Impossible to quantify total harm of PFAS
Chemicals used to improve our quality of life can also conspire to compromise it.
That’s the conclusion of federal and state regulators in the case of a manmade chemical class known as PFAS, which linger far after their commercial use has expired.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), manmade chemicals that don’t break down entirely in the environment, have been linked to serious and negative health impacts like thyroid disease and kidney cancer.
They’re found in a range of products, from firefighting foams to nonstick cookware to food packaging. They have also been found to leach from the packaging of a pesticide this state has used to combat mosquito-borne illnesses.
The plethora of state lawsuits filed against companies that produce these forever chemicals reflects the devastating degree of that contamination. Across the country, attorneys general, district attorneys and municipal lawyers have increasingly gone after PFAS manufacturers in court. Bloomberg Law reported that at least 1,235 PFAS lawsuits were filed in federal court last year.
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has targeted companies that manufacture chemicals contained in firefighting foam in hopes of getting them to “pay back every last dollar our state has spent on their products to clean up the contamination.”
Healey’s suit points to “the manufacturers’ illegal actions” of “deceptively” advertising products containing PFAS as safe despite, knowing the chemicals were highly toxic and dangerous to the environment.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, will be combined with hundreds of similar suits from around the country against manufacturers like 3M, Dupont and Tyco. The suit names 13 manufacturers and two companies alleged to have shielded assets that could have been used for PFAS remediation.
Healey’s office said the lawsuit seeks to recover “costs to clean up and remove, restore, treat, and monitor PFAS contamination and an order requiring the manufacturers to reimburse the state for the damages its products caused.” It also “demands that the manufacturers remediate and restore the state’s natural resources and pay investigation fees and costs.”
“These makers continued to make and sell their products without disclosing the harms, they downplayed the presence of PFAS and the list goes on,” Healey said at a May 25 press conference with municipal and legislative officials.
Healey did not put a dollar figure on that amount when asked, but the administration of Gov. Charlie Baker said it has spent at least $110 million to address PFAS contamination since 2015, mostly through the Clean Water Trust.
That’s due to the alarming levels of PFAS contamination that have been found in more than 126 public drinking water systems in scores of Massachusetts communities, including Acton, Bedford, Pepperell, Littleton, Stow, Chicopee, Weymouth, Abington, Rockland, and Cape Cod communities.
In May 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency updated its health advisory with a lower PFAS concentration threshold of 70 parts per trillion.
Massachusetts went even further. In October 2020, the Baker administration established a contaminant limit of 20 parts per trillion for six compounds called “PFAS6.”
State concerns over PFAS compounds in drinking water accelerated in 2018 after traces were detected in well water around the former Fort Devens. Contractors for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tested and sampled the groundwater in Ayer, Shirley and Harvard, eventually determining the compounds could have seeped into nearby wells over time.
Since the implementation of that updated stringent state standard, more water systems have detected concentration levels of the compounds requiring notification and response. lthough we’ve learned a great deal about the scope and consequences of these chemical contaminants, the uncertainty of their ultimate impact still exists. Further investigation will determine just how costly to health and treasury this widespread threat is.