Regulatory Impact
- Firefighters
- Environmental groups
- Factory employees for manufacturers that produce PFAS products
- Plastics companies
- PFAS chemical manufacturers
- PFAS product manufacturers
- Agricultural workers
- Public health experts
- US Military
- EPA
- Lawmakers
Environmental groups such as the Environmental Working Group, National Resource Defense Council, Environmental Law and Policy Center. Workers that have been exposed to the chemicals in factories, as firefighters, in airports, on farmland etc. Citizens whose homes and towns have been polluted by PFAS chemicals.
On March 14th, 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), announced a National Primary Drinking Water Regulation for six PFAS chemicals: perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA, commonly known as GenX Chemicals), perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), and perfluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBS). Essentially, this regulation means that the EPA is proposing a Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for PFAS chemicals in drinking water, meaning that there may be new legislation regarding the amount of PFAS chemicals allowed in US drinking water.
The Biden-Harris administration in partnership with the EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan, announced their PFAS Strategic Roadmap, which essentially sets guidelines for how the EPA will address PFAS in policies to “safeguard public health, protect the environment, and hold polluters accountable.”
TSCA is an EPA regulation that allows the organization to authorize and require reporting, record-keeping, testing requirements and restrictions related to certain chemicals, essentially responding to how toxic chemicals are produced, used, and disposed of.
The EPA has issued certain regulations for PFAS under TSCA such as PFAS production companies being required to report use of PFAS chemicals in certain products like carpets.
According to Johanna Adashek, a Visiting Associate Professor and Environmental Law Fellow at the George Washington Law School, these regulations have been rather ineffective.
“It seems like EPA is using a sector by sector approach. They’re mainly using 4 or 5 of the Federal Laws to regulate PFAS. Under TSCA, they’re mostly studying PFAS. TSCA historically wasn’t very effective because the EPA is supposed to approve new chemicals. But in the past, if the EPA didn’t take action after 90 days, then boom [companies could] use any chemical. Now [with the] amendments in 2016, that is not the case anymore. So EPA will now be able to take more time and regulate new PFAS or new uses of existing PFAS under TSCA, but that doesn’t really help if a lot of them have already been approved for a while, and are just going to be used the same way.”
