Federal rules will address ‘forever chemicals’
A proposed crackdown on so-called “forever chemicals” announced by the Biden administration this week would likely have a sweeping impact on Connecticut’s manufacturing industry, experts said, pointing to the chemicals’ ubiquitous use in everything from furniture to makeup to cookware.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday that it will seek to adopt tougher regulations and collect data from manufacturers on the use of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances, known as PFAS, due to mounting evidence that the chemicals pose a health threat in food and water supplies.
In Connecticut, those concerns have come to light in the highly publicized spills of firefighting foams containing PFAS into the Farmington River and the discovery of more than a dozen contaminated wells in Killingworth.
State lawmakers took action to curb PFAS contamination earlier this year, voting to enact some of the toughest regulations in the nation by banning use of the chemicals in most firefighting foams and food packaging. The proposed action by the Biden administration would go further, requiring manufacturers to report how many PFAS chemicals their products contain, provide data about emissions and potentially pay for environmental cleanup.
“It’s going to affect pretty much every manufacturer in the state, because PFAS are so widely used,” said Ashley Zane, a government affairs associate with the Connecticut Business & Industry Association.
One of the biggest costs for compliance, according to industry experts, would be the analysis that companies must undertake to determine whether their products contain PFAS, and in what quantity.
Sabrina Beck, vice president of Torrington-based electronics manufacturer Altek, said companies like hers that sell products into the European Union must already complete such analysis on a wide range of chemicals to comply with tougher overseas regulations. Beck said her company hires a third-party contractor to collect the relevant information from component manufacturers and assemble a full disclosure for regulators.
Still, manufacturers face
a dilemma over addressing customers’ concerns about PFAS and filling the demand for products that use the chemicals, Beck said.
“It’s time consuming; it requires an expertise that most small manufacturers don’t have,” she said. “That’s not to say it’s not important or that they shouldn’t be doing it, but it’s a costly administrative burden.”
While the chemicals have been used in manufacturing for over 60 years, public concern over their toxicity is relatively new and little is known about their impact on the environment. PFAS are often referred to as “forever chemicals” because they take a long time to break down in the environment,
and have a tendency to accumulate in the bodies of humans and animals.
According to the EPA, exposure to PFAS chemicals has been linked to certain cancers, impaired immune systems, decreased fertility and low birth weights.
Environmentalists cheered the EPA’s decision to address PFAS, saying the federal government’s intervention would help expand testing for the chemicals in soil and water. In states that have already taken steps to regulate PFAS, more evidence stemming from government research will push officials to put even tougher measures in place, advocates said.
“We have more to do of
course, we need to get (PFAS) out of textiles and rugs and all sorts of things,” said Susan Eastwood, state chapter chair of the Sierra Club. “But this will back us up.”
Some of the new federal regulations, such as a proposal for nationwide standards for PFAS chemicals in drinking water, are likely to have little practical effect in Connecticut. The state Department of Public Health, for example, has already established a limit of 70 parts per trillion for PFAS detected in drinking water, the same as the advisory levels currently set by the EPA.
The staff at the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection are reviewing the announcement by the Biden administration, DEEP spokesman Will Healey said in an email Tuesday. He was unable to comment on the potential impact in Connecticut.
Some parts of new state law on PFAS are still contingent on unannounced federal regulations — such as getting rid of PFASbased firefighting foams at airports, which are governed by the Federal Aviation Administration. But state Sen. Christine Cohen, D- Guilford, said the EPA’s announcement signals that the Biden administration is moving toward such steps.
Nationwide guidelines will also limit the stress on manufacturers, compared to the current state-bystate approach, said Cohen, who co-chairs the Environment Committee. Some states, such as Vermont and California, have already adopted stricter limits on PFAS than Connecticut, she said.
“There’s so much more we have to do on this, there’s so much more we have to discover,” Cohen said. “We know that there are thousands of these chemicals, but some of them are particularly dangerous carcinogens that are in things we use on a daily basis.”
Companies concerned about the potential for new regulations should be vocal during the public comment period, Beck said, allowing regulators to draft new rules that take into account the perspective of smaller businesses.
Groups such as the Small Manufacturers Association of Connecticut, for which Beck serves as board chairman, can also connect companies with resources to fulfill regulatory requirements, she said.