amount of these toxic, carcinogenic chemicals in their blood.
What are corporations doing?
- 3M, one of the world's largest PFAS producers, announced it would stop making the chemicals, pointing to "accelerating regulatory trends focused on reducing or eliminating the presence of PFAS."
- Various companies are phasing out PFAS in some or all of their products. According to the Guardian, these include Abercrombie & Fitch, Burberry, Burger King, Calvin Klein, Home Depot, H&M, Lowe's, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Rite Aid, Starbucks, Taco Bell, Target, and Whole Foods.
- Shareholder pressure is mounting — investors managing $8 trillion in assets have written to the world's largest chemical companies demanding they cease production.
What are states doing?
"We've seen some corporate leadership on PFAS, but the actual state policies that say 'No, you have to do this' – those are great incentivizers."
- 10 states have prohibited PFAS in some food packaging, and several have banned it in cookware. 15 states have banned or heavily regulated firefighting foam because it is high in PFAS and poses a risk to waterways.
- California has banned PFAS in cosmetics, personal care products, clothing, and food packaging. Similarly, Maryland and Colorado have banned PFAS in cosmetics and personal care products, while Washington has banned PFAS in all clothing.
- New York banned intentionally-added PFAS in food packaging under the Hazardous Packaging Act. Vermont's Senate unanimously approved a PFAS ban for cosmetics, textiles, and artificial turf. Maine has banned all non-essential uses of PFAS and has the strictest regulations of any state.
- Mike Schade from Toxic-Free Future said:
"If we get more companies to act, that builds more political support for action at the state level to regulate and restrict harmful chemicals like PFAS. At the same time, more states acting will create more pressure on businesses to take action ahead of state policies."
- You can find a comprehensive table of state-by state-bans here.
What are the challenges?
- The influence of chemical industry lobbyists has thwarted bipartisan congressional attempts to pass legislation controlling toxic substances.
- Proposed bills targeting products that pose the most significant consumer risk, like cosmetics, food packaging, clothing, and cookware, failed in recent sessions.
- Liz Hitchcock, federal policy director at Toxic-Free Future, illustrated the issues of state-by-state patchwork legislation:
"It would not make sense to not use the cancer-causing chemical in California and New York, but go ahead and use it in Texas."
"We can't depend on just that – we need the federal government and Congress to act."
Do you think the government is doing enough to address toxic chemicals?
—Emma Kansiz
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"Researchers have found that 98% of the population has a detectable amount of these toxic, carcinogenic chemicals in their blood."
No, our government is not doing enough to protect our health and safety.
It seems like our governments are starting to take these toxic chemicals more seriously now, but it might be too late; we've found them in nearly everything.
I hope that the recent actions taken by the EPA will help to stop the production and spread of these chemicals, but I'm sure we could do more.
This will be a long good bye to the forever chemicals.
Toxic chemicals are necessary for some processes. Control MSDS etc.
Systematic reviews and meta-analysis has identified PFAS (4700 human-made fluorine-rich molecules) detectable in human blood and attributable to increases in 13 medical conditions (high cholesterol, ulcerative colitis, impaired immune function, kidney and testicular cancer, breast cancer, infertility, low birth rate, childhood obesity, diabetes, thyroid function) costing anywhere from $6B to $63B in healthcare costs. While PFAS have been banned in Europe they are still produced in other countries.
Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAs) are man-made chemicals developed to be resistant to fire, oil, grease, water, stains that are found in a wide range of consumer and industrial products, including non-stick cookware, stain repellants, dental floss, cleaning products and cosmetics.
The chemicals are discharged from PFAS manufacturing and processing facilities or high use facilities (airports, military installations, etc).
Once they enter the environment and source water, PFAS compounds cannot be removed by the water treatment process. Its estimate that 18–80M people are exposed to at least 10 ppt of PFAS, and 200M+ are exposed to concentrations of 1 ppt or higher in tap water in the US like my county.
Our state says there are few sites in state, and are upstream of drinking water sources.
The EPA does not regulate PFAS compounds but maintains a health advisory which is the only federal standard of 70 parts per trillion (ppt) for two of the most common compounds: PFAS which is one drop of water in 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
In 2020 testing resumed of my county (and the neighboring county) filtration plants which identified 2 compounds (Perfluorohexanoic acid and Perfluorooctanoic acid) at levels barely above the minimum reporting level of 1.8 parts per trillion - well below the EPA's health advisory level of 70 ppt.
Testing is done quarterly and reports are posted to the water company website serving our county and the neighboring county.
“study identifies at least $5.52 billion in annual disease burden and associated social costs of current annual exposure to long-chain PFAS with our sensitivity analyses revealing as much as $62.6 billion. Regulatory action to limit ongoing PFAS use and remediate contaminated water supplies may produce substantial economic benefits.”
“Although PFOA and PFOS have been added to the Stockholm Convention and PFOA use has been banned in the EU, they are still being released into the environment and are still being produced in other countries. Furthermore, both chemicals persist in the environment due to their chemical stability, resulting in ongoing human exposure”
https://www.causes.com/comments/34503
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12403-022-00496-y
Ban PFAS which is a good start but do more. Look at plastic and which are good?
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Do more
WE THE PEOPLE are all having to deal with toxic chemicals in our water and soil! How on earth did we allow these companied to get away with this? How many people have been poisoned because of this? No one even told us it was happening until way after the damage was done! We need to remind our Representatives & Senators that they work for US not the Corporations! These high prices they also charge us are putting us in debt! This is unacceptable!!! Our Federal Government has to do more to clean up this mess and FINE every Corporation that knowingly caused the damage! Corporations do not run this country, but members of our government have allowed this to happen! To EVERY Person in Congress, WE pay for everything you receive, and WE ELECTED YOU to Represent us not Corporations! Never forget this!!
They only seem to change the acceptable amount we can have in our system until it has an effect on them. When they found PFA's in their bottled water. OH NO we have to do something.
corporations are way to vested in congress so nothing will be done about this !!
No one stuffing your pockets? Maybe you should consider the fact that you shouldn't need bribes to do what's right.
Can we please get ahead of these problems by making the big offenders responsible for cleanup and putting preventable measures in place.
We need to tackle dangerous health hazards to especially people of color and people with disabilities
No, The Government does nothing to protect the common people from Forever Chemicals.....the DuPont family has been posioning waterways since before the Revolutionary War and nothing has ever been done to them, as an example.
Of course, it's a matter of money in politics: When their wealthy mega- donors pay them to look the other way, they do!
we must stop our reliance on plastic and other chemicals that are poisoning us. Microplastics are now being found in mother's breast milk.
Corporations need oversight!
More needs to be done for safer drinking water for everyone!
Can someone please explain the meaning of toxic chemicals to SCOTUS?
good for maine for doing the right thing. too bad the supreme court is making it much harder the nation to do the right thing. the supreme court sucks supremely.
NO! NO! NO! It's all about the profit margin, greed, and large donations and other perks regarding political control. Time for the average voter to take a stand against this danger to our freedoms and democracy.
Not even close.
ACTION NEEDED!
We have started but need to do more.