Congress and Florida Legislature should approve bills to crack down on PFAS

As an active member of various environmental organizations, every day I read about the ecological dangers that surround us and what the future looks like for our children. Despite this heightened exposure, a new issue recently appeared on my radar despite the fact that the danger has been here for decades — chemicals known as PFAS that are contaminating our air, drinking water and even food.

PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are harmful chemicals found in a host of everyday items, from food packaging to raincoats to waterproof makeup. They make items resistant to water, grease and stains, but they are also linked to an array of serious health issues including cancer, decreased fertility and harm to the immune system. Worse still, PFAS chemicals can persist in the environment for hundreds of years, posing a serious danger to both wildlife and humans, all for products that we rarely even think twice about.

For decades, the chemical industry made PFAS without disclosing this information. Although the public is increasingly aware of the dangers, and has called on companies to stop using PFAS, they continue to put these chemicals in their products. As PFAS and the products they go into are manufactured, they quickly spread from the factories to the air, to the soil, and into our drinking water.

Here in South Florida, we are no strangers to PFAS contamination. Multiple water wells around the region have tested positive for these chemicals, most recently in Delray Beach as reported in May 2021. More concerning still, in a recent study of breast milk from 50 U.S. moms, PFAS was found in every one of their samples. It’s even been found in wildlife from orcas to polar bears.

No one’s drinking water or breast milk should be polluted because of the negligence of policymakers and manufacturers. It is completely unacceptable that these toxic chemicals are invading our bodies without our consent. We deserve to live freely without being exposed to toxic chemicals that could make us infertile or cause us to develop cancer.

In too many instances, we as a society put the onus on individuals to protect themselves from potentially harmful products. Not only is this impractical for even the most vigilant consumer, simply due to the sheer number of products PFAS chemicals are used in, but it is based on the assumption that the information is widely available. As evidenced by the new findings that come out about PFAS on a near monthly basis, the scale of the problem is only just now being appreciated, so it’s simply unreasonable to expect that anyone could possibly escape exposure entirely.

The burden of avoiding these substances is not and should not be on the shoulders of consumers, but rather the corporations and policymakers whose job it is to protect us from such dangers.

Major restaurant chains — from Chipotle to McDonald’s — have committed to stop using packaging with PFAS and to switch to PFAS alternatives that are already available and competitively priced. Additionally, six states around the country have already passed bipartisan legislation to ban PFAS chemicals in food packaging. The solutions exist — we just need the political will to make them a reality for everyone across the nation, regardless of zip code or socioeconomic status.

There are steps being taken right now in the Florida Legislature to address these concerns. A bill, passed with bipartisan support on Tuesday in the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, would create a task force within the Department of Environmental Protection to assess the threat of PFAS chemicals in Florida.

The task force would provide an annual report with recommendations for the cleanup and regulation of PFAS within the state. This legislation would build upon the work being done by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which announced similar actions in October of this year.

While these measures are necessary and beneficial, they focus primarily on the back end of the problem, not the source. Banning PFAS from food packaging is a critical step in the right direction. Congress must step up and ban PFAS from food packaging to protect our water, our wildlife and our bodies. Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott have an opportunity to act on behalf of their constituents and ensure we aren’t consuming forever chemicals by supporting the Keep Food Containers Safe from PFAS Act, which was recently introduced with bipartisan support in Congress. We are on the precipice of the most widespread and effective action on the issue of PFAS contamination our country has ever had. We all deserve to live in a world free from toxic chemicals, and now is the time for those who represent us to act.

Susan Steinhauser